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Original post by und
I go to a grammar school but there's only one girl in my mechanics class. :lol: Mechanics does seem to be the least popular option among every student though.


In my mechanics class ( M2 - 4) there were no girls, just 11 guys... Was a sausage fest.
Reply 41
Original post by TheWorldEndsWithMe
Really? Mechanics was more popular in mine.

I think it's because the choice it between M3-4 or D1 and S3. Most people generally preferred mechanics to stats, but the tides have turned now with the harder modules.
Reply 42
Original post by TheIrrational
In my mechanics class ( M2 - 4) there were no girls, just 11 guys... Was a sausage fest.

I think quite a few people are dropping mechanics after M3. It's going to be something like seven of us, and probably five or so in the other class. :lol: I've heard there are more girls in the other class, though.
Original post by und
I think it's because the choice it between M3-4 or D1 and S3. Most people generally preferred mechanics to stats, but the tides have turned now with the harder modules.


Mechanics to my classmates were mainly :rant:

M1 was the hardest Maths module I ever took. :frown:
As others have said it's partly down to bad teaching. During primary and secondary school there are teachers out there that make you terrified of maths. I remember being in year 1 and having a sheet full of sums that I didn't understand how to do and not being allowed out to break until I'd finished them! Also, in maths there are lots of opportunities for you to be wrong and have a big red cross next to your work and in general, people don't like to be told they're wrong so it's easier to just not bother.
Reply 45
Original post by und
I think quite a few people are dropping mechanics after M3. It's going to be something like seven of us, and probably five or so in the other class. :lol: I've heard there are more girls in the other class, though.


In my FM class there were 8 girls to 3 guys. Mmmm, it was a dream. There was this girl in the corner who would wear provocative clothing every day, and she'd always wear these beautiful shoes that showed off her perfectly-pedicured feet. I just couldn't get enough of looking at her play with her toes. If I could freeze time, I would have gone right up to her and licked them for one hour straight.
Reply 46
Original post by Zhy
In my FM class there were 8 girls to 3 guys. Mmmm, it was a dream. There was this girl in the corner who would wear provocative clothing every day, and she'd always wear these beautiful shoes that showed off her perfectly-pedicured feet. I just couldn't get enough of looking at her play with her toes. If I could freeze time, I would have gone right up to her and licked them for one hour straight.


You should have offered her a go with your protractor
Reply 47
Original post by Zhy
Because the people taking A-level Maths are generally stupid. Maths is just for physicists who don't want to get their hands dirty. Whenever someone tells me that they took an A-level in Maths, I immediately treat them with less respect, and tell them to **** off and do something useful with their life. I'm in total agreement with Gove's ideas of revolutionising the A-level system, making all exams linear. Combine Maths and Physics into one giant A-level so people can stop trying to specialise in something that's barely even a subject (in the case of Maths, that is). Why study A-level Maths when there are plenty of other diverse A-levels that are far more vital to the economy, like Philosophy, Media and Japanese? I sincerely hope the maths faculties at all Russell Group universities get torn down and made into parking lots.


Lol, u srs?

Physics is Maths' retarded cousin.

Maths isn't helpful to the economy? Apart from economics uses a mathematical systems to work? Without mathematics, most of the modern world wouldn't exist.
Not that that matters anyway, mathematics should be studied for its own right.

'Beauty is the first test - there is no permanent place in this world for ugly mathematics'.
As a kid, I never saw it's relevance in my everyday life and I still don't. Other than simple mental arithmetic, decimals, percentages and fractions, I haven't used anything that I learned in GCSE maths in my everyday life since I got my GCSE (7 years ago). In fact I've barely even used any of the things I just mentioned (mostly just basic mental arithmetic).

I knew when I was in school that I would never do A-level maths or a maths related degree/career so I resented being forced to learn anything other than elements of mathematics that I would actually need to function in society. Don't get me wrong - I realise how important maths is because without it we wouldn't have people who could build/design houses/cars and we wouldn't have amazing doctors and physicists and all sorts of other things. However - those are the kind of people who study/studied maths because they wanted that career or just enjoyed studying maths. I never wanted a career which was dependent on my mathematical ability and I was much more interested in the arts than the sciences (though I can see the value of the sciences very much!). Also, I recognise the importance of maths if you are working on a till in a shop etc, however you do not need to understand or even know about vectors and trigonometry etc. in order to function in your everyday life. It is totally unnecessary.

