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Auteurs principaux: Yang, Zhichao, Fan, Zhaoxin, Li, Gen, Hu, Yuanze, Wang, Xinyu, Qiu, Ye, Wang, Xin, Sun, Yifan, Wu, Wenjun
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
Sujets:
Accès en ligne:https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.19069
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author Yang, Zhichao
Fan, Zhaoxin
Li, Gen
Hu, Yuanze
Wang, Xinyu
Qiu, Ye
Wang, Xin
Sun, Yifan
Wu, Wenjun
author_facet Yang, Zhichao
Fan, Zhaoxin
Li, Gen
Hu, Yuanze
Wang, Xinyu
Qiu, Ye
Wang, Xin
Sun, Yifan
Wu, Wenjun
contents Structured, procedural reasoning is essential for Large Language Models (LLMs), especially in mathematics. While post-training methods have improved LLM performance, they still fall short in capturing deep procedural logic on complex tasks. To tackle the issue, in this paper, we first investigate this limitation and uncover a novel finding: a Scaling Law by Difficulty, which reveals that model performance follows a U-shaped curve with respect to training data complexity -- excessive low-difficulty data impedes abstraction, while high-difficulty data significantly enhances reasoning ability. Motivated by this, we propose the Structured Solution Template (SST) framework, which uses solution templates and a curriculum of varied difficulty to explicitly teach procedural reasoning. Specifically, SST comprises (1) fine-tuning with structured solution-template chains and dynamically weighted loss to prioritize procedural logic, (2) prompt-time injection of solution templates as cognitive scaffolds to guide inference, and (3) integrated curriculum fine-tuning that explicitly teaches the model to self-plan - execute - self-correct. Experiments on GSM8K, AIME24, and new Dynamic En benchmark show that SST significantly improves both accuracy and efficiency, especially on harder problems.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_19069
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Can Structured Templates Facilitate LLMs in Tackling Harder Tasks? : An Exploration of Scaling Laws by Difficulty
Yang, Zhichao
Fan, Zhaoxin
Li, Gen
Hu, Yuanze
Wang, Xinyu
Qiu, Ye
Wang, Xin
Sun, Yifan
Wu, Wenjun
Artificial Intelligence
Structured, procedural reasoning is essential for Large Language Models (LLMs), especially in mathematics. While post-training methods have improved LLM performance, they still fall short in capturing deep procedural logic on complex tasks. To tackle the issue, in this paper, we first investigate this limitation and uncover a novel finding: a Scaling Law by Difficulty, which reveals that model performance follows a U-shaped curve with respect to training data complexity -- excessive low-difficulty data impedes abstraction, while high-difficulty data significantly enhances reasoning ability. Motivated by this, we propose the Structured Solution Template (SST) framework, which uses solution templates and a curriculum of varied difficulty to explicitly teach procedural reasoning. Specifically, SST comprises (1) fine-tuning with structured solution-template chains and dynamically weighted loss to prioritize procedural logic, (2) prompt-time injection of solution templates as cognitive scaffolds to guide inference, and (3) integrated curriculum fine-tuning that explicitly teaches the model to self-plan - execute - self-correct. Experiments on GSM8K, AIME24, and new Dynamic En benchmark show that SST significantly improves both accuracy and efficiency, especially on harder problems.
title Can Structured Templates Facilitate LLMs in Tackling Harder Tasks? : An Exploration of Scaling Laws by Difficulty
topic Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.19069