What does a child have to do to solve a one-step number problem in the 11+?

Choose and perform one operation in a short context. It is one of 55 named maths skills in the 11+, in the number strand, and this page carries 4 interactive exercises that practise it.

What is the trap in an 11+ solve a one-step number problem question?

Only the two rows named are involved, not the whole column. The wrong answers on this skill are built out of that, not out of random numbers, so it is worth naming out loud before your child meets it under time pressure.

What can I say if my child is stuck on solve a one-step number problem?

Point at the next move rather than explaining the whole rule. Decide what "altogether" is asking you to do with the two figures before you touch the numbers.

What is not part of solve a one-step number problem in the 11+?

The skill map draws the line here: Exactly one operation is required. A question past that line is testing a different named maths skill, which is worth knowing before you spend a week practising the wrong one.

Which other 11+ skills should we practise alongside solve a one-step number problem?

The number strand holds 13 skills that are tested together, and the pages next to solve a one-step number problem are subtract whole numbers or decimals, add whole numbers or decimals and calculate a whole-number operation. Each has its own exercise and its own link, and none of them needs an account.

How can my child practise solve a one-step number problem for free?

Use Bar Model Builder, Balance Scale, Clock & Coins and Step Builder, embedded on this page. They are the exercises the skill map attaches to solve a one-step number problem, they run in the browser with no account to make, nothing is scored, and nothing a child does here is recorded or sent anywhere. Each also has its own link, so you can send one to a child without sending them anywhere else first.

Maths · Number

Solve a one-step number problem

Choose and perform one operation in a short context.

Free to use and free to share. There is no sign-up, no score, and nothing a child does here is recorded or sent anywhere.

Practise it now

Drag the number bricks into the bar model, then read off the answer.

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.

Choosing the operation from the words

How many July counts do Tadpoles and Beetles have altogether?

Creatures found at the nature reserve pond.

Creature	April counts	July counts
Beetles	53	55
Tadpoles	62	50
Snails	40	41
Newts	19	46

55
192
105
5

Answer: 105

How you get there

"Altogether" asks for the two figures combined, so Tadpoles's 50 and Beetles's 55 are added, which gives 105 - the other rows are not part of the question.

Why the other answers tempt

Only the two rows named are involved, not the whole column.

If they are stuck, say this

Decide what "altogether" is asking you to do with the two figures before you touch the numbers.

Now do it live in Bar Model Builder

How each of these 4 exercises teaches it

Bar Model Builder

Drag the number bricks into the bar model, then read off the answer.

The whole is fixed at 142. The parts you already know fill 97 of it, so the empty piece must be $142 - 97 = 45$ .

What to say if they get stuck

Drag every brick into the model first - the picture does the thinking.
The parts you know sit inside the whole. The gap that is left over is what you are looking for.
The ? brace marks the empty piece of the whole bar. Read the numbers on the bars underneath it.

Open Bar Model Builder on its own page to share it

Balance Scale

Get ONE mystery bag alone on a pan - keeping the scale level - and you have found x.

This engine’s own main skill is Solving Equations. It practises solve a one-step number problem alongside it, and covers most of it rather than all.

A balanced scale is an equals sign made of metal. 2x + $3 = 11$ means the two pans genuinely weigh the same. Remove 3 from both pans and it is still level: 2x = 8. Halve both pans and it is still level: x = 4. Every step of algebra is just something you did to both sides at once.

What to say if they get stuck

Take a weight off one pan and watch what happens. The beam is telling you something.
Whatever you take from one side, take the SAME from the other. Then it stays level.
Once only bags are left on one side, split BOTH sides into that many equal groups.

Open Balance Scale on its own page to share it

Clock & Coins

The football match starts 1h 20m after 08:05. Wind the clock forward to find out when.

This engine’s own main skill is Time & Money. It practises solve a one-step number problem alongside it, and covers most of it rather than all.

Winding forward 1h 20m from 08:05 lands on 09:25 - the hour hand moves too, one twelfth as fast as the minute hand, which is why it sits between the numbers. Then 30p takes at least 3 coins from this tray: there is no 10p in it, so you have to build the amount from what is actually there.

Step 1. Wind the clock. Wind the minute hand forward 1h 20m from 08:05.
Step 2. Count the coins. A programme costs 30p. Drag coins into the purse to pay it exactly.

What to say if they get stuck

Grab the long minute hand and wind it forwards. Watch the little hour hand creep round with it.
One whole lap of the minute hand is one hour. You need 1h 20m.
For the coins, start with the biggest coin that fits inside 30p and keep going.

Open Clock & Coins on its own page to share it

Step Builder

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

This engine’s own main skill is Solving a problem in more than one step. It practises solve a one-step number problem alongside it.

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

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

Open Step Builder on its own page to share it

How solve a one-step number 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: choose and perform one operation in a short context, and it stops where exactly one operation is required.

Evaluate an algebraic expression
Substitute one supplied value and calculate the expression. Excludes solving an equation.
Calculate a duration
Find elapsed time between two clock or timetable entries. One continuous interval.
Convert units
Convert one measure between compatible metric or time units. The quantity type and units are stated.
Add whole numbers or decimals
Calculate one addition with aligned place values. Operation is supplied.
Calculate a whole-number operation
Calculate one stated addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division. Excludes choosing the operation from a multi-step context.

Related maths skills

All maths 11+ skills

Questions parents ask about solve a one-step number 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.

: Choose and perform one operation in a short context. It is one of 55 named maths skills in the 11+, in the number strand, and this page carries 4 interactive exercises that practise it.
: Only the two rows named are involved, not the whole column. The wrong answers on this skill are built out of that, not out of random numbers, so it is worth naming out loud before your child meets it under time pressure.
: Point at the next move rather than explaining the whole rule. Decide what "altogether" is asking you to do with the two figures before you touch the numbers.
: The skill map draws the line here: Exactly one operation is required. A question past that line is testing a different named maths skill, which is worth knowing before you spend a week practising the wrong one.
: The number strand holds 13 skills that are tested together, and the pages next to solve a one-step number problem are subtract whole numbers or decimals, add whole numbers or decimals and calculate a whole-number operation. Each has its own exercise and its own link, and none of them needs an account.
: Use Bar Model Builder, Balance Scale, Clock & Coins and Step Builder, embedded on this page. They are the exercises the skill map attaches to solve a one-step number problem, they run in the browser with no account to make, nothing is scored, and nothing a child does here is recorded or sent anywhere. Each also has its own link, so you can send one to a child without sending them anywhere else first.

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