Erich has good points about problem solving being very different from rote repetition, but you really need information about what's actually going on in these classes/tests. One good and easy thing to try might be to give your DS the "Do you need this?" sheet from AOPS prealgebra, here:

http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Store/products/prealgebra/posttest.pdf

These are not rocket science - there are some word problems, but most are pretty straightforward - but they're varied enough that if your DS can do them all confidently and correctly, then I think you can stop worrying about whether it's really a maths problem, and focus on the teacher problem. OTOH, if he has trouble, you may need to help with the maths.

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