Introduction
Do you often find your child discouraged when tackling P5 Math word problem sums?
This might be because your child is overwhelmed by the amount of information given in the question, causing him/her to be unsure of where to start.
In this blog post, I will discuss and show you how your child can use the Number X Value Method to solve certain problem sums.
🧐 Did you know that you can use the Number X Value = TV Method for these Math topics? 🧐
💯 Whole Numbers
🍰 Fractions
🍕 Ratio
📊 Percentage
🔢 Decimals
Let’s Take A Look At This P5 Math Question
Identifying Keywords
The first tip that I will give my students when solving Math word problems is to highlight the keywords they need to solve the problem.
Let’s identify the keywords in the question!
In the first sentence, the keywords are the number of tokens that each child and each adult received — every child was given 10 tokens, while every adult was given 15 tokens.
Moving on to the second sentence, the keywords here are thrice as many adults as children.
“Thrice” tells us that it is three times and it can be written as 3/1. The numerator 3 will go to the adult (first person/item in the sentence) and the denominator 1 will go to the children (second person/item in the sentence).
It tells us that there are three units of as many adults as 1 unit of children at the event.
In the next sentence, we were given the total number of tokens — 880 tokens were given out to them.
Lastly, the question wants to know how many adults were in the event.
Number X Value = TV Method
To solve this question, we will be using the Number X Value Method.
To help you remember, you can think of finding the Total Value (TV) by multiplying the value of the TV with the number of TV available!
✖️ What Is The Number X Value Method? ✖️
It is an answering technique used to solve Math word problems as long as they have 3 pieces of information:
1. Number
2. Value
3. Total Value (TV)
Read Also:
Let us draw a table first to help illustrate how to use the Number X Value Method!
Next, we will fill in the information needed. For the Number, remember we have allocated the units?
So we are going to put 1 unit for children and 3 units for adults.
For the Value, it is given in the question that every child will receive 10 tokens, while each adult will receive 15 tokens.
Lastly, to get the value of our TV, we will multiply Number with Value.
It is given that the total number of tokens is 880.
This 880 is also the sum of the TV for both children and adults.
This means that 10u + 45u = 55u.
55u = 880
Always find 1u.
Let us now answer the question. How many adults were there at the event? Let us look at the number of adults.
We need to find 3 units in order to answer the question.
Therefore, there are 48 adults at the event.
Number X Value Question Variations
One common issue that students tend to face when solving this type of question is failing to draw the Table.
🔥 Why Is It Important To Draw The Table? 🔥
It is important to draw this table so that you can always refer to it even if the question is asked in a different way.
Let’s say that the question asked this instead:
How many more adults than children are there?
How are you going to approach it?
In this case, we can easily refer to the table to find the difference between the number of adults (which is 3 units) and the number of children (which is 1 unit).
Since we know 1u = 16, we can easily find the answer!
Therefore, there are 32 more adults than children.
How Else Can This Question Be Tested Differently?
Sometimes, questions may not be as straightforward, such as the question above. For instance, it will not give you the exact cost of a carton of milk!
Therefore, you’d have to find the cost of a carton of milk before proceeding with the steps that you learnt in this blog post.
Conclusion
I hope that after reading this blog post, you have gained a better understanding of when to use the Number X Value Method:
- Check for these 3 key information — Number, Value, and Total Value.
- Draw the Table because it will serve as your guide in approaching any variation of the question!
Keep a lookout for more P5 Math blog posts coming your way!

If you like our methodology, we've some ongoing weekly Math classes:
P5 Mathematics Grade Accelerator Programme
P6 Mathematics Grade Accelerator Programme
S1 Mathematics Grade Accelerator Programme
S2 Mathematics Grade Accelerator Programme
S3 Elementary Mathematics Grade Accelerator Programme
S3 Additional Mathematics Grade Accelerator Programme
S4 Elementary Mathematics Grade Accelerator Programme
S4 Additional Mathematics Grade Accelerator Programme