Other than the viral links circulating around Facebook these couple of days about Osama Bin Laden’s alleged bloody pictures or those “See Who Viewed My Facebook Profile” apps, one popular question on Facebook lately is the supposedly simple and straightforward math as follows.
6 / 2 (1 + 2) = ?
The question seems so straightforward (it’s fourth grade math) that 1.5 million adults answered online, and got it totally wrong. That is, if you believe the answer is 1.
I think most remembered to add the bracketed 1 and 2 together first, but I, amongst the 1.5 million people so far (and still counting apparently…), totally forgot the cardinal rule of tabulating in the order of left to right. So, for those who are 4th grade proficient, they know the correct answer is 9. Those who answered wrongly with the answer 1 constitutes over 44% of the respondents. Nothing to console myself about, really.
No, I’m not smarter than a 5th grader. Now I’m depressed – again.
Confessions of a Corporate Shopaholic 
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