The second task is to ‘add $200. for each month . . .’ In reality, the operation requested here is a multiplication of $200. by the number of months in school. Type of operation: multiplication (3). Specificity of operation: numbers not in column format (1); numbers not adjacent (+1); labels and amounts identified without search (+0); operation inferred (+2); numbers present (+0); no transformation (+0); total rating 4. No obvious distractors.

The third task is to subtract any scholarships . . . The instructions indicate that what is needed here is to add all scholarships and then subtract the first $500 before entering the amount. This operation is not well specified, and most of the procedure has to be developed by the formfiller. Type of operation (for a person with more than one scholarship amount): combined (5). Specificity of operation: numbers not in column format (1); numbers not adjacent (+1); labels and amounts identified without a search (+0); operation easily inferred (+2); numbers present (+0); no transformation (+0); total rating 4. There are probably distractors for bursary amounts.

Lastly, the bursary amount is subtracted from the amount calculated in the first two steps, with the result to be entered on page 1. Type of operation: subtraction (2). Specificity of operation: numbers in column format (0); numbers adjacent (+0); labels and amounts identified without search (+0); operation identified by math symbols (+0); numbers entered in previous task (+1); no transformation (+0); total rating 1. No distractors.