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Is the phrase “apply strategies” meaningful in the mathematical community?

I’m working alone and nearing the completion of an Australian Y10 advanced mathematics book. This phrase “apply strategies” appears throughout the book in the context of problem solving, ie

identify the key information, use diagrams, formulate ideas, apply strategies, make calculations and check and communicate your solutions.

The book has been an excellent resource and guide, but one year on, this particular phrase “apply strategies” is still meaningless to me, even though I have done all of the work in the book.

Can’t find much use of it on the internet. Is this a problem solving step that goes by some other name at a tertiary level?

Any input is welcome.

duckegg
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  • You do as it says: apply certain strategies to attack certain problems. – Sean Roberson Mar 23 '22 at 22:43
  • I suppose that “strategies” are the general techniques that you have learned for solving problems, i.e. methods, approaches, tools. And “apply” is just a fancy word for “use”. So, in short, it means “use what you know”. There is no specific meaning of the term in mathematics, as far as I know. – bubba Mar 23 '22 at 22:53
  • Some strategies might include: Looking for examples, trying special cases of the problem, reviewing how similar problems are addressed, and so on. This is not a precise term by any means. – lulu Mar 23 '22 at 23:19
  • And completing the square, in particular, is also "applying a strategy". – ryang Jun 26 '22 at 04:10

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