Here are some of the hardest types of questions facing primary school children. The first page is called single step operations: in other words only one thing has to be done to reach the answer. This, however, is not strictly true as, for instance, children may have to convert from hours and minutes to minutes before completing the operation or carry the same operation out several times to reach the answer.
The second page certainly need at least two things done to reach the answer. eg to multiply and then multiply again.
Children find this kind of activity very difficult. Taking two steps to reach an answer is beyond many at this age – they just “don’t get it”. This may be partly due to the fact that for most of the time we only ask them to carry out one operation – a page of sums is typical of this approach. It could also be due to maturity levels.
If they do find these too difficult try looking at examples from earlier years where one step is sufficient to reach the answer.