Samples of New York State's testing questions on math

I am currently taking a Finance Class at Naugatuck Valley Community College. Recently we were given a take-home test and I embarrassingly got one of the questions wrong. When I got the test back I remembered that I had had problems with it because of the verbiage; the way the question was worded was really confusing. So although I really did know the correct answer, I got it wrong because I misunderstood the question.

This is coming to the forefront as a problem with Common Core. And although it is especially problematic for children for whom English is a second language, and for children with verbal language disabilities (dyslexia, for example), many adults complain that too many otherwise "normal" children will also have problems with understanding the verbiage of some of these tests.

Here is a great article that demonstrates this problem succinctly, with real samples of questions from grades 3 through 7. This is the example that gave me my "a-ha" moment:

Grade 5
 

...this question simply does not comport with the [Common Core] standard, which states, “Recognize that in a multi-digit number, a digit in one place represents 10 times as much as it represents in the place to its right and 1/10 of what it represents in the place to its left.”
 
NYSED [New York State Education Department] explains, “In this case, the 3 in 3,000,000 represents 10 times what a 3 in the hundred thousands place would represent; equivalently, the 3 in 3,000,000 represents 30 hundred thousands.”

While the first part is certainly true, and 3,000,000 is ten times 300,000, the key gap in NYSED’s thinking is the magical word “equivalently”.  No one says “30 hundred-thousands”, ever.  What’s happening on the right side of the equation is really 30 x 100,000, which is a multiplication problem. The underlying math is sound, it just doesn’t align, and thus the question tests aptitude, not the standard.

Please be sure to read the rest of the article here.