I had no idea that people struggled with this so much and have come up with such crazy (to me) ways of figuring it out.

Most of the world, if asked to write down numbers 1-100 on a line, would do so left to right. The < and > symbols are arrows pointing left and right. To the left the numbers decrease (less than) and to the right the numbers increase (greater than).

All this stuff about crocodiles and ducks seems like such a bizarre way to remember it!

Edit: thanks for the comments, it's fascinating to get an insight on how differently people's brains work. Something that seems like such an obvious concept is just as baffling to others as the crocodile is for me.

To attempt to explain it better though: Say the number you're comparing to is 50. If x is less than that, say 30, then it would appear to the left of 50 in the list and the arrow would point that way <--. If it's greater than 50 then it would be to the right -->