South Africa's big matric maths problem

Even though the standard has dropped, I still think matric maths does sufficiently prepare you for undergrad maths if you study to understand. I personally found varsity maths to be "easier" than high school maths, so much so that I am planning on going all the way to PhD.
 
S1ght said:
I can't imagine it's changed that much since I went to uni about 10 years ago? Not a chance you would have been able to parrot fashion study Calculus :/

Also writing this made me think crap, I've been out of uni longer than I thought /o\
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Math is parrot. You apply a formula to it to get to the answer. Critical thinking is making your own formula, just applying what the book said isn’t.
 
I think our quality of math teachers are the main problem. They are useless at teaching even basic stuff. Instead of teaching why you do anything(to understand), they just teach how to do formulas blindly without even knowing what the point is.
 
whatwhat said:
Math is parrot. You apply a formula to it to get to the answer. Critical thinking is making your own formula, just applying what the book said isn’t.
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The shear volume of University maths, and the fact that very little past the first few months is about applying formulas makes it extremely difficult to parrot. I would think that the syllabus would have to have changed a lot since my day (early 90’s) for this to be true (at UCT at least, the coursework looks very similar).
 
SageofInfinitePaths said:
Even though the standard has dropped, I still think matric maths does sufficiently prepare you for undergrad maths if you study to understand. I personally found varsity maths to be "easier" than high school maths, so much so that I am planning on going all the way to PhD.
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Cool. How far are you with your studies now?
 
Even if the standard is poor current matrics and even first year uni students from well-off families have no excuse with the likes of Khan Academy and Youtube around. Entire uni courses are online these days. It's easier than ever to blow the doors off matric and first year uni maths just by watching a video a day.

Stokstert said:
Calculators, what are you talking about? During my times there were no calculators, only slide rules. How many people can even operate a slide rule these days?
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I've never even seen one in real life. :p
 
whatwhat said:
Math is parrot. You apply a formula to it to get to the answer. Critical thinking is making your own formula, just applying what the book said isn’t.
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In my view critical thinking is being able to correctly apply the given tools and information to get the desired outcome. Just because you learn all the formulas, doesn't mean you understand where and when to apply them.
 
SageofInfinitePaths said:
Only second year so I have yet to experience real maths but I am excited about the journey ahead.
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Great. You probably just did linear algebra and real analysis? Topology (3rd year for me) was my favorite course.
 
Wait till you get to Abstract Algebra. I had to spend months understanding that.
 
cguy said:
Great. You probably just did linear algebra and real analysis? Topology (3rd year for me) was my favorite course.
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Yep and I truly enjoyed linear algebra. I am actually aiming for a more application centred field and not pure, so I hope to pursue postgrad studies in Astrophysics. Are you done with your studies?.
Shaun108 said:
Wait till you get to Abstract Algebra. I had to spend months understanding that.
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The abstract in algebra gets me excited. Did you do postgrad math?.
 
SageofInfinitePaths said:
Yep and I truly enjoyed linear algebra. I am actually aiming for a more application centred field and not pure, so I hope to pursue postgrad studies in Astrophysics. Are you done with your studies?.

The abstract in algebra gets me excited. Did you do postgrad math?.
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Yup done with my studies. I continued postgrad applied math at UCT. The applications I use them is astronomy and cartography mostly.
 
SageofInfinitePaths said:
Yep and I truly enjoyed linear algebra. I am actually aiming for a more application centred field and not pure, so I hope to pursue postgrad studies in Astrophysics. Are you done with your studies?.

The abstract in algebra gets me excited. Did you do postgrad math?.
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Yeah, got my PhD nearly 20 years back. Undergrad majors were CS and pure maths, and everything after was a combination of CS and maths.
 
Shaun108 said:
Yup done with my studies. I continued postgrad applied math at UCT. The applications I use them is astronomy and cartography mostly.
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Wow congratulations.
cguy said:
Yeah, got my PhD nearly 20 years back. Undergrad majors were CS and pure maths, and everything after was a combination of CS and maths.
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Damn that is fantastic, congrats. I am majoring in pure maths and cs as well. It is safe to say I'm amongst giants here
 
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