Adding numbers with 3 or more digits using the column method, including multiple carries.
Where your child meets this in real life: Adding up shopping totals, calculating combined distances, or totalling scores
Each SEAG paper has 28 maths questions. Questions 29 to 50 are multiple choice with five possible answers, and questions 51 to 56 need a short written answer. With 56 questions in 60 minutes across English and maths, that is about a minute per question.
SEAGReady breaks column addition into 3 steps, taught in order so each skill builds on the last.
Add 3+ digit numbers using column method when no column sum exceeds 9
Add 3+ digit numbers when one or more columns require carrying
Add three or more numbers using column addition
Try three free questions from our column addition course. They start easy and get harder, so you can see where your child's confidence runs out. If they manage the last one without a hint, this topic is probably secure. If not, the steps above show where to start.
A school library received 321 fiction books and 456 non-fiction books during the summer. How many books did the library receive in total?
A supermarket sold 4675 tins of beans and 3768 tins of soup on Saturday. How many tins did they sell in total?
Four schools competed in a charity walkathon. School A raised 1234 pounds, School B raised 2567 pounds, School C raised 1893 pounds, and School D raised 2456 pounds. What was the total amount raised?
This is the exact interactive worked example your child sees in SEAGReady. Step through it and watch the method build up.
A school library received 234 new fiction books and 451 non-fiction books during the summer.
How many books did the library receive in total?
234 + 451
Write numbers in columns, aligning ones under ones, tens under tens and hundreds under hundreds
Step 1 of 4
A school library received 234 new fiction books and 451 non-fiction books during the summer.
How many books did the library receive in total?
The library received 685 books in total.
The key insight: Line up the digits by place value - ones under ones, tens under tens!
Common mix-up: Writing 234 + 451 as 234 + 45 1 (misaligned). If digits aren't aligned, you add different place values together and get the wrong answer.
These are the misconceptions we see most often in column addition, including the ones our practice questions are specifically designed to catch.
Struggling with column addition? The real gap is often in one of these earlier topics.
Sitting the SEAG test this November? Read our last-month revision plan, Paper 1 vs Paper 2 and test day guide.
SEAGReady finds the exact step where your child gets stuck, teaches it with worked examples like the one above, and brings it back for review so it sticks.
Free to start · no card needed