ABSTRACT This study focuses on the assessment of the problem solving competencies that the grade 9 students of St.

Paul College, Pasig apply in their Intermediate Algebra lessons. In relation with this, the study will only be held within the institution, more specifically, and will only be studying the grade 9 students. It will also only look into the evaluation of their problem solving competencies, in relation with their first term lessons only. From the whole population a sample of 112 students (or 30% of the batch, which makes up roughly three of classrooms) were chosen to take part in the testing. To properly evaluate them, standardized test questions from California Standards Tests and National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) were lifted and compiled to produce a test that comprises of different problem solving questions that fall under the topics they had already tackled. Rubrics from Szetela and Nicol, from their study on evaluation of problem solving from year 1992 were used in order to properly assess the performance of the students. The rubrics from Szetela and Nicol comprises of three parts, understanding the problem, solving the problem and answering the problem. The students attained an average score of 2.21 out of 4 in the understanding portion, which shows that misinterpret[ed] a major part of the problem, 2.01 out of 4 solution portion, which states that the students have a partially correct procedure but with major fault, and a score of 0.74 out of 2 in the answer part which spans between no answer or [a] wrong answer based upon an inappropriate plan (Szetela and Nicol, 1992). The grade 9 students as a whole, show a hint of understanding when solving

problems but fail to interpret correctly key aspects of the problem, therefore they generate the appropriate algorithm to arrive at a completely correct answer.