OECD PISA test scores.

[Uncle C]

Then they have an inherent misunderstanding of decimals and numeracy.

We are talking children here. If you ask an ambiguous question you will get a variety of answers.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

We are talking children here. If you ask an ambiguous question you will get a variety of answers.

It's not an ambiguous question if they have been taught correctly.

 

[Uncle C]

It's not an ambiguous question if they have been taught correctly.

So smart arse if the question is not ambiguous why did the best country result in the whole world only get 89%

 

[Bad Ash]

I can understand why people get this wrong. When asked which is the smallest number the answer could be either of those with 3 digits.

The question should be 'what is the lowest number?' then it would be 1.783.

The actual question was: Which car's engine capacity is the smallest?

It's pretty clear from that context what they were asking.

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

I can understand why people get this wrong. When asked which is the smallest number the answer could be either of those with 3 digits.

The question should be 'what is the lowest number?' then it would be 1.783.

Even that could be misconstrued to be the lower in terms of the position in the stack of the four values.
I've worked in IT for over 20 years and it is infamous for delivering wrongly against software requirements and in almost all circumstanaces its because what was said, and then written down, could be interpreted in more than one way.

The solution is to be a little pedantic, but to remain totally unambiguous.
Thus the question should read: "Of the four values listed, which is the lowest in value?"