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College students are still struggling with basic math. Professors blame the pandemic
Associated Press ^ | August 31, 2023 | Collin Binkley

Posted on 08/31/2023 2:08:44 AM PDT by Olog-hai

Diego Fonseca looked at the computer and took a breath. It was his final attempt at the math placement test for his first year of college. His first three tries put him in pre-calculus, a blow for a student who aced honors physics and computer science in high school.

Functions and trigonometry came easily, but the basics gave him trouble. He struggled to understand algebra, a subject he studied only during a year of remote learning in high school.

“I didn’t have a hands-on, in-person class, and the information wasn’t really there,” said Fonseca, 19, of Ashburn, Virginia, a computer science major who hoped to get into calculus. “I really struggled when it came to higher-level algebra because I just didn’t know anything.”

Fonseca is among 100 students who opted to spend a week of summer break at George Mason University brushing up on math lessons that didn’t stick during pandemic schooling. The northern Virginia school started Math Boot Camp because of alarming numbers of students arriving with gaps in their math skills.

Colleges across the country are grappling with the same problem as academic setbacks from the pandemic follow students to campus. At many universities, engineering and biology majors are struggling to grasp fractions and exponents. More students are being placed into pre-college math, starting a semester or more behind for their majors, even if they get credit for the lower-level classes.

Colleges largely blame the disruptions of the pandemic, which had an outsize impact on math. Reading scores on the national test known as NAEP plummeted, but math scores fell further, by margins not seen in decades of testing. Other studies find that recovery has been slow. …

(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...


TOPICS: Education; Health/Medicine; Society
KEYWORDS: algebra; arth; basicmath; college; distancelearning; liberalagenda; math; mathematics; reading
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To: Olog-hai

Just remember PEMDAS and the rest will make a lot more sense.


81 posted on 08/31/2023 6:57:24 AM PDT by Noumenon (You're not voting your way out of this. KTF)
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To: ViLaLuz

Math is beautiful.


82 posted on 08/31/2023 7:00:44 AM PDT by Noumenon (You're not voting your way out of this. KTF)
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To: Olog-hai

d/dt(mv) .... it is rocket science.


83 posted on 08/31/2023 7:20:19 AM PDT by sasquatch
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To: Olog-hai
“I really struggled when it came to higher-level algebra because I just didn’t know anything.”

It's not just knowing, but being practiced. Like in algebra you might use difference of squares to factor and then neglect to notice that one of the factors itself can be further reduced by difference of squares. In the US too much time is wasted on degenerate "sex education", soft subjects, and interminable discussions on race.

84 posted on 08/31/2023 7:24:01 AM PDT by Right Wing Vegan
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To: Paisan
Since Algebra was not around until the 9th century AD,

And you would not want to delve into the forms of mathematical proof they relied on to make geometry work before algebra.

85 posted on 08/31/2023 7:27:59 AM PDT by Right Wing Vegan
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To: piytar
I dealt with this issue back in 1990 when I was an academic advisor at a major university. That is of course well before COVID. The problem is that primary education left teaching real math, science, reading, writing, and history a long time ago. Instead it’s all about indoctrination (there are of course exceptions). And it has been getting worse since then. A lot worse.

It's all about indoctrination as well as fostering a "need" to bring in foreigners to take over grad school seats and elite professions

86 posted on 08/31/2023 7:30:27 AM PDT by Right Wing Vegan
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To: Olog-hai

thats what happens when real education is replaced by victimhood and touchy feely claptrap


87 posted on 08/31/2023 7:33:38 AM PDT by BigFreakinToad (Remember the Biden Kitchen Fire of 2004)
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To: Right Wing Vegan

Agreed.


88 posted on 08/31/2023 8:42:50 AM PDT by piytar (Do NOT forget Ashli Babbit!)
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To: ViLaLuz
Math is one of God’s languages.

"The laws of nature are but the mathematical thoughts of God."

