math, or not so much
Sep. 11th, 2007 09:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lauradi7dwWhen I was a senior in high school, I won a small medal for having the highest score in my high school on a national multiple choice math test.
My math teacher (who thought I was nearly hopeless, and may have been correct) asked "How did you do that?" I don't remember what I said to her, but the answer was that I have a pretty good visual memory in some ways. I can't deal well with some types of spatial relationships, but I could look at an angle and tell how many degrees it was, for example, something that's pretty useful in a timed multiple choice test on geometry & trig. Most of my success (grade-wise) in any mathematics harder than simple arithmetic has come from plugging numbers into formulae properly rather than actually comprehending what's going on. While I have been enjoying the wording in some of the Physics problems (I was pleased to see that the traditional problem of changing furlongs per fortnight to other units was there, and I really like the one that begins "Tamar wants to cut down a large, dead poplar tree with her chain saw, but she doesn't want it to fall on the nearby gazebo.") but I have been reminded of what one of Florence's friends said about Physics at Lexington High School "It makes you want to die." In my case, it makes me want to cry, not die. I have unfortunately discovered that some of my instinctual fudging also works here, though. One of the online problems was almost identical to a problem in the book for which the answer (but not the strategy) was provided. I guessed, and the computer marked me correct. I suspect I am not the only person to do this. The professor said that the first year they were using the online homework system he assigned all the problem sets online, and was startled to find that many people who seemed to be doing OK on the homework couldn't pass the tests. Now only a few problems are online, and the paper homework requires that one show all the work. Time for more weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. (item of packrat entertainment, though - I am using the same protractor I had originally).
My math teacher (who thought I was nearly hopeless, and may have been correct) asked "How did you do that?" I don't remember what I said to her, but the answer was that I have a pretty good visual memory in some ways. I can't deal well with some types of spatial relationships, but I could look at an angle and tell how many degrees it was, for example, something that's pretty useful in a timed multiple choice test on geometry & trig. Most of my success (grade-wise) in any mathematics harder than simple arithmetic has come from plugging numbers into formulae properly rather than actually comprehending what's going on. While I have been enjoying the wording in some of the Physics problems (I was pleased to see that the traditional problem of changing furlongs per fortnight to other units was there, and I really like the one that begins "Tamar wants to cut down a large, dead poplar tree with her chain saw, but she doesn't want it to fall on the nearby gazebo.") but I have been reminded of what one of Florence's friends said about Physics at Lexington High School "It makes you want to die." In my case, it makes me want to cry, not die. I have unfortunately discovered that some of my instinctual fudging also works here, though. One of the online problems was almost identical to a problem in the book for which the answer (but not the strategy) was provided. I guessed, and the computer marked me correct. I suspect I am not the only person to do this. The professor said that the first year they were using the online homework system he assigned all the problem sets online, and was startled to find that many people who seemed to be doing OK on the homework couldn't pass the tests. Now only a few problems are online, and the paper homework requires that one show all the work. Time for more weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. (item of packrat entertainment, though - I am using the same protractor I had originally).
