Where to study with poor Maths marks?

marco79

marco79

Expert Member
Joined
Sep 18, 2008
Messages
4,473
Reaction score
547
Location
Back in CPT!
My son is currently in Grade 12 and is interested in studying IT: Applications Development at CPUT. He is doing Maths Lit and just falls under the requirement for acceptance at CPUT. For his current report he got a 5 for Maths Lit where min. requirements is a 6.

What other options are there for studying IT or coding in the Cape Peninsula? Maybe a certificate bridging course for a year before application to CPUT. Ideally Bsc Infomatics at UNISA would be great, but I'm not sure he is mature enough to do distance learning. So the plan is IT: Applications Development at CPUT then when completed enrol at UNISA for BSc Infomatics.

TIA
 
Agreed. Had a friend who did poorly in math. He worked for 2 years, repeated math, and got into a BSc degree with Unisa after that. Flew through it and is now very well educated and working in Aus. Most of what he has made of his life would not have been possible without first repeating math. Another year is not much when compared to how big an impact it makes on the next 60 years.
 
Maths is a foundation. Get it right first, else anything else you build is going to be shaky.
 
Hey Marco,

The guys here are right. If you can address the Math issue NOW it would be the best option to consider. Rather a year of extra hard work than a lifetime of being (potentially) held back for only just missing a math requirement. Easier said than done with a teenager, I know...

I was actually in the same boat when I left school. I was going to study at AAA school of Advertising and Marketing and needed Maths. I thought I was going to fail maths half way through Matric and needed to get into a course, so cut my losses and ended up studying my 2nd choice which didn't require a maths pass. Funnily enough my 2nd choice was a Diploma in IT and Networking (DITN) through Varsity College. I got in there, to do an IT Diploma with a failing Maths mark, so perhaps consider looking at Varsity College? The course was a 2yr Diploma covering Linux, Server, Business Management, Active Directory, A+, N+, S+, Project Management and some other subjects.

Funny part is that I actually ended up passing Maths at the end of matric by 0.8% and ultimately could've gone to AAA but it was too late by then :cautious:
 
Personally, I would suggest redoing maths and doing a BSc Computing/CS. Speaking from experience, there is nothing like finishing matric only to discover you’ve painted yourself into a career corner due to insufficient marks, to motivate you and make you grow up quickly.
 
Someone who is scraping to pass maths lit may not be suited to doing a degree.

Rather focus on certificates and diplomas and build up a cv that way.
 
tRoN said:
Someone who is scraping to pass maths lit may not be suited to doing a degree.

Rather focus on certificates and diplomas and build up a cv that way.
Click to expand...

While I agree that for many (even most) cases, this is true, @marco79 should make the determination if the issue is ability or lack of focus. I was told to drop to SG maths at the start of high school. Really glad I didn’t listen to them.
 
cguy said:
While I agree that for many (even most) cases, this is true, @marco79 should make the determination if the issue is ability or lack of focus. I was told to drop to SG maths at the start of high school. Really glad I didn’t listen to them.
Click to expand...
My brother had a similar arguably worse situation; flunked maths throughout primary education and dropped out of school in grade 9; joined the navy, only to find out afterwards he had stunted his career. Restarted his education and passed matric with distinctions and then subsequently completed a MEng in electronics.

Some kids just don't do well in a typical school environment for a number of different reasons, but that doesn't mean they're either stupid or incapable.
 
As others said, first check the problem.

Currently doing my masters in software at CPUT, did the first of the new diploma.
I think no one in our year who did maths lit graduated, unsure though, our year did have an insanely high drop out rate.

There is higher certificate as well, it's really, really easy, and if you do well the top 5/10 get guaranteed a spot in diploma.

You need to see why they failed maths btw, if breaking down problems is not for them, then software dev is not a route they should pursue, they won't enjoy it. There is also networking and multimedia if they're interested in that, note multimedia is not drawing, it is design.

Your first year at CPUT diploma will expose you to all 3 and then you specialize into the steam you prefer. Can PM me questions if you like.

Job wise, I can tell you that every person who passed software development walked out of the degree with a job already lined up, most earning around 15-16k starting, and some within 2 years having climbed to 30k. Note this is due to drive of the people, we had such a high drop out that all that succeeded that were left were go out and getters.
 
Thanks for all the replies, my son will still be 17 when he finishes grade 12, so there is time to do some additional studies next year to improve on his math. I will have a chat to him and hear what his views are.

Thanks again.
 
marco79 said:
Thanks for all the replies, my son will still be 17 when he finishes grade 12, so there is time to do some additional studies next year to improve on his math. I will have a chat to him and hear what his views are.

Thanks again.
Click to expand...
No idea how I passed maths at school. Graduated with my BSc Informatics at age 42.

Without a degree your son can still find employment, just going to be harder without experience. But many ways he can build up technical expertise. Also people skills get jobs, CVs only get interviews.

Biggest mistake I see is parents throwing money at useless courses. My biggest career jump was from a free online android development course.

Also he does not have to fall into the industry immediately, I only got in at age 30. At 44 I do find having a degree is very important, many who don't find it hard to move up.

Private message me if you want to chat.
 
tRoN said:
Someone who is scraping to pass maths lit may not be suited to doing a degree.

Rather focus on certificates and diplomas and build up a cv that way.
Click to expand...

Some of the best software engineers I've worked with did not major in CS.

A degree is important in the industry, but your major makes you interesting in the interview.

Two of the best I've worked with majored in music.
 
cbrunsdonza said:
Some of the best software engineers I've worked with did not major in CS.

A degree is important in the industry, but your major makes you interesting in the interview.

Two of the best I've worked with majored in music.
Click to expand...
This depends where you want to go. Based on your Bsc Informatics, you're not in a job where you would "need" math. IT is a supporting occupation, there are many different needs/facets in the industry, e.g. cguy's job would require math, yours doesn't, which is the joy of IT. :p
 
Johnatan56 said:
This depends where you want to go. Based on your Bsc Informatics, you're not in a job where you would "need" math. IT is a supporting occupation, there are many different needs/facets in the industry, e.g. cguy's job would require math, yours doesn't, which is the joy of IT. :p
Click to expand...

I guess maths was never considered when I was promoted to team lead of the finance tech team for a large e-commerce company.

Actually, ethics was more important and my auditing subjects helped.

But you make a valid point, the industry is wide and requires all sorts of skills. Knowing 1+1=10 is more important to my daily job than how many degrees Pythagoras triangle is from Newton's falling Apple.
 
cbrunsdonza said:
I guess maths was never considered when I was promoted to team lead of the finance tech team for a large e-commerce company.

Actually, ethics was more important and my auditing subjects helped.

But you make a valid point, the industry is wide and requires all sorts of skills. Knowing 1+1=10 is more important to my daily job than how many degrees Pythagoras triangle is from Newton's falling Apple.
Click to expand...
I am now worried about what your job entails. :p
(since I can't think of why you need to know binary for finance)
 
cbrunsdonza said:
Some of the best software engineers I've worked with did not major in CS.

A degree is important in the industry, but your major makes you interesting in the interview.

Two of the best I've worked with majored in music.
Click to expand...

I met a guy from the UK during my travels, who runs a SaaS company he started, currently operating at $1,000,000+ annual recurring revenue. He studied music and then somehow got into tech.

__

On that note, I also met an 18 year old Brazilian kid who dropped out of high school (and ran away from home) at 16 and now runs a development agency and employs other developers.


Relevant qualifications will probably make things easier. But with the right mindset and hard work you can become anything in the Tech industry regardless of your background.
Tech is one of the few industries where experience and expertise are valued more than qualifications cause they wanna know, "Can you actually ship that code?" and are you familiar with the latest and greatest programming languages, frameworks, etc and not what you learnt in University 5 years ago.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X