I got an 85 on a very easy math exam.  One I thought I got a 90 on.

Fucking fucking motherfucking fuck.

You should study more and post on forums less.

Fuck you.

Take it easy :)

Don't tell me to take it easy.

calm down

You guys know nothing about women, do you.

We can't actually sit and listen to you vent, so you just get the annoying advice/comments.  WTF are we supposed to do on a text-only forum?  I'm sure lots of people would like to give wrestle with you right about now, but it's probably not practicle.

SOME of us know nothing about women, yes.

You vent whatever you need to vent.

???

This is a group forum, and we are not your boyfriend or husband.

Stop complaining.

[sits, listening intently]

[nods, wan smile in commiseration]

[suggests maybe if you studied more and posted less...]

I have an orgo quiz on Wednesday I'm not quite ready for. But I have all day Tuesday to study for it.

"This is a group forum, and we are not your boyfriend or husband.

Stop complaining."

Mmmmhmmm.

Isn't that what you guys are for?

"I have an orgo quiz on Wednesday I'm not quite ready for. But I have all day Tuesday to study for it."

Well, according to these guys, all you need to do is stop posting and study more and you will be successful.

Unfortunately, I can know some subjects cold and still not do well on the test just because the professor always picks a different way to present the material.  No matter how much you study, you might still miss a question.

We're still trying to find a use for ourselves. Please pardon our appearance while we renovate.

Yeah.

I should tell myself to take it easy :)

Did you get the test back? What kinds of stuff did you miss?

Um... I um... yeah, aren't there studies that show that black people test poorly because of some sort of test anxiety?

I bring earplugs if I think the prof is going to talk a lot, and I skip a lot of questions the first time through to make sure I get through everything without spending too much time on something difficult and then the second time through the answer just comes to me.

I don't get it back for a few days.

I know I know how to do the problems.  I probably misunderstood what he was asking for or made a silly mistake, as usual.

I have the concepts down, and I can even answer the questions.

I didn't have the book for the first two weeks of class, either, so I couldn't really follow along.  I made the mistake of trying to save money and buy it from Amazon.  For the second time this year, the seller never contacted me, even after I emailed them, and they never told me what happened.  They just refunded my money.  Meanwhile, I was out to dry.

It was kind of important for me to have the book because the lectures glanced over some details.

Oh well, I have 2 exams and a final left to prove myself.

"I skip a lot of questions the first time through to make sure I get through everything without spending too much time on something difficult and then the second time through the answer just comes to me."

That's my strategy, too.

I have no idea what I missed that took away 15%.  And because I have never received any material back from him, I haven't a clue as to his grading style.

With math, it's really important to do lots & lots of problems. Lots & lots of them. I had a study partner & we did lots & lots of problems together and did well.

What I also did was created a study sheet with all the info required to answer the questions & made sure I could spit it out at the beginning of the test. Just a list of formulas.

What subject? Are there exam prep books available? If you have problems testing, practice taking tests.

"and because I have never received any material back from him"

That sucks. What kind of teacher is he?

A slow mofo, that's what.

He says it is in the mail.  Since I'm taking it online, that's what I get (although I get the same lecture as the live students, that day).

Yeah, I did the lots and lots of problems. I did every one in the book, and I have a Schaum's with practice problems, too, most of which I finished.

To be honest, I'm not really all that confident that I'll ever get A's on the tests.  No matter how much you practice, if you don't anticipate a curve, then you won't get the answer, unless you are good at math and thinking under pressure, neither of which I am good at.

I walked away confident that I got 90% of them right, and the other 10% I allowed for my own typical mistakes.

That I didn't get 100% is ridiculous, because the test was easy.

Who knows what I got wrong.

After a couple tests like that, I started taking earplugs & sitting in the back of the room. I really needed to create my own space in order to concentrate.

Oh you walked out thinking you did well. That always sucks when you don't end up doing well.

Dude, 85%, for me, on a math test, is doing well.

I understand. I'm doing really well (all A's or A+'s and one A-), and I want to continue doing really well.

Damnit, I'm being lulled into a false sense of security, I'm not supposed to talk about my personal life here.

Well, it'll depend on what you get back, but if it was anything you'd classify as "stupid mistakes" (misreading the question, copying answers over wrong, skipping a step, etc) then try doing the problems, but make sure you take them *exactly* like you take the test. Don't glance at a question and think "yeah, I know how to do that" - actually write it down and work through it.

