Also, how many times have I discovered that my kids miss simple math problems because they added, when they should have subtracted and vice versa.
I keep trying to pound in their heads to read questions thoroughly and not assume anything, but it hasn’t quite sunk in, they just want to race through things (just like their old man back in the day)
I took a Boeing drafting course at a local technical college back in the mid 1970’s. One other guy and I were the math whizes in the class. We could work through the “tests” significantly faster than the rest of the class.However, whenever we did simple addition with large numbers like 33459 + 55483 + 3423 + 668594 = ?
He and I made more mistakes than anyone else. It was actually discussed in the class and I learned something from it. He and I did not bother to write down the numbers we carried and trusted our memory. Yeah, it worked most of the time, but not always. Others would take much longer (sometimes significantly so) to complete the tests, but they would often have more right answers than us.
The funny thing is that wrighting down the carried numbers doesn’t take all that long. I learned to be careful about taking short cuts.
That said, I am 56 and to this day I am STILL very much like the Hare in the story of the Hare and the Tortoise. It’s become my lifestyle. I’m jut careful not to “goof off too long” like the hare did. The sad thing is, think what I could have done if I attacked everything the way the Tortoise did and had the speed of the hare.
It seems we all have a fatal flaw that keeps us from the greatness. If it’s not one thing it is another.
I honestly think that question is about ones ability to take the time to listen, comprehend, and then accurately follow instructions.
I've had to re-learn that lesson since my wife and I started square-dancing. The three cardinal rules of square-dancing are: know your right from your left, know if you're male or female, and never trust the caller to be consistent ...
The caller will call the same routine twice and then, on the third time, change one of the calls. Those in the square that were paying attention will do the routine correctly; those who were running on autopilot will repeat the incorrect routine. That, of course, leads to the breakdown of the square ...
I had my epic fail on night and ended up in a completely different square ...
... dancing with the guy in the kilt ...