I consider my GCSE Maths grade to be completely unrepresentative of my actual mathematical ability - I got a good grade but it was long time ago and I basically forgot it all within a week of sitting the exam. I can do basic maths - I've forgotten everything else and in the 7 years that I've been living in the 'real world', I've never needed to dig out my old GCSE book in order to remind myself about cumulative frequency or whatever because I've never been in a situation where I've gone ''damn, I can't do my job/use the kettle/get on the bus, without knowing how to plot a scatter diagram''.

Conversely, I always saw the usefulness of English in school and I didn't feel frustrated by being forced to take English GCSE because I knew that when I left school I would need to know how to use the English language correctly in order to apply to jobs/write a CV and to do paperwork in my job (and yes there are bits of maths but it's basic - primary school difficulty at best!).
I honestly believe that schools at the moment (and when I was there) are useless for setting young people up for the real world - teach them what they need and then offer them the option of learning other things. No one ever taught us about pensions, looking for work, managing our money, career progression, family issues, drugs/alcohol, medical access etc. If anything like that was covered it was in those crappy weekly lessons with a form tutor which in reality consisted of a class of 30 odd kids doing crosswords/wordsearches with the words 'jobcentre', 'condoms', 'responsibility' etc hidden in them and then 50 minutes of free time.

So basically, I can only speak for myself - but when I was at school I thought (and got the distinct impression that my friends thought the same) that anything that wasn't actually going to be of use to me was a complete waste of my time. I still feel that way. I can read about all sorts of stuff in my spare time - and I do enjoy doing so. I don't need to be force fed knowledge by the state other than knowledge that will help in a practical way.
(edited 11 years ago)
Most definitely the difficulty/lack of appreciation factor. However it ****** me off to no end when people constantly whine about how they "can't do maths" - it's really not that hard!
Original post by lilyobz
I find no practical use for most of it.


That's because you clean toilets.
Reply 51
I have a problem with numbers, it's like my brain just can't keep them all together at once, so I found algebra a lot more enjoyable, as things can be worked out in groups of matching letters etc.

As for why people hate maths...could be the teacher's fault. I struggled at school and felt stupid because i didn't understand the way I was taught, but I got a tutor and suddenly it was more enjoyable!
Reply 52
There's no one reason why loads of people don't like it.

It is dull, lets be honest but I still quite enjoyed it at GCSE when I could just grab a book and get on with it. Probably more for the novelty that I could do it and it made me feel better that I could than I actually enjoyed solving problems etc.

It's not nice feeling stupid and frustrated, it's easy to see why people would shy away from that.
Original post by Airess3
Why do people in the western countries generally hate Maths? I only know a minority of people who really like maths and find it interesting. But why is there such a dislike about maths in our society? Is it because people have poor numeracy skills resulting in them finding it difficult and boring?? Or is it because of people's lack of determination to practice and do well in Maths? So they give up easily. Why is it genuinely more acceptable to be bad at maths but not in some other subjects like English? And if you are good at or like maths, you are considered as a geek of some sort?


It makes my head spin, even if I practice everything lots. And once I do understand it all, my memory is awful for abstract things like maths so I forgot it within a couple of days.
Reply 54
Opposite for me really our teacher explains where formulas come from and how everything works I find maths fun because its challenging, and very academic also generally the satisfaction of reaching a conclusion on a question you attempt which looks almost impossible is great.
Don't know what you're chatting about...

I f***ing LOVE maths!
i find maths boring and hard, and boring.
Look up something called ''Lockhart's Lament''.
For me lack of understanding and primary/secondary school experience :frown: I hated maths lessons...
Reply 59
diffult, disingaging, usefulness of a peanut the way its taught i mean seriously when am i ever going to need to know why pi squared = x over 200 to the ten? or how many apples will timmy have if he starts with ten gives 3 away gets given four then eats the 6th? i dont, at least try and liven it up a little like how many camels will abdul need to buy the ignorant tourists daughter? :colone: