Do you know that at some point or other in our daily lives, we get ourselves involved with a Mathematical concept called remainders and multiple remainders?

All of us have quantities (e.g. money) that we need not use completely in one go. Sometimes, we may decide to use part of it for a certain purpose and leave behind the rest for future use. This portion that we leave behind is called the remainder. Again, at a separate time, we may decide to use parts of this remainder and leave the rest. The cycle then continues until we have nothing left. 

This idea of using a part of a whole and leaving a remainder is usually tested in PSLE Maths. This is called the remainder concept.

At the P5S and P6S level, such questions may be extended by telling students that a part of the remainder is being used for a different function and getting students to find out either the whole or the remainder.

Here are the key features of a word problem involving multiple remainders: 

1. There is a sequence of events involving the use of a quantity.
2. The word ‘remainder’ is used in the question              
3. The remainder is sub-divided into parts.
4. New remainders are produced and separated.