For the last several years, declining test scores have been blamed on these types of problems because they require reasoning as well as arithmetical skill. Why are "word problems" so disconcerting? To put it simply: the problem with "word problems" is the words.

Students with poor reading skills--but sometimes competent math skills-- inevitably have great difficulty with "word problems" because they cannot decode the syntax in which the problems are presented. Here's where grammar (the study of the order and function of words and word groups in sentences) can come to the rescue. For the key question in reading comprehension and, therefore, in analyzing and interpreting math word problems is "What is the sentence saying?"