10 modern day mathematics questions that schools should use to prep students for the cruel world

It’s a dog-eat-dog world, you know?

Tan Xing Qi | February 19, 2017, 08:06 PM

You might find these questions familiar: What time will Car A and Car B meet? How many apples does each student have? When’s Cheryl’s birthday?

But the bigger question is: Who cares what time will Car A and B meet?

That’s right, our mathematics questions have been plagued by impracticality for the longest time. And it’s high time we inject a heavy dose of realism into mathematics to prepare students for the dog eat dog world.

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1. Wei Jie woke up at 8am for his A-level literature paper, which will affect his destiny as a model Singaporean. He spent 30 minutes preparing, walked 10 minutes to the MRT station and spent two minutes waiting for the train. The entire train journey plus walk to school normally would take 52 minutes. However, the train stopped moving for a good 20 minutes. Wei Jie would

A) eventually take his examination at 9:54am.

B) eventually take his examination at 9:54pm.

C) consider life as a third-year JC student at 9:40am.

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2. A car was travelling at 90km/h along CTE (towards city) near Yishun at 8:45am on a weekday. What time would it cross the ERP gantry after Braddell Road?

A) 8:55am

B) 8:57am if it’s a car with a renewed COE. Because car more than 10 years old.

C) Preferably after 9am because ERP rate will drop to $2. Because time doesn’t matter, money does.

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3. Xiao Qiang is tired of squeezing in the train. He decides to take GrabTaxi’s All day-time coverage promotion for the next week, Feb. 20 to 24, 2017. What would he actually save?

A) Save some precious beauty sleep

B) Save himself from public transport agony

C) Save $6 if he takes from 6 to 8am and $5 off from 11am to 11pm.

4. Farhan had his ride request up for five days but still couldn’t get a ride. Farhana got a ride only after five minutes. Which of the following equation is true?

A) Five minutes > five days

B) Five days > five minutes

C) Guy requesting for a ride =/= Girl requesting for a ride

20170218_103604 (1) (1) Photo by Gerald Chan for Mothership.sg

5. What’s the weight of eight A-Mathematics textbooks?

A) 1kg

B) 5kg

C) Depends on the weight of your parents’/society’s expectations.

6. Ah Lian has 90,000 Instagram followers. Farhan have 88,000 Instagram followers. Combined, they have a total of __________

A) 178,000 followers.

B) 180,000 followers because round up.

C) This question is obvs invalid because they broke up.

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7. Ah Sia and Atas ordered two bottles of Moutai 50 years ($36,000 each), three bottles of Rothschild 2000 ($8,000 each) and 15 special dishes ($3,688 each) for their reunion dinner. They spent…

A) Too much on drinks

B) Too much on specials

C) Too little on tips

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8. Ah Lian, a self-proclaimed influencer, wore an ill-fitting T-shirt and took a selfie with no makeup on. She garnered 100 likes on Instagram. She later took a selfie wearing the same T-shirt but this time with makeup. She scored 500 Instagram likes. At night, she took a wefie with her new boyfriend. How many Instagram likes would she have?

A) 2,500

B) 250

C) 20. Because boyfriend.

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If one bowl of rice = two cans of soft drinks is true, then which of the following is the correct statement?

A) One bowl of chicken rice = two red junglefowls

B) One bowl of mango sticky rice = two siam diu flower garlands

C) I’d rather drink soft drinks from now on.

Source: Wikipedia Source: Wikipedia

10. What comes next: Ong Teng Cheong, Wee Kim Wee, SR Nathan, Tony Tan, ____________

A) A Malay president

B) Halimah Yacob

C) Not Tan Cheng Bock

Failed your mathematics? No problem, it’s easy peasy with this GrabTaxi All-daytime coverage promotion.

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Top photo from Getty.

This sponsored post allows Mothership’s writers to one day win the Mathematics Olympiad.