Basically the test is designed around the lowest common denominator (and I don’t mean math wise).
Students are prompted to follow ‘patterns’ instead of understanding the problem and getting the answer.
For instance:
8+8+8+8+8 = 8 x 5
2+2+2 = 2 x 3
See, they aren’t asking the kids to figure out what 8 times 5 IS. They only require them to count up HOW MANY of the repeating numeral there are.
The claim is that the kids that ‘pass’ the test understand ‘equivalency’ from this, but the truth is that they only learn to see the ‘pattern’ of the test and follow it.
It is no different than this:
#+#+#+#+#+# = # x 6
@+@+@+@+@ = @ x 5
So you don’t have to memorize multiplication tables or addition/subtraction? That’s insane.
BOL
A few years ago one of younger relatives while in the 5th grade became the village math dummy.
His parents, both very sharp in math, couldn’t figure out what had happened.
On a suggestion from my wife, they checked with the principal and found out in 5 years of school, their son had been exposed to so called 3 math systems, and the last one was what you showed.
They got him into an after school math class. In two months his math teacher was out getting tests from 2-3 grades ahead of his class as he had aced all of the tests for his class. That year he was asked to join in the math Olympics.
Since then he has gotten straight A’ in math and has been performing at least two years ahead in math.
Later, his two year older sister told her parents that the so called math expert teacher at that school was her home room teacher that year. Often, when this girl went in early to her home room to study, her teacher would be crying. The teacher was not able to spot the pattern or trend to explain how to get the answer. This girl would then teach the teacher how to see, explain and use the pattern.