h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I feel so incredibly stupid when I do things I know I shouldn't do. Especially when I know NOT to do it at the time I do it. Well, yesterday when I was finishing up my math test, I rechecked the stuff I had done the first test day and found that I had plotted everything incorrectly. Being me, I reworked it all and corrected everything. I was feeling so pleased for having caught all of that and even mentioned it when I got into class today. My teacher (I love her to death) gave me a sideways looks and broke the news to me. I corrected a bunch of stuff and DID IT ALL WRONG!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHH!!!!!!!!! I always do this. On history, Spanish, literature, chemistry, and math tests. I always do it and swear never to do it again, but what did I just do? I don't understand how I can rotate obscure graphs on imaginary axes but can't plot x and y coordinates correctly. I know it's probably just carelessness, but I can't not do it. Ugh. I need a formula card with me always. When I have it, I'm fine and can do everything, but I can't do anything without it. Had I have not 'corrected' anything, I would have made a...94 on the test. I made a flippin' 48 on it with my corrections. I couldn't do anything but laugh when she told me. It really made me want to rip out my hair, but I felt so incredibly stupid. Carelessness and second guessing are my two big curses. Damn.

Hehe, yeah I've done stuff like that before. You notice a little naunce, the little thing that would catch someone else out, but then when you're going back through checking everything you've forgotten about that naunce and you don't notice it the second time around...

My answer is exam technique:

Exam questions are designed to fit together. Do your corrections in pencil, and if you new answer is less of a nice answer (e.g. 3.654564564 + 3545645i instead of 0) then either go back and check some more with different methods of leave the old answer in.

Or, once you've answered all the questions, just don't bother to check anything that's given you a nice answer at all.

I should warn that I've only got 100% in one proper exam ever, so take this with a pinch of salt.

You see, it wasn't really numbers. It was coming up with formulas for hyperbolas, ellipses, and the like. I got a and b and x and y mixed up. I think just ignoring the test after going through it once and leaving it alone after would be wisest. I take all tests backwards, so it wouldn't be that hard. It just nags and nags and nags at me. Multiple choice tests are the worst. Free response I can do, just don't give me choices.

Ha! I have never made a 100% on a math test unless it was something with triangles. I dearly love triangles.

as long as they don'tt ask me to make up a formula from scractch i am genrally ok.

agreed. or those evil problems where you have to manipulate a formula of all letters. i cant do them.

This is where we Norwegians are so lucky as to be allowed to use the "rule-book" principle. We're allowed to bring a self-created compendium of rules and a standard compendium of formulas to all math tests, along with the huge and complicated calculator which every student has. I've done stuff like that, too, but never that serious.

Ok this probably wouldn't help much for a maths test, but for maths based science questions, remember that the units on one side of the equation have to be the same as those on the other.

Really simple example: If you have a moment (Newton-metres) on one side then the other side has to come out to that too, so force times distance.

Yes, we get the huge complicated calculators, but rarely are we actually allowed to program them. We're supposed to be able to regurgitate hundreds of formulas and manipulate them at the same time. I usually end up programming mine and deleting it the day before the test.

Yes, what's it called? Shoot...it has a name. Crap. Ducky damn, I just hit a brick.

Dimensional analysis. That's what it's called. Yeah.

Yep. Or you can just call it "pure joy". If you like.

Pure joy? *coughwheezesplutter* No.

Whatever it is, the fact that the measures come out in the correct way on the other end of the equation is rather logical.

Logical in the sense that the problem is WRONG if the units don't end up the same...it is rather handy unless you have an IDIOT chemistry teacher who tells you to drop the units until the end. I can't do it!

becuase he doesn'tget paid enougth buy the right wing givement who are downing the public and private education system

Ahhh, maths the scourge of the universe. Why do schools insist on teaching us stuff like algebra, trigonometry, pythagoras theorem, sin-cos-tan theory, prime numbers yadda....we have no practical use for it at all unless we're planning to become astronauts or nuclear physicists or the next Hawking/Einstein? The only thing maths ever does is cause stress and make people feel totally thick when they're the only one in the class that doesn't get what the heck the lecturer's rabbitting on about. A fact which I can well attest to.

Most useful things in maths:

Basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, fractions and percentages. That's it, you don't need anything else as far as I know. The other stuff they teach you is pure bumfluff to put it politely, something to waste 3 hours a week on because there's nothing of use left for you to learn.

You tell me how X(Y2 + 3X)+ 2 = 76 don't ask if it does, I don't know. Quadratic equations drove me insane. Numbers are numbers and letters are letters - ne'er the twain should meet! I never met an algebraic equation I could solve correctly in 5 years of school.

I had to retake my final in maths 3 times to pass it and I was in the top class for it. *Shrugs* I failed my 11+ selection exam to get into a grammar school (school for the gifted) English pass grade A* 98%, Maths 15% (Ungraded).

I just don't do maths. Never have and never bloody well will!

*Explodes in a blinding nuclear mushroom type flash of maths hatred*

Why would any teacher tell you to drop the bloody units? What the heck is the point. It's not even mathematically correct to suddenly add units at the end!

BECAUSE SHE'S A FREAKIN' IDIOT!! I failed a miserable test because I did the whole keep the units and cancel them out as I go routine and SHE didn't like it.

I can't do basic math...

Get your maths teacher to have a go at her about it.

Oooooh, good idea. Mary can rip the heart out of anyone. Damn, I LOVE my math teacher. She is absolutely stinkin' fantabulous.

My mum teaches math.