My college degree is almost complete. As of May 2012 I shall be the proud possesser of a Bachelor of English degree, but in order to progress to that illustrious point, a college algebra course must be tackled and passed. In order to progress to that hateful point, a math placement test must be endured and passed. This test is scheduled for Wednesday, June 29th. I've been glued to math.com, am reviewing a basic college math textbook, and up to a point I'm doing grandly. But once you get to the point in math where there are so many more letters in the mix than numbers--even to the extent that you could start punctuating each equation--you have a serious problem! Letters are for making words: words that tell a story, words that convey a feeling, words that describe a moment in time that has NOTHING to do with the slope of x and y. I already know the stupid line is sloped. It's going uphill. Isn't that what a slope typically does?
The inanity of this particular placement test, however, arises from it being classified as an indicator of a student's readiness to take college algebra. Okay. I get that. Let me prove to you that I can work with decimals and percentages, fractions, all manner of factoring, finding square roots, finding circumference and area of geometric shapes, solving algebraic equations, and even getting a little crazy with the changeable "greater than or equal to" signage. But why do you have advanced college algebra PLUS trigonometry problems on a test to see if you're ready to take advanced college algebra and trigonometry for the first time? If I already knew how to do this stuff, why the crap would I need the class?
Again, I became an English major for a reason.
There's a reason the alaphabet song was one of the first you ever learned ... :)
ReplyDeleteYep...'cuz nobody wants to learn the "find the value of x when y equals z" song! Ugh...to call math a "language" is an insult to language.
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