I agree with Colinsmum. Students who are in a problem solving type math class have a different experience. My daughter was so lucky to have a teacher, who was gifted, for third grade math. They were ability grouped. They would go through the lesson in about two seconds and then apply it in a unique way - such as determining how much are the school took up and building runways. This extended her so far into engineering thought processes and gave her a real love of math.

Regular students would not have been interested in this as much as these gifted kids. They spent their time enjoying the calculations. Their teacher was def on their wave lengths.