Singapore Math Drills Team · 24 October 2026
Free, distraction-free math drills aligned to the MOE syllabus. No sign-up needed to try.
"Can you do five P6 questions before breakfast?" The video asks, and then it gives your child the chance to find out. Five practice cards appear one at a time: Fractions, Percentage, Ratio, Algebra and Circles. On each one, Pip the Sidekick thinks, a line appears ("Pause here and give it a go"), and a ring counts down from 10 while a small pill reminds the viewer: "Need more time? Pause the video." Only then does the answer appear, with one line of working.
That is Daily Five: try five questions before breakfast, one of our Primary 6 Topic Explainers. It is a "try it yourself" video, so the best way to watch it is with your child and a pencil. Then read on: below, each of the five questions is worked out in full, with the slips to watch for.
The video is built around one habit: try first, then look. The countdown ring is not a race. It is a prompt to stop watching and start thinking, and the pause button is there for anyone who needs longer.
Here is the same routine for any practice question, at home or in the app:
Trying before looking matters because the effort of reaching for a method is part of how it is learned. Our post on why five a day works goes into the reasons. This post is about the questions themselves.
Each question below is one of the five cards in the video, with the same numbers. If your child has not watched yet, cover the working and let them try first.
2/3 of 18 = ?
Step 1: Find one third. Split 18 into 3 equal parts: 18 ÷ 3 = 6.
Step 2: Take two of them. 6 × 2 = 12.
The answer is 12.
A bar model makes this clear: draw a bar for 18, cut it into 3 equal parts of 6, and shade 2 of them.
20% of 250 = ?
Step 1: Find 10%. 10% is one tenth: 250 ÷ 10 = 25.
Step 2: Double it. 20% is two lots of 10%: 25 × 2 = 50.
The answer is 50.
Building from 10% is a quick route for most percentages. 30% is three lots of 10%, 5% is half of 10%, and so on.
The ratio is 3 : 5 and the total is 48. What is the smaller part?
Step 1: Count the units. A ratio of 3 : 5 means 3 units and 5 units, which makes 3 + 5 = 8 units in all.
Step 2: Find 1 unit. 8 units are 48, so 1 unit is 48 ÷ 8 = 6.
Step 3: Find the smaller part. The smaller part is 3 units: 3 × 6 = 18.
The answer is 18.
Check: the larger part is 5 × 6 = 30, and 18 + 30 = 48. Our bar models parent guide shows how to draw the units for questions like this.
3n + 4 = 19, n = ?
Step 1: Undo the adding. The 4 was added last, so take it away first: 3n = 19 − 4, which gives 3n = 15.
Step 2: Undo the multiplying. Three lots of n make 15, so n = 15 ÷ 3 = 5.
The answer is n = 5.
Check: 3 × 5 + 4 = 15 + 4 = 19. It matches. Our post on P6 algebra: solve it by undoing it walks through this method in more detail.
The radius is 7 cm. What is the circumference? (Take π = 22/7.)
Step 1: Recall the formula. Circumference = 2 × π × radius. (The same as π × diameter, because the diameter is twice the radius.)
Step 2: Work it out. 2 × 22/7 × 7. The 7s cancel, leaving 2 × 22 = 44.
The circumference is 44 cm.
Questions like this use π = 22/7 when the radius or diameter is a multiple of 7, which keeps the working tidy.
18 ÷ 2 = 9, then 9 × 3 = 27. The bottom number tells you how many equal parts, so divide by 3 first.250 − 20 or 250 ÷ 20 are common slips. Ask, "20 out of every what?"48 ÷ 3 = 16 skips the step of counting all 8 units. Always add the parts of the ratio first.2 × 22/7 × 14 = 88 would be the circumference of a circle twice as wide. Ask, "Is 7 cm from the centre to the edge, or all the way across?"If your child would like more practice in this style, our guide to Primary 6 sample questions explained walks through the shape of a P6 paper.
The video is modelled on a real part of the app:
Five a day. That's the habit.
Try a free interactive Primary 6 worksheet and see how calm practice feels, with no signup or credit card required.