Journal of Applied Data Sciences
Vol 7, No 2: May 2026

A Hybrid Fuzzy-LLM Framework for Difficulty Estimation of Math Word Problems: A Data-Driven Human-in-the-Loop Study

Shilpa Kadam (BITS Pilani Hyderabad Campus)
Jabez Christopher (Unknown)
PTV Praveen Kumar (BITS Pilani Hyderabad Campus)
Dipak Kumar Satpathi (BITS Pilani Hyderabad Campus)



Article Info

Publish Date
19 Apr 2026

Abstract

Assessing the difficulty levels of Math Word Problems (MWPs) is essential for adaptive learning, yet most existing MWP datasets lack standardized difficulty annotations. This paper proposes a decision framework that integrates a 2-tuple Fuzzy Linguistic Decision Model (FLDM) with Large Language Models (LLMs) for automated difficulty estimation. A corpus of over 2,000 MWPs was compiled, of which 200 were annotated by seven instructors and an additional 454 were validated by ten experts. Consensus stability improved markedly (Fleiss’ κ = 0.14 → Cohen’s κ = 0.32), reflecting stronger alignment between expert judgments and the proposed fuzzy 2-tuple aggregation. Sixteen LLM configurations were evaluated, including GPT-3.5, GPT-4o-Mini, Gemini Flash, and LLaMA-3.2 under Zero-Shot, Five-Shot, and RAG settings. GPT-3.5 Zero-Shot achieved the best performance (Precision=0.65, Recall=0.63, F1=0.63), outperforming GPT-4o-Mini and Gemini variants. The validated dataset and linguistic ground truth were integrated into a web-based annotation system (themathbits.com), demonstrating scalability for real-world deployment. The results show that combining human linguistic judgments with fuzzy modeling and LLM inference improves reliability of MWP difficulty estimation, providing a foundation for future adaptive learning platforms. 

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Journal Info

Abbrev

JADS

Publisher

Subject

Computer Science & IT Control & Systems Engineering Decision Sciences, Operations Research & Management

Description

One of the current hot topics in science is data: how can datasets be used in scientific and scholarly research in a more reliable, citable and accountable way? Data is of paramount importance to scientific progress, yet most research data remains private. Enhancing the transparency of the processes ...