satanboy
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and how is that different from 20 years ago? *** I hated school.
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Article: Fewer matrics take and pass Mathematics
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and how is that different from 20 years ago? *** I hated school.
smokey
Honorary Master
:wtf:
So you think less people capable of entering professions that require maths is a good thing? Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiight...
satanboy
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Nope, just trying to see the positive side.
Stickfigure
Honorary Master
I passed pure maths with 73% 
Not bad considering I took no extra lessons, didn't really do homework and only studied a bit. I must say Maths Literacy is a joke, they literally ask you what's 73 - 47 type of questions and one of the hardest things in the exam is working out the area of an irregular shape. And the scary thing is, people still only get 40% for it.
Not bad considering I took no extra lessons, didn't really do homework and only studied a bit. I must say Maths Literacy is a joke, they literally ask you what's 73 - 47 type of questions and one of the hardest things in the exam is working out the area of an irregular shape. And the scary thing is, people still only get 40% for it.scotty777
...doesn't know
I passed pure maths with 73%
Hee hee. Well, I've never taken an extra lesson in my life, I think it insults my character and intelligence, but in grade 10 I got 50% for maths, grade 11 I pulled a nice lil 70% (I just started studying for the tests
), then in matric I pulled an 88% for maths . No extra lessons, just did my homework, and studied for exams, I put in that extra little effort for it . I'm not even that good at maths either, just apply logic to the work and the work makes sense. I understand that sometimes you look at a problem and think "holy shyte", ie: My Physics exam in 2009 where they left out a value making the number impossible to solve. However, just apply a little logic and think to yourself "flip, this is tough, I should come back to it because they should make the paper easier"...
I also think exam techniques should be something taught to kids. If you know the work, but are struggling to apply it, or have a mental block, knowing how to answer things can really help people!
davemc
Executive Member
Perhaps e'z having a laugh at your serious expense?
LOL, didn't see it but I know I would've laughed if i did.
smokey
Honorary Master
That's the thing. Sure, it's a positive that the overall pass rate improved, but math is the most crucial subject in any country and frankly, the government is failing epically in that area. Which does not bode well simply because it is so much more important than the other subjects. Grumbling justified in this thread... totally.
No, must have been before my time. I remember 40% being required to pass at school. University required 50% though. It is hard to believe though that 30% is now considered passing.
Did they actually get good marks though or merely pass, thus demonstrating almost no grasp of their home language?
phoneJunky
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30% percent isn't considered passing the subject.
My point was also that not all (in fact very few) people actually go to uni. There are many practical professions that don't require maths. Then in uni there's law (I assume), and like someone said communication, tourism, some agriculture in landbouskool and various BA degrees.
So obviously you need it for most uni courses and we need more maths graduates but if you don't plan on using it there isn't much point except future proofing. Everyone who doesn't take it isn't being a moron.
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phoneJunky
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I agree with you here. There are many people who are not mathematically inclined. But that said, you do need a basic understanding of math, which I think the math lit is more than efficient. Why do you need to differentiate or to do linear interpolation if you are not going to make use of it.
smokey
Honorary Master
forget jobs... life requires basic maths (and in basic, I mean what HG Maths used to be). All this crap about counting how many sticks make a fire or how many ml go into a L is a load of tosh. That's primary school ****. This system is breeding a nation of idiots. The development of a nations general intelligence is being hampered by people like you saying that math is not important. Hell, if you want to live in a country that doesn't not prioritize the intellectual upliftment of it's people... that's fine by me. Just don't spread your propaganda around as if it's somehow "good information".
Haha whoa my propaganda! Am I printing anti-Maths newsletters or something?
Anyway I've never thought that maths is the most useful thing to learn for your intellectual upliftment (and assuming I don't want this upliftment because I don't think everyone should necessarily do maths at school is not very intellectual). I'd rather have pupils reading "intellectual" material and broadening their vocab, knowledge of important topics, comprehension skills etc than learning to do complicated maths. The mostly analytical (might not be the best word) skills you learn from maths aren't the only intellectual stimulants children should be getting. So if you'd rather not learn complicated maths (the basics that are actually needed for life is covered in math literacy) you can really still be intellectually uplifted. That being said I agree that making everyone do a higher standard of maths wouldn't be a bad thing at all but not everyone needs it. The way it works at the moment where so many pupils drops maths because it's hard is obviously a terrible system.
By the way I enjoyed maths and additional maths in school and university and was pretty good at it. I just wouldn't do any more of it to uplift myself intellectually and don't think even what I did helped me tremendously intellectually. This is all my opinion.. it's probably been proved wrong by some studies or summin.
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smokey
Honorary Master
Yup, your propaganda. I never presumed to say that you were **** at math. Heck no, just that your views on the topic are twisted (which they are). Math AND language are both important, yet the standard of English (which I did as a first language) is pathetic at high school. The literary part of the course is so demeaningly bad that people from Europe literally laugh their asses off when hearing about the amount of "work" we do at school. I was lucky to have parents that had a HUGE library and loved to read. Others aren't so fortunate however. This, in conjunction with the attitude of "maths isn't important for the job you want to do" is something that is killing this country.
I just added that as an extra bit to show I'm not saying anything out of my own dislike for maths or whatever. And I know that maths being used practically in your job/life is not the reason for learning maths. That's not my position at all, I'd agree with you there.
I think that, for myself at least, I would have been better off doing some maths literacy (or what is really useful from any type of maths) in school and taking something like advanced English instead of additional maths. Similarly in university studying a BA degree would develop me more than having done say a pure maths course, or even just the bit of maths I did in my BCom. At the least maths in schools should drop most of the trig and calculus and focus solely on useful concepts such as statistics and probabilities, financial maths etc. which most people could at least use.
Basically I'm doubtful that everyone really needs it beyond the basics and practical applications (wouldn't this be enough to give you the cognitive skills that maths develops?). I'm not saying that any person could afford to drop maths altogether.
I'd agree, for example, with this: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/22/AR2010102205451.html Written by a professor of maths at the University of Illinois.
Also, being practical, the maths taught at school which most pupils are not really understanding and learning from more than they are parrot learning for tests (and yes, even in Europe and America) could be replaced with the basic and useful maths and then other courses that would be more beneficial to most students. Then again fixing the teaching of maths is the real answer. Those with an interest in maths or a talent for it obviously should be able to continue with advanced maths.
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what's wrong with that? what if afrikaans is his more comfortable language, what he was taught in at school and is going to study medicine at an afrikaans institution?
Nope, first language is English. Was just funny, he could barely speak, but he got 100% in both maths and physical sciences. Must be a super genius as he came from the worst possible circumstances.