(no subject)

[chess]

I am *so* never doing a straight maths degree. Just spent a couple of hours on some perfectly trivial maths because I kept being swamped in all my stupid calculation errors. Grr. (Still haven't finished it - I gave up when I started crying and worrying my parents. I guess it'll get done (badly) on the train to school tomorrow - that's stupid of me too, but I don't care right now.)

I just don't know what to *do* about all these silly errors - after all, proofreading your own maths thorougly is impossible as proofreading your own typing for errors, at least it seems to be for me. Then again, it *isn't* - it's just these two questions I was trying to do tonight really that I managed to fill so full of errors I just couldn't seem to catch them all. But as that's the latest bit of maths I've done, and I can think of a few examples of similar from the past, of course I consider it to be an example of all the work I've ever done, despite the fact that if I was *that* rubbish at addition and multiplication I'd never have got A* at GCSE (although remember, I didn't actually get that by a lot...).

I guess it just frustrates me that everyone else has lots of trouble grasping the concepts, which I normally do pretty easily, but they still get better marks than me because they can add. Not being able to add (well, I can normally spot addition errors in the kind of numbers we're using, it's the multiplication and division with fractions in it that I think I know well enough to do automatically and don't) would be a really dumb reason to fail (where fail = get a B in a module).

Comments

[marble.livejournal.com]

Firstly, 'B' isn't generally considered a failure :P

Secondly, with the maths, keep a separate piece of paper with what you're trying to end up with, and what you were given written on it. I found that helps 'cos when I was doing proofs at A level pure maths, I'd end up going round in circles. Dunno if it'll help with silly errors, but it might help to focus a bit, maybe...

[chess]

*I* consider a B would be a faliure for me, 'cos I know I oughta be capable of more - maths is my best subject, and I get things quicker than the rest of the class... I just can't do the arithmatic! (/arrogent-idiot-mode) (Imagine those brackets are angle brackets 'cos I've forgot how to make LJ display fakenhtml properly again...)

Failure

[passage.livejournal.com]

Failure is doing worse than you could have.

However, in maths I found it relavent to consider lost marks in terms of seperated into "Silly mistakes" (we're all human, who cares about silly mistakes, ignore them) and marks lost because I didn't understand this topic (failure: work harder).

I suspect that like me you will meet very few of the last catagory ...

Neil

[pling.livejournal.com]

I quite often had that problem with A-level math stuff, the algebra was quite easy, just the arithmetic tripped me up. For a while, till I got better at it, I'd write down in pencil at the side of each line what arithmetic operation I'd done to get from one line to the next (ie x2 or /5 or whatever). And I'd do each one seperately, no x2/5 do the multiplication then the division. It's easier to find the silly mistake that way. Also, try and do it a couple of nights before it's due, and go and proof read the night before. Makes it easier to spot things if you give it a break.

Defeatist attitudes in maths

[passage.livejournal.com]

If you look at a maths question and don't believe you'll do and are depressed: STOP.

No really, we mean that. You'll never do any but the most trivial maths when in that state, subconciously you'll deliberatly write yourself into corners and go down wrong routes, I've been doing it myself recently (and when more cheerful going "Well anyone awake would have done it this way ...").

And algebra errors ... yeah, we had a proof a little while ago, all the hard maths was there but I just made silly algebra error after silly algebra error (When we multiple x by y Neil it does not stay x! And no, when you mutliple a bracket by y you can't just put it it only on those terms where it's convient to do so).

Good algebra is a serious advantage but often entirely capable mathematicians' algebra goes pearshaped.

In such situations the cure I have found is to reach the end of the question, realise that 1 does not 0 or that the expression you have is nothing like what you're supposed to get, and go and do something else for at least 15 minutes (cake and drink and someone to talk to are good options, so's going for a walk). When you come back your mind won't be locked in the cycles it did before and you'll be able to analyse your work properly and find the mistakes you made.

Being able to spot all but the most blatent errors (and often not even them) without a break would mark you down as a mathematician of the highest calibre and I'd have to start working hard to keep up.


Next time give up before you start trying, Often maths is like revision: if you aren't at your best there's no point doing it (this is of course dependant on the maths in question).

As for improving your algebra: lose the calcuator. You'll probably want to check everything using it for reassurance (I did) but make sure you do everything in your head first (well, expect when it's after midnight and they want sin 10.25 degrees, you know what I mean).

And because GCSE makes us stupid (no really, it does) it will be a while before your algebra gets to where it ought to be (or at least it takes everyone else a while (some of my class were still not there a year later but I'm not excusing you for more than a few months!)).

Pling's right for debugging maths (and when you start dealing with matricies) but onyl do this is you have to, the harder you can push your brain the better you'll get (but don't break it cos then you don't get anywhere).


Neil

Re: Defeatist attitudes in maths

[jarel.livejournal.com]

"Debugging Maths". I like it :)

Re: Defeatist attitudes in maths

[naath.livejournal.com]

Yeah, math is like that some of the time.
Do something easy.
Then go back to the math. else you'll stare at it all night and not get it.

And always draw a diagram (well that's the moto of Mrs. H and Mrs. D 'cos Shib. never draws diagrams...

One idea for debugging is to put some values in for x and y and z etc. then go through the algebra cheking that wherevere there is an = that both sides come to the same value, this finds the error/s they are then normally fairly obvious.

Re: Defeatist attitudes in maths

[r-win.livejournal.com]

How does GCSE make us stupid?

Re: Defeatist attitudes in maths

[passage.livejournal.com]

GCSE in general? It doesn't as far as I know.
GCSE maths in particular? By making everything so easy that our brains get turned off, by ironing over complications so that we lose the ability to think rigourously (even for applied mathematical versions) of the word. By allowing assumptions to pass unflagged, by concentrating on the most trivial maths until our brains lose the capacity to think hard.

That's the shortlist anyway.
You can tell I have a lot of respect for GCSE maths don't you?
(Don't get me wrong, a GCSE course is hard work and anyone acheiveing a string of good grades at the end deserves comendation for hard work and intelligence. Maths may be treated as siply adding lesson time in this calculation however).

Neil

P.S.: The same happens with A level physics unfortunatly, they can only assume GCSE maths and being as GCSE maths is pants ... A level physics struggles in many places.

[ahsu.livejournal.com]

I used to complain that higher math was a cakewalk, but simple elementary arithmetic was going to be the death of me. Don't assume you're a math idiot just because simple calculation errors trip you up. Far better to get the wrong answer because somewhere along the line you assumed that 2 + 2 = 5 than to get the wrong answer because you have no idea what you're doing.

If you can, try tackling math when you're not already tired, and definitely take a break when you start feeling like your head is stuck on a sine wave (ceiling - whack! floor - whack! ceiling - whack!).

Something that I found helpful when I was struggling with calculus was to slow down and pay careful attention to the parts of the problem that were not calculus -- the simple calculation parts, that is. Making sure that "x" went from negative to positive when moving from one side of the equation to the other, trying to avoid the simple arithmetic errors, and so forth.

Also try working problems backward (not always possible, but often very useful) to see if you will get back to where you started or not. If not, then somewhere along the way you've made an error, and you can go look for it. I find this helps to avoid the pitfall of simply reworking the problem, which is that I often make the same error twice in a row, leaving me with the happy feeling that I've gotten it right when in fact I have made scrambled eggs out of it.

"I assure you your problems with mathematics are nothing compared to mine." Albert Einstein, the smart aleck!

[chess]

*grins at the mental image of making scrambled eggs out of maths notes*