As a freshman in college chemistry I was shocked my classmates could not do simple unit conversions. I almost cried of boredom because I teacher had to spend three weeks trying to teach these guys about molarity/molality/normality. They couldn't cross multiply, they had never heard of such a thing.
Cross multiplication. Really.
One of my favorite math teachers senior year of college confided in me that she frequently had students show up in her college algebra class who insisted that 1/7 was bigger than 1/5, or couldn't understand even other such pre-algebra concepts.
And that was just the math/science teachers. I minored in math but majored in English.
I did a peer review of one student's paper freshman year, and he wrote the phrase “acrost the street.” Also, students would actually WRITE “spost” [sic] instead of “supposed”. As an undergrad junior, I tutored a Master's student who could not understand where commas go. Her writing was really horrible, and so was her reading comprehension. I loved her; she was really sweet. I always wanted to ask her just how she managed to get her undergrad, though.
Learning about optics would be fun. Is that part of a physics class or computer science?
I’m a history major with about 60 credits in physics. So technically my major/minor would be History/Physics, but they don’t let you do that in my institution, so it’s just a history major.
The course I was doing was biology. I don’t have much of a biology background (chemistry, yes and physics, yes), but the demand is there, and since no one else was willing to help her get on board with nursing, it fell to me.
My optics was in grade 11/grade 12, part of a standard physics education. Can’t do physics without optics.
I think I like you. You’re an English/Maths major?! I’m not alone! :)