Cat/Dog years....

[username]

The most important thing to teach young people learning algebra: http://www.studygs.net/mathproblems.htm

Tranlating words to operations (any idiot can do the numbers, the real art to translation is knowing what operation they are asking you to perform). Main terms in italics. :

Addition
increased by
more than
combined, together
total of
sum
added to

Subtraction
decreased by
minus, less
difference between/of
less than, fewer than

Multiplication
of
times, multiplied by
product of
increased/decreased by a
factor of (this type can
involve both addition or
subtraction and
multiplication!)

Division
per, a
out of
ratio of, quotient of
percent (divide by 100)
Equals is, are, was, were, will be
gives, yields
sold for

I confess, I know nothing math wise. Here's another math problem:

The opposite of eleven times a number is 33. 3? Opposite, -3?