George ( 12 years ago )
I made it through Algebra I & II, Geometry, Trig & Physics, moltsy with Bs.  I also did well on the math portion of the SAT. None of this made it possible for me to do Calculus or even pre-Cal at the college level.  Why?  Did my Bs really indicate competency in the 5 math courses I took in high school or did they merely represent the fact that I did my homework & my test grades weren't so terrible that they brought my average down to a D?  Going through the material of each class wasn't enough for me.  I'm not completely innumerate and I did my homework.  Why didn't all that effort = enough mastery of the subjects that taking a slightly more complicated version in college wasn't beyond me.   Unless I have some weird learning disability, I think I'm a good example to study regarding the mismatch between high school performance & what can be expected at the college level specifically with math b/c a course in study skills can't fix this.  Also, my IQ is certainly above average & I've always performed well on the math sections of standardized tests.  I think part of the problem is grade inflation even at good schools.  I know I wasn't objective enough to think that the average of my test scores was how I should really assess my ability. Then there's the practical, concrete math that most kids who can pass Algebra I can probably do well.  Business math is pretty difficult yet I think it's only an elective if taken in high school.  Give a concretely numerate kid a year of business math, a semester or a year of bookkeeping/accounting along with some algebra and that kid can go to work right after graduation or at least make informed decisions about credit and education loans.I know it can be helpful to challenge students to solve difficult problems but some education theorists believe that there's even an optimal level of frustration - too easy, the student is bored, too difficult, the student feels defeated.  Then you have oddballs like me who get some of the math but not all of the math.  Did I have a high fever at age 5 that damaged the portion of my brain responsible for doing matrix problems yet left me capable of understanding asymptotes?   It's brutally unfair that understanding some of it is no better than understanding none of it except of course to boost your standardized test scores as long as you know personally that your math score has no real world value and that taking a math course despite supposed, yet not actual math aptitude will lead to disaster. Math is evil!