Singapore IP books

[wapiti]

Can anyone compare the problems in the IP books to math contest problems or AoPS-style problems? Are they a similar style or are they totally different?

[fractalgal]

Can anyone compare the problems in the IP books to math contest problems or AoPS-style problems? Are they a similar style or are they totally different?

 

My daughter has used both IP (and CWP) books from Singapore and AoPS Algebra. She has commented to me several times how much the problem solving thinking skills she developed from using Singapore's 'bar diagram' model has helped her solve AoPS more challenging word problems.

 

Some of the AoPS challenging problems are more complicated, and require more steps than most of the IP or CWP as I remember from checking her problems.

 

There are a large amount that are similar, but not all of them are best solved that way. One of the best things about Singapore is that it trains you to solve problems in a visual way. When you combine those skills with more complicated factors from AoPS, I think it has made her more able to solve them and I'm grateful that Singapore Math has helped her so much.

[garddwr]

I would love to hear more about the IP books. We are using Math Mammoth as our primary program, and I have wondered if these would be a good supplement. I do have some of the challenging word problems books but haven't tried them out yet.

[wapiti]

Thank you Fractalgal!!! That helps!!

 

(editing to take out all my thinking out loud...:tongue_smilie:)

Edited April 29, 2012 by wapiti

[fractalgal]

Thank you Fractalgal!!! That helps!!

 

(editing to take out all my thinking out loud...:tongue_smilie:)

 

Yes, I asked her again this morning about it. She said that "depending on the problem," she uses the bar model that she learned in Singapore "often".

 

In some problems she can solve the whole problem using that method, and others are more complicated and she may be able to use the bar model to solve only a section of a difficult problem, and then use other methods to solve the rest of it. There are, of course, other problems that you would not use it at all. ;)

 

Although they are not the ONLY way you could solve many of the problems, I do think knowing how to apply the 'bar models' is helpful.

[wapiti]

Thanks! It's a long story, but what I'm looking for would supplement MM, which already teaches using bar models. Aside from using bar models, and practice with multi-step problems, I wonder what else IP would add in terms of depth...

[LMD]

I don't know about the upper levels, but so far the IP has a couple of different sections on each topic. Usually starting with simply a little more difficult but otherwise similar problems. Often there is then some more puzzle-y problems (mazes, grids etc.) and then word problems. I can't compare with AoPS as we've only used some beast academy - which is harder but probably comparable in difficulty to some of the more difficult IP problems, so far anyway.

[fractalgal]

Thanks! It's a long story, but what I'm looking for would supplement MM, which already teaches using bar models. Aside from using bar models, and practice with multi-step problems, I wonder what else IP would add in terms of depth...

 

I am not familiar with how MM teaches bar diagrams, but I will share what I've seen in SM.

 

The IP and CWP are more in depth with challenging word and picture problems than the 'regular' Primary Math workbooks. The IP books are only available in the US Editions, and the CWP can be US or SE versions. I have both, but I think the older US editions CWP were discontinued, and now they only sell SE versions for CWP.

 

Some of the IP word problems have bar diagrams drawn already to help set up the problem to be solved. For example, I have IP6A, page 22, Ratio and Fraction problems there are bar diagrams drawn for the student and it asks leading questions about the diagram in parts a and b. For the next problem, the student is expected to draw their own. A few problems later, a number line is drawn to help solve a ratio problem. Then a few more where the student is expected to draw the picture. There are a lot of visual aids mixed in with various problems. This is what I like most about IP (and CWP) - the emphasis on training the child to solve hard problems by sketching a picture to represent what is happening.

[boscopup]

The challenge sections of IP and CWP are more challenging than MM (I used levels 1A-4B). I don't know how they compare to AoPS.