Math skills: reducing

Tutoring math, some challenges need to be addressed: the tutor mentions reducing.

Perhaps in grades 6 and/or 7, reducing fractions becomes important: 14/20 needs to be reduced, for instance, to 7/10, since both 14 and 20 are divisible by the same number (2 in this case). Similarly, 6/12 reduces to 1/2 since both 6 and 12 are divisible by 6.

Some students never seem to succeed with reducing, likely because they aren’t familiar enough with the times tables to realize when two numbers have a common factor, then how many times that factor will divide into the numerator and denominator. A times tables chart can help, but seems less effective than just knowing the times tables.

Learning the times tables, on the other hand, takes effort on the front end.

Reducing might be one of those skills that’s less common today, compared with decades past. It’s no less important.