Jump to content

Recommended Posts

What do you think about the maths that your teenagers are being taught up to GCSE?


My curiosity has been aroused because I've been trying to help a struggling teenager with factorising equations. Her question "why do I need this?" is not an easy one to answer in her circumstances. (Apart from the answer: "Because it'll be in your GCSE exam.") I'm wondering which aspects of GCSE maths give parents the most grief, for whatever reason.

I'm almost tempted to say that you're lucky to have a teenager that is prepared to let you help them. What gives me grief is when I see maths becoming a matter of blindly learning a set of rules without any understanding of what they mean. It seems to happen a lot in trigonometry.
When I did my GCSE Maths the first time (10 years ago, took 3 years of re-taking until I finally got a passing grade) my Mum was just honest with me; 'You need to do this because it's on the exam. It's crap, sorry'. Her and I thought of GCSEs as a stepping stone to get you to the next level. If I was able to get A's in a subject, then great. If I was able to get a C, great too- it didn't actually matter at the end of the day as long as I got 5A-C grades to get through to Sixth Form.

Maths is logic and you might not think so but it is about learning and rememebering processes. this is useful for lots of things in later life- just part of following an argument through and being analytical. if you are lucky enough to have a parent that uses maths everyday ( structural engineer for example) that helps enormously, otherwise I think you mum was quite helpful. there is a hugegap between gcse and a level maths though. i love trigonometry - but we are on vectors now and I always struggled with them..........

At least they dont have to use log books any more-

The current GCSE is so much easier than, say, 20 years ago. There's just no comparison. Looking over a paper briefly does explain the grade inflation, though, that we keep hearing about.


Tbh, how much of what we learned at school is directly applicable in "real" life? If that were the criterion, the syllabus for external exams would have to chance radically.


I do find it concerning, though, in this country how many people are prepared to laugh and state proudly how appalling they are at "maths" - by which they generally mean basic arithmetic but that's another story - when they would be mortified over having poor writing skills, for example. Like it or not, sciences and numbers are the most critical aspect of our society and where new jobs are coming from.


Maybe that's what to tell the teenagers?!

Some good points made above, though at least with vectors and trigonometry there are direct connections that can be made to the real world, they apply to 3D graphics for example. But factorising equations is a level more abstract, hard even to convey to a teenager what it's about, let alone when it might be applied.

Factorising equations???? Total blank in my mind. Which is worrying as I used to LOVE maths and did it up to sixth year / first year at uni level. I can see I'm going to have to re-teach myself loads of stuff if I'm going to be able to help the kids when they get there.


At the moment I'm struggling with phonics with an English accent and modern approaches to simple arithmetic - are there any websites which explain these things and other common school topics / approaches? I will ask the teachers but feel it's possibly a bit more than they can really cover in the snatched 3 minute conversations by the classroom door.

I actually got a great sense of satisfaction from learning and getting good at maths at GCSE. Not immediately but once we got a great teacher because before that I was crap. It was my favourite subject to revise for for the final exams because once you 'get' it, once you've got the formulas under your belt, you can apply it to any sum. I learnt the formulas from making up codes/giving them names like the way you do with such things such as the 'Never eat shredded wheat' one.

nunheadmum Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Factorising equations???? Total blank in my mind.

> Which is worrying as I used to LOVE maths and did

> it up to sixth year / first year at uni level. I

> can see I'm going to have to re-teach myself loads

> of stuff if I'm going to be able to help the kids

> when they get there.

>

> At the moment I'm struggling with phonics with an

> English accent and modern approaches to simple

> arithmetic - are there any websites which explain

> these things and other common school topics /

> approaches? I will ask the teachers but feel it's

> possibly a bit more than they can really cover in

> the snatched 3 minute conversations by the

> classroom door.



I would highly recommend a Book called Maths for Mums and Dads which really helps me remember how to do things, and also teaches the new methodology for primary school maths (it has changed alot since my day!)- I hope the Authors write one soon for secondary schoolers!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Maths-Mums-Dads-Rob-Eastaway/dp/0224086359/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1301476770&sr=8-1

  • 2 weeks later...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Latest Discussions

    • He did mention it's share of freehold, I’d be very cautious with that. It can turn into a nightmare if relationships with neighbours break down. My brother had a share of freehold in a flat in West Hampstead, and when he needed to sell, the neighbour refused to sign the transfer of the freehold. What followed was over two years of legal battles, spiralling costs and constant stress. He lost several potential buyers, and the whole sale fell through just as he got a job offer in another city. It was a complete disaster. The neighbour was stubborn and uncooperative, doing everything they could to delay the process. It ended in legal deadlock, and there was very little anyone could do without their cooperation. At that point, the TA6 form becomes the least of your worries; it’s the TR1 form that matters. Without the other freeholder’s signature on that, you’re stuck. After seeing what my brother went through, I’d never touch a share of freehold again. When things go wrong, they can go really wrong. If you have a share of freehold, you need a respectful and reasonable relationship with the others involved; otherwise, it can be costly, stressful and exhausting. Sounds like these neighbours can’t be reasoned with. There’s really no coming back from something like this unless they genuinely apologise and replace the trees and plants they ruined. One small consolation is that people who behave like this are usually miserable behind closed doors. If they were truly happy, they’d just get on with their lives instead of trying to make other people’s lives difficult. And the irony is, they’re being incredibly short-sighted. This kind of behaviour almost always backfires.  
    • I had some time with him recently at the local neighbourhood forum and actually was pretty impressed by him, I think he's come a long way.
    • I cook at home - almost 95% of what we eat at home is cooked from scratch.  But eating out is more than just having dinner, it is socialising and doing something different. Also,sometimes it is nice to pay someone else to cook and clear up.
    • Yup Juan is amazing (and his partner can't remember her name!). Highly recommend the wine tastings.  Won't be going to the new chain.
Home
Events
Sign In

Sign In



Or sign in with one of these services

Search
×
    Search In
×
×
  • Create New...