Im stuck,I failed maths yet again

[[)roi(]]

It seems i forgot to do give some details.It was Maths 105 that i failed.Also I did that module only for the entire year.I put my everything into it and i did not make it.I most certainly knew before posting that there would be some people bashing my integrity as a dev because I failed maths,but i guess thats life.The module contained the following.Partial Derivatives,Matrices,Differential equations,Complex Numbers,Integration methods,Series and Induction.

How did you fair with maths at school?
After failing the 1st time; did you not consider getting a personal tutor?

Similar to @MirageF1 are you sure that you've exhausted all the routes to try again?

 

[coderpython24]

I got 63% for maths on my matric report.This years try at the module i had a personal tutor who came to the house and explained things i didnt understand,it went decently well,I felt so confident with my answers in the final exam,but i guess i wasnt correct enough.

 

[coderpython24]

There is a slight chance of getting another exam and therefore another shot at passing.Its just a matter of whether i meet the conditions to do so.I will probably know by Monday.

 

[phoneJunky]

Just thinking now. Don’t know if it was asked before as I just did a cursory check. Isn’t 44 enough to get a rewrite?

 

[coderpython24]

45 is required for a supplementary exam.

 

[phoneJunky]

45 is required for a supplementary exam.

That is tough man, I would push my lecturer if I were you. I once went from a failing a test to passing just by sitting next to the lecturer and explaining one question where the marker gave me 0.

 

[coderpython24]

I will try and get another exam,theres another called SDA,and with my circumstances and credits theres a possiblity of getting one.If i get it ,its back to studying.My only issue is after having gone through so many lecturers in the math department.Nobody is willing to look into my exams and tell me where exactly ive been going wrong.Its extremely difficult to go forward when you do not know where you are going wrong yourself,and nobody is willing to tell you either.

 

[coderpython24]

They all give generic answers like "just study harder and look at the question carefully"

 

[Kosmik]

I will try and get another exam,theres another called SDA,and with my circumstances and credits theres a possiblity of getting one.If i get it ,its back to studying.My only issue is after having gone through so many lecturers in the math department.Nobody is willing to look into my exams and tell me where exactly ive been going wrong.Its extremely difficult to go forward when you do not know where you are going wrong yourself,and nobody is willing to tell you either.

Speak to the dean of the department to let you have a look at your script and how it was marked, you can then see where you went wrong. But being tertiary, don't expect lecturers to hold your hand with regards to where you went wrong, it doesn't work that way. They will help if you take a problem to them and ask for help in solving that specific problem and the methodology used but it is up to you to identify your own shortcomings.

 

[[)roi(]]

I got 63% for maths on my matric report.This years try at the module i had a personal tutor who came to the house and explained things i didnt understand,it went decently well,I felt so confident with my answers in the final exam,but i guess i wasnt correct enough.

Were you doing this part time or full time?
Having tutored a number of students; there's just no substitute for practice; e.g. old exam papers from UWC and other varsities.

My only issue is after having gone through so many lecturers in the math department.Nobody is willing to look into my exams and tell me where exactly ive been going wrong.Its extremely difficult to go forward when you do not know where you are going wrong yourself,and nobody is willing to tell you either.

-- your tutor should have picked up on this + practice exams will reveal your weak areas.

 

[coderpython24]

I did the module full time.Also i was instructed to not use any past papers from previous years to practice for the final exam.I will probably take this matter up with the dean when university staff are back.

 

[[)roi(]]

I did the module full time.Also i was instructed to not use any past papers from previous years to practice for the final exam.I will probably take this matter up with the dean when university staff are back.

As said by @krycor there's just no substitute for practice, and without practicing against old papers, etc. you really have no way to properly ascertain your weak areas. This should not be something you leave until the last minute; important that you practice after each subsection with problems that are not in your course material.

The varsity staff probably had experience with students that parrot learnt old papers and still failed; hence I said it's important to diversify; e.g. other varsity exams covering the same areas.

 

[Kosmik]

I did the module full time.Also i was instructed to not use any past papers from previous years to practice for the final exam.I will probably take this matter up with the dean when university staff are back.

Ah, that makes no sense.

 

[Barbarian Conan]

I'm not ready the whole thread, but as others have said, enroll in a BSc IT course. I know NWU offers it and it has the easy math.

2 of my engineering friends passed their 2nd year calculus (the BSc calculus) on their 4th try, so it can be done.

 

[phoneJunky]

I did the module full time.Also i was instructed to not use any past papers from previous years to practice for the final exam.I will probably take this matter up with the dean when university staff are back.

Actually you do want to do past papers to see if your pacing for the exam is correct.

My textbook for calculus was Steward and they gave the answer to every second problem they had. So I just dit every second problem as well then I can at least see if I get to the correct answer. But that doesn’t help with the pacing. You need to know how to get done in time. Doing past papers also helps with the format as you can discern a pattern on how it is set up over the years.

 

[Ancalagon]

I did the module full time.Also i was instructed to not use any past papers from previous years to practice for the final exam.I will probably take this matter up with the dean when university staff are back.

Not doing past papers sounds like madness to me. You have to.

Passing Maths 1 just requires loads of repetition. You need past papers and past answer sheets so that you can make sure you can understand the question and knock out an answer relatively quickly.

 

[ponder]

I will try and get another exam,theres another called SDA,and with my circumstances and credits theres a possiblity of getting one.If i get it ,its back to studying.My only issue is after having gone through so many lecturers in the math department.Nobody is willing to look into my exams and tell me where exactly ive been going wrong.Its extremely difficult to go forward when you do not know where you are going wrong yourself,and nobody is willing to tell you either.

Cant you get past exam papers & answers? That way you can practice.

 

[Ancalagon]

OP:

My advice, do what you can to pass maths or at least get enough credits to graduate with a computer science degree. If you can do that, you will generally be okay. If you can get an Honours degree in Computer Science, or even a Masters, even better.

I got 54% for Maths 101 and 46% for Maths 102. The average of the two being 50 led me to getting credit for Maths 1, which I needed for my degree. So I scraped through.

Years later, I thought having a maths degree would help my programming career, so I enrolled to study second year maths. Got my ass kicked harder than you did - 38% for abstract maths (years of programming made this slightly easier), and 11% each for further linear algebra and further calculus.

I later realised (correctly) that maths was not relevant to my career path, but the degree that I got years ago was still a good thing to get.

One piece of advice though - work on your written English. I may suck at Maths (two universities agree on that now), but I write well, and being able to communicate clearly is a big help to a programmer.

I need it to write documentation, write JIRA tickets, write design documents, write work packages, write emails to clients, write emails to suppliers, write emails to superiors. I communicate day in and day out.

Even if you were brilliant at maths, your programming career will be limited if you don't communicate well. Our most brilliant guys write research papers with their thoughts - they have to communicate well or nobody will understand them.

 

[zippy]

You don’t need a computer science bsc to be a software developer. It’s advantageous in a number of industries, but not needed in most.

However, having a failure on your record can be worse than not having attempting it.

Get a different degree and pretend this never happened. If maths is not your thing, don’t beat yourself up about it. Move on

 

[coderpython24]

You don’t need a computer science bsc to be a software developer. It’s advantageous in a number of industries, but not needed in most.

However, having a failure on your record can be worse than not having attempting it.

Get a different degree and pretend this never happened. If maths is not your thing, don’t beat yourself up about it. Move on

I'm thinking of unisa.Just out of curiosity will i get a job having no degree?I have a decent portfolio,a decent github profile with a few projects.I did a freecodecamp frontend certificate.I also did IT(java syllabus) as a matric subject.