""yeah, I know how to do that" - actually write it down and work through it."

I do exactly that.

Some people just aren't good at math tests.

I worked hard, I studied hard, I know the material, I even explained it to other classmates.  I wrote a program to prove a point (simple stuff, but it was helpful).

Still got a B.

85% on a math test is a respectable score.  Math is that one subject for me where getting extra credit on HW or tests is necessary.

Sometimes, if they curve it, it'll go over 100% and you can latch onto that, but just on a straight 0-100, 85 is good.

You wouldn't happen to be British, would you?

"I understand. I'm doing really well (all A's or A+'s and one A-), and I want to continue doing really well. "

That's good.  It sounds like you have a lot of time to study and you are focused.

I am less so. If I can make it through a math program with B's, then I'm doing good, since I'm not going to be competing with medical school students for limited slots.

If I actually go to graduate school (my eventual goal), I can't imagine they wouldn't accept me with a B average.  And because I'm so old, no one is giving me a scholarship anyway.

It would be nice to be an A student, but I haven't been since I've had to take care of myself.  The last time I really had consistent, A grades, I was in high school and I had no worries.

I wasn't thinking about "gee, if I do my homework now, or go buy that book at the bookstore instead of Amazon, I can get ahead!"  Instead, I was thinking, "well, I'll skip that extra time and catch up on the train ride home because  I have customizations due for work and the bonuses I get for completing them on time is money in the bank."

So I really shouldn't be complaining.

He just posted the answers.

I got two questions wrong.

Ex(x+3=1)  (the "E" is a backwards E)

Given the universal set is the set of all natural numbers is it true or false?


backwards E means there is SOME NUMBER x that fulfills the equation.  So I said the statement is true.  But a fraction is not a natural number.

I didn't read the question properly. -5 points

THe other one I got wrong, and for which he didn't even give me partial credit, was one I over-thought. -10 points.

The teacher did mention during a lecture how crappy it is that the in-class students can't have things set up in certain ways in order to accomodate us online students (it wouldn't be fair to do some things for in-class students if the online students can't take advantage).

I was miffed at that, but I just took a mental note and forgot about it.  I forget the specific issue.

I wonder if I had been getting feedback, in person, from the beginning, how I would have done.  Might have done the same, I s'pose.

What class is this?

I would've screwed up the first question, too.

But this is what I meant by practicing. If you practice like you take the test (assuming you can find sample problems like the prof uses - can you get old exams of his?) then you will catch yourself making these kinds of mistakes, which teaches you to be a bit more cautious on things like this.

It's similar to programming - Joel said when he has people write code he looks for people who immediately put the closing bracket (or NEXT) as soon as they start a loop. Why? Because anyone who's coded for a while has been bitten by leaving it out, so they put it in.

Again, the trick is finding sample questions like the one the prof gives on tests. :/

But IDEs stick the bracket in for you.

Perhaps, but a good artisan understands their tools, and since your pencil appears to remain less intelligent than the tree it was cut from, you gotta do a bit more thinkin', capice?

That's just stupid.

I'm not a details person.  I will never be.  That's why I use IDE's and not Notepad, and misread questions on tests.

I should also mention I am very good at standardized tests.

They don't have subtleties.

Is 0 a natural number? I always forget.

Zero is not a natural number.

Be a details person. It counts.

Especially if you want to fuck around with hardware. Believe me, "reading the question" is *nothing* compared to some of the shit that that can throw at you.

The devil is in the details.

on another note, I didn't understand your sets question. E(x+3=1) ... implies x = -2, right? -2 is a natural number, no?

(long time since I did maths.)

You thought you got 90 but only got 85? No wonder you failed - you can't count.

Yeah, the first question would have bitten me in the ass too, because of course I can find a value for x that makes the statement true, but it's outside of the allowed set.

In fact I know that I have been bitten by this on an exam.

Thanks Clay.

I feel better :)

It's like asking some of these weirdos here to spell correctly.

That most people here can't spell, consistently, so THERE!

"Be a details person. It counts. "

But I'm not.  My talent is seeing the big picture.

I can try, I suppose.  The only way it will happen is to see the joy in the subject matter.  That's why I can write software that works (most of the time).

you can do both.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_number

It's complicated, starting from the first paragraph:

"In mathematics, a natural number is either a positive integer (1, 2, 3, 4, ...) or a non-negative integer (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, ...). The former definition is generally used in number theory, while the latter is preferred in set theory and computer science."