Abstract: Since its introduction in the primary schools in Singapore more than fifteen years ago by Dr Kho Tek Hong and his team, the power of the “model method” has been tapped to solve many challenging arithmetic word problems, and also to enable primary school pupils to solve questions that were previously set for secondary school students. As learning and teaching the model method continues to be encouraged in many schools, we look at some common difficulties associated with the model method, and suggest how we may help pupils overcome them.