Would I Fail This 4th Grade Test

Johnny Mango declares that the current APS (Albuquerque Public Schools) assessment test will be too hard. Look at the examples test questions he gives:

  • You go to a party. There are 3 drinks, 2 sandwiches, and 4 kinds of candy. How many combinations of all three are possible?
  • You have the sides of a rectangular prism flattened out. How many faces and how many total cubic inches are there?
  • You have a carpet and a runner of certain dimensions. Is the rug 3 square feet more than the runner?

These test questions or for 4th graders, do they seem like they might be over their heads? I’m not qualified to say what’s good for a 4th grader and what’s not but this seems like they are bit complicated. I even had a hard time understanding exactly what the questions are asking on the first few read through.

Albuquerque schools are in a dismal state. I;m glad to see the school district trying to improve things but this might be a bit more than the kids are ready for right now.

Click through to see if I answered them correctly.

Let’s see if I answered these questions correctly?

  1. 3x2x4 = 24
  2. This question was confusing to me. But it says a flattened rectangular prism. So at one point it was 3 dimensional which mean it has 6 faces. But since it’s flattened out it has no cu inches, otherwise they would have to give some size information.
  3. I have no freaking idea.

 

Take My Trading Post, Please!

The Chambers Trading Post, located along what use to be Route 66, about 50 miles from Holbrook is for sale. But it looks like they are having a hard time giving the property away.

For months, the couple have been buying ads in newspapers and promoting an unusual property transaction via the Internet: Send $100 and an essay of less than 100 words about why you want a trading post, and the best essay claims the prize. The Konheisers have received extensive publicity in newspapers in the Four Corners area.

They were hoping for 20,000 entries. They have received 12. The current owner has cancer and wants to retire, at this point he’s more interested in the retirement part than the “trying to make a buck” part.

I’ve probably passed the place a hundred times but don’t recall anything interesting about it. A little Googling will show it has some interesting history. But I wonder how much money is to be made out there?