Euclid

89 posted on 08/31/2023 9:16:38 AM PDT by goo goo g'joob (When honest people say what’s true, calmly and without embarrassment, they become powerful)
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To: HartleyMBaldwin

I would suggest the website three blue one brown. Really well done videos on different math subjects. I went through their linear algebra classes and it started to make sense. Best of all it is free.


90 posted on 08/31/2023 10:38:23 AM PDT by Fellow Traveler
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To: Chad C. Mulligan

Sounds like he aced the DEI, racial equity part of his HS curriculum.

I went to the North Avenue Trade School from 1977-1980...12 straight quarters. The first two years are the basic math, chemistry and physics requisites that prepared you for the specialization field you were likely to pursue.

At the time, the school (a University of Georgia one) accepted transfer credits, one-for-one, from places like Spellman, Morehouse, etc. So what you’d usually see were transfer-in rising juniors who didn’t have to take the two years of NATS preparation. I remember seeing entire classrooms of them, all together gang-banging their homework assignments in EE (my major). I also saw some of it during actual tests. I could only shake my head and realize that most of them, if they graduated at all, were bound to end up in government jobs. I’d really hate to see what the situation is like there now.


91 posted on 08/31/2023 10:50:17 AM PDT by Gaffer ( )
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To: Olog-hai

how can this “student” understand Functions and trigonometry with out algebra????


92 posted on 08/31/2023 11:28:05 AM PDT by markman46 (engage brain before using keyboard!!!)
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To: goo goo g'joob

Misattribution.

Thst would be a paraphrase of some of the writings of Kepler on geometry.


93 posted on 08/31/2023 11:33:48 AM PDT by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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To: Poser

depends on the programing language one is using

Fortran yes very math heavy, cobal not so much, not use about the more modern languages like C++ etc


94 posted on 08/31/2023 11:45:30 AM PDT by markman46 (engage brain before using keyboard!!!)
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To: Olog-hai
"The laws of nature are but the mathematical thoughts of God."

Euclid

89 posted on 8/31/2023, 11:16:38 AM by goo goo g'joob

To: goo goo g'joob

Misattribution.

Thst would be a paraphrase of some of the writings of Kepler on geometry.

CHALLENGE

As Euclid predates Kepler by 2000 years I think I'll credit Euclid with the quote "verbatim". That quote is sourced multiple places credited to Euclid.

Perhaps it was old Johannes that was inspired by "the Father of Geometry" (sourced multiple)

95 posted on 08/31/2023 1:11:04 PM PDT by goo goo g'joob (When honest people say what’s true, calmly and without embarrassment, they become powerful)
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To: goo goo g'joob
Argumentum ad passiones, with all due respect. Also argumentum ad populum.
96 posted on 08/31/2023 1:31:38 PM PDT by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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To: Olog-hai

how about this “passionless” argument

1) I can find multiple sources that attribute these exact words to Euclid,

2) I can’t find any sources that attribute these exact words to Kepler (all due respect to Kepler).

If you want to call that “misattribution”, then you win


97 posted on 08/31/2023 2:51:37 PM PDT by goo goo g'joob (When honest people say what’s true, calmly and without embarrassment, they become powerful)
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To: grey_whiskers

“homoskedasticity”

Seems to be a scattered opinion on the whole subject.

I know I’m a bit biased ... and I am sensitive about it.


98 posted on 08/31/2023 4:25:36 PM PDT by 1of10 (be vigilant , be strong, be safe, be 1 of 10 .)
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To: MIchaelTArchangel

“How long will you have to work to pay off your debt?”

Until biden pays it off...?

Did I win?
Do I get a prize?

A participation trophy?


99 posted on 08/31/2023 4:37:49 PM PDT by 1of10 (be vigilant , be strong, be safe, be 1 of 10 .)
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To: goo goo g'joob
Citing alleged multiple sources, as I already said, is argumentum ad populum now with argumentum ad verecundiam piled on top.

I did not say “exact words” with respect to Kepler, but “paraphrased”.

I am not seeking a so-called win, but in the spirit of both Euclid and Kepler I just want to seek out objective reality, particularly when it remains under continuous attack from the left. No offense meant.
100 posted on 08/31/2023 5:51:43 PM PDT by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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