Innumeracy

[eldar]

It appears the Chinese are a bit better at adding up than we are over here. Here are a couple of sample tests. I could answer the first one with a pencil, some paper, and a hour or so. I answered the second one in my head in a matter of seconds, whilst decrying how dumb some of our university students must be. Fer Son-of-the-Deity-of-Your-Choice's sake, that second question is pre-GCSE, let alone what a first-year undergrad in any subject ought to understand. And yet they deny that examination standards are slipping.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_kent/]

#2 is *not* pre-GCSE. Yes, it *is* completely tragic that someone could be going to university to do an arts course without being able to answer that, but it's a reasonable thing to find on a "not the higher paper" GCSE paper.

While my life is clearly too full of interest and fun to spend time on it, and in any case, I don't have a pen and paper handy, I feel pretty sure that I could solve the second one, and completely sure that I could in my university entry days.

[mooism.livejournal.com]

#2 is (or was) advanced GCSE and basic A-level.

[eldar.livejournal.com]

2 a) is Pythagoras's Theorem. I'm sure I was taught that pre-GCSE.
2 b) is certainly pre-GCSE (part of a whole suite of 'working out the areas of plane figures that aren't circles or similar')
2 c) most probably is advanced GCSE, maybe early A-level, I don't recall, but it's still pretty basic trigonometry.

[fluffymormegil.livejournal.com]

2)a) Pythagoras's theorem, specifically one of the Pythagorean triples. Year 9.
2)b) Area of a triangle. Year 9.
2)c) S=O/H; C=A/H; T=O/A. Year 9.

[chick74.livejournal.com]

2)b) is primary school maths - year 6 if not before

[eldar.livejournal.com]

See I was right :-) Assuming of course that Year 9 = 3rd Form in Old Money which is before GCSE choices are made in most subjects.

[chick74.livejournal.com]

Why would you need to know it anyway?