What actually separates students who get stuck from students who don't?
It's not raw talent. It's having a repeatable process for unfamiliar questions. When a problem feels hard, it usually means the path to the answer isn't obvious yet , not that the answer is out of reach. That gap between "I don't see it" and "I've got it" is exactly where problem-solving strategies live.
In MYP Mathematics, your grade isn't just about the final number you write down. Markers look at your reasoning, your working, and whether your answer actually fits the situation. A student who sets up the problem correctly and makes a small arithmetic slip often scores better than one who jumps straight to a number with no working shown.
Problem Solving: Approaching a task by first making sense of what's being asked, then selecting and applying a method, and finally confirming the result fits the real-world situation.
A sharp way to think about it: problem solving is knowing what to do precisely when your first instinct draws a blank.
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