Comments on: Me and Mathematics

By: Do you have an engineer in the family?

Do you have an engineer in the family? — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 21:20:05 +0000

[...] piers of the New York/New Jersey waterfront—on the Irish waterfront. I never got too far with math myself but several relatives (including my mother’s father) were or are engineers [...]

By: Aidoann

Aidoann — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 17:42:03 +0000

I’ve always been good – though apathetic – in math. After about seventh grade, I lost almost all interest in math classes, though I still love math for the sake of math. After algebra, I really didn’t have very good math teachers (I had the same one for three years).

Now, I’m a student of chemistry and physics and math is meant to be something that is secondary and only meant to get me into the upper science classes. Unlike science, which is more conceptual and about understanding things, math presents its own sets of challenges.

-Aidoann

By: AnneC

AnneC — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 16:37:48 +0000

Interesting. My experience with math in school was almost the opposite of yours — I struggled greatly with basic arithmetic, but then did very well in geometry and got an A in my first calculus class.

And the funny thing was, after taking “higher” math, the arithmetic and algebra suddenly started making sense. It was like a spontaneous light bulb went on in my head. Geometry was the real turning point for me, probably because it introduced a visual component to the mathematics; once I could associate numbers and variables with shapes, my brain was able to see how formulae worked and such. Multivariable calculus was fun too because we got to deal with lots of cool graphs of 3D shapes.

By: Kristina Chew, PhD

Kristina Chew, PhD — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 13:54:26 +0000

What is on the GCSE?

By: laurentius-rex

laurentius-rex — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 11:08:43 +0000

I am currently arguing with SBC about this, because I do not think it will be a very good study at all, not only because Mathematical skill is not one thing only, but that using GCSE’s for selection is not the best tool for selecting whatever it is the study is looking for.

Mathematics and number skills are not necessarily the same thing.