When taking standardized tests, for example the SAT and ACT, there is no way you have enough time to use the convoluted method of Common Core math to work problems.
This is the dirty little secret that no one in public education talks about. Private schools don’t teach that garbage (or whole word reading).
Math education has been screwed up long before Common Core. For some reason the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics loves to reject math teaching practices that actually work. Anyone remember ‘modern math’? My first teaching job I was trying to teach fourth and fifth graders how to add and subtract in base 6. Then we went to base 12!
When I was a lad, the times tables were drilled into us until we knew them as well as our own names. Third grade math was devoted to getting those times tables into our thick skulls.
But it was boring and no doubt caused some to had math and the stupid times tables. When the time came to add and subtract fractions—fifth grade—we didn’t have to use our fingers to figure out how to change thirds into twelfths when adding 1/3 + 1/12. And yes, I’ve seen 8th graders have to do it that way.