Skip to main content
Trace Learn

Maths · Problem

Solve a multi-step problem

Select and perform a short sequence of operations in context.

Practise it now

Build the answer one step at a time. Choose an operation, then choose the two numbers it works on.

Loading the interactive exercise. Nothing you do here is saved or scored.

A worked example

One question of the kind this skill is tested with, worked all the way through: the reasoning, and what the wrong answers are there to catch.

Multiply first, then compare

Each group has the number of packs shown, and every pack holds the number of stickers shown. How many more stickers does Foxes have than Falcons?

Neither sticker total is printed in the table - both have to be worked out.

Herons
Packs
9
Stickers per pack
9
Foxes
Packs
6
Stickers per pack
9
Badgers
Packs
4
Stickers per pack
9
Falcons
Packs
2
Stickers per pack
10

Data table with columns Group, Packs, Stickers per pack. Rows: Group Herons, Packs 9, Stickers per pack 9; Group Foxes, Packs 6, Stickers per pack 9; Group Badgers, Packs 4, Stickers per pack 9; Group Falcons, Packs 2, Stickers per pack 10.

Table columns: Group, Packs, Stickers per pack. Rows: Herons, 9, 9; Foxes, 6, 9; Badgers, 4, 9; Falcons, 2, 10.

  1. 54
  2. 34
  3. 74
  4. 4

Answer: 34

How you get there

Foxes has 6 x 9=54 stickers and Falcons has 2 x 10=20, so the difference is 34, which means the packs columns cannot be compared on their own.

Why the other answers tempt

More packs does not always mean more stickers.

If they are stuck, say this

Work out each group's sticker total by multiplying its packs by its stickers per pack, and only then compare the two totals.

Now do it live in Step Builder

What this exercise is doing

Step Builder

Build the answer one step at a time. Choose an operation, then choose the two numbers it works on.

Step 1 works out the pens that arrived: 60. Step 2 works out the pens left once the broken ones go: 56. Step 3 works out the pens one class gets: 7. So the answer is 7 pens. Doing the steps the other way round does not work, because the second step needs the first one's answer before it can start.

What to say if they get stuck

  1. You cannot get there in one go. What can you work out first, from two numbers the story already gives you?
  2. Once a step is done, its answer sits on the bench and can be used by the next step.
  3. This problem takes 3 steps. The last one ends with pens.

Open Step Builder on its own page to share it

Where solve a multi-step problem sits in the 11+

The 11+ does not test these skills in isolation, and practising one in the wrong order wastes the practice. These are the skills the curriculum map connects this one to.

This is built out of

Add whole numbers or decimals

A multi-step context may compose an addition step.

Multiply whole numbers or decimals

A multi-step context may compose a multiplication step.

How solve a multi-step problem differs from the skills beside it

The same exercise practises several skills, and telling them apart is often the difficulty rather than the exercise itself. On this page the skill is: select and perform a short sequence of operations in context, and it stops where two or three dependent operations; record step count.

Questions parents ask about solve a multi-step problem

Answered from what the skill map records about this skill, not from a template. Every answer here is on the page, and the same questions are the page's FAQ structured data.

Select and perform a short sequence of operations in context. It is one of 55 named maths skills in the 11+, in the problem strand, and this page carries 1 interactive exercise that practises it.

Knowing which maths topic to practise is most of the work

A free diagnostic covers arithmetic, fractions, geometry, measure and data handling, and comes back with the topics to spend the next few weeks on.

Start the free 11+ diagnostic