<p>so my teacher
teaches us stuff</p>
<p>i do my homework (and get them right)
but on the tests
out teacher gives us problems we've never seen before and expects us to know how to do them</p>
<p>I have the same problem in my BC Calc class. Most kids resort to cheating to save their grades. I won't stoop to such a level. My grades in the class are hardly top-notch (mostly Cs), but at least I try. I pulled off an 84 on the midterm. To put the whole cheating thing in perspective, a couple of students in BC Calc w/averages in the class that are over 10 points higher than mine scored below 70 on the midterm, one of them failing (below 65).</p>
<p>How do you study for your tests?</p>
<p>Ironically, sometimes, it's the teacher's fault:).</p>
<p>urgh, that completely sucks.</p>
<p>My precalc teacher is a brutal grader. She's a great teacher, but cuts us no slack; she tries to make it hard for anyone to get an A.</p>
<p>We can't use graphing calculators at all (except for extremely rare times when you absolutely have to). Most of the time we can only use 4 function calculators on tests.</p>
<p>The only thing I like about her is that we get makeup tests, even though they are harder than the original tests.</p>
<p>Jman2306:
I see you are learning the precalculus the way it was supposed to be done. You will be rewarded later when you get to a place where calculators are not allowed, because you took the time to understand theory and not just punch numbers into a calculator.</p>
<p>I know. But it's so much faster with graphing calculators. :D</p>
<p>I hate all math. It should be banned. </p>
<p>Okay that's a little severe, but a large majority of math is superflous, who really needs to know about quadratic equations if you are not pursuing a career where this knowledge would be helpful?</p>
<p>
[quote]
who really needs to know about quadratic equations if you are not pursuing a career where this knowledge would be helpful?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Why do we read Shakespeare? (Isn't Hamlet at least as painful as the quadratic equation?) Literature improves the general quality of life. Mathematics, which is fundamentally rooted in logic, helps you learn the mechanics of sound, rational thought.</p>
<p>You never know if you'll like something unless you try it. Taking a variety of classes opens up possibilities, and you may change your mind on math later in life. I used to hate it when I was younger, but I'm starting to like it more and more as time goes on.</p>
<p>Nothing I have learned in Mathmatics beyond the basics has helped me improve my quality of life or logic. As i've said, unless you are pursuing a career that relates to mathmatics, it is not necessary.</p>
<p>I could say the same about english, or any other subject for that matter. Many careers utilize math.</p>
<p>This is getting back to the original topic but on my tests we're not even able to use normal calculators. We get the test paper and a pencil. That's it. The nice part is our tests are the same ones our teacher used to use when he taught at Princeton. It's cool though, I'm not complaining. I actually love taking his tests because they are so thought provoking and intricate. Yes they are a huge challenge but that's all that life is about, getting accustomed to new more difficult situations. </p>
<p>Plus, I think I've learned more in that class then in the past 5 years of math courses. I actually learned how to do so much simple algebra that I used to take for granted because even those four function calculators could do it.</p>
<p>SAME!</p>
<p>and our teacher doesn't teach us any lessons. just gives us problems we've never seen before and by doing them we 'learn the lesson' what the f</p>
<p>Truth be told, math has given me nothing but a headache. It's not really the math, I can do that, it's the math test! I don't know why, but when I do my homework and when I study for my pre cal test, i do fine, but when I get on a test I bomb. Oh yeah, about that logical tinking post, I think about things the same way I did before I took any math class at advanced level. Am I( for lack of a better word) slow or something? Or is this something that develops over time?</p>
<p>how different is it between honor-precalc and precalc??
cause im taking precalc and i dont study outside of class except hw and im easily managing to get an a(96%)</p>
<p>I don't know. In Florida we don't have regular precalc, but we do have a course called "advanced topics in math" which consists the same material as precalc, but it's taught at a much slower pace. It would probably be alot easier to get a high grade.</p>
<p>What is your class working on?</p>
<p>^^^^^ i live in Florida too and I have a class called "Precalculus"! :D......idk maybe it's your district??? I find precalc really hard!!! For the alg. 2 review we were able to use our calculators, but after that we couldn't. We just have been able to use them after the law of sine and laws of cosine. Now were on vectors and we still are able to use it :D.</p>
<p>Well, maybe my school is just weird and we don't attach "Honors" to Precalculus, yet we get honors weighting/credit. :D</p>
<p>Do you use the blue precalc book by James Stewart? That's what our class uses.</p>
<p>We're still doing the laws of sine/cosine. Next, we get into Analytic Geometry.</p>