Challenge: Can you solve this math problem for middle schoolers – without a calculator?

Classic brain training methods include puzzles like crosswords or sudoku. Recently, I’ve become more drawn to the type of challenge you’ll see below. These puzzles are popping up all over the web lately, probably because they’re so much fun!

These are classic mathematical problems, the kind you might remember from middle or high school. They are especially enjoyable if you love trying to recall the math you learned as a child.

Can you figure out the correct solution?

Here’s the challenge, shown in the picture below:

At the top of the picture, you see the task along with four possible answers. Which solution do you think is the correct one? Take your time to think about it and try to come up with the right solution.

Once you’ve made your choice, you can check below to see if you picked the right number!

A

B

C

The Correct Answer

The correct answer is B: 12. Why is 12 the correct answer? Let’s walk through the problem step by step:

If you remember from your school days, the order of operations (often remembered by the acronym PEMDAS: Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication and Division, Addition and Subtraction) tells us to do multiplication before addition and subtraction. So, you start by solving 3 x 3, which equals 9. What’s left is the simpler math problem: 3 + 9 – 3 + 3.

This simplifies to 3 + 9 = 12. Did you pick the correct number? Congratulations if you did!