Mental math is become a little easier for me, thanks to some self-training. I can finally calculate the final cost of a product depending on tax rate inside of my head. That's about the easiest hard thing I can do, but I'm working on it. For example, there is a manga named KashiMashi. I love this manga. I just got the first copy at Books-a-Million yesterday (it was the only one they ever got in). I love it, but it makes me jealous that Hazumu gets turned into a girl. Yeah, that's right, I'm feminine ^^. Also, I got the price right upon purchase because of that tax rate. It was so funny, the guy at the register thought I couldn't get it right and I did: ($10.99 x 0.07) + $10.99 = $11.76. I was surprised when the guy showed the final cost of the manga and it matched the numbers I said.
Cool. (I read a two part manga, "Zeus", where a major character changes from boy to girl.)
Orlando based on the novel by Virginia Woolf is a favorite movie of mine, I've just managed to forget the name of the guy doing the title role. She's brilliant anyway.
I had some vague ideas to an epic story about a person that changes sex several times throughout the story and also live through many centuries (just like Orlando does) and popping up at various places like Paris 1848, Chicago 1886, Russia 1917, Spain 1936,...
I think I'm pretty good at mental math. In school I used to get in trouble because I would do all the math in my head and not "show my work" on the paper, and the idiot teachers always assumed I was cheating. And then when I was forced to work it out on paper, I would lose my train of thought and end up getting the problems wrong a lot more frequently than when I did it in my head. Did anyone else ever have this problem in school?
I haven't done any serious math in a couple years, though... I used to be able to do complex multiplication and long division in my head, but I don't think I can do that anymore (but I guess I could learn it again if I was motivated enough). Still, I don't have any problem figuring out tips in my head, and I can still do addition and multiplication up to 12x12 pretty easily.
Yuk! I hate mental arithmetic. I never did particularly well in tests of that type, as I don't like being rushed. The teacher would read out a new question every 20 seconds or so, when I hadn't even finished working out the answer to the previous one! Often I would miss a question because I was too busy working out the previous one. I am much better at maths if I can do my workings on paper.
I have been told that I am good at mental math, I am fast at multiplying numbers with two digits together, but if there are three I need alot of time and if the setting isn't right I can't make it. I also feel uncomfortly doing mental math in a rush, I usually take my time.
I think I'm pretty good at mental math. In school I used to get in trouble because I would do all the math in my head and not "show my work" on the paper, and the idiot teachers always assumed I was cheating. And then when I was forced to work it out on paper, I would lose my train of thought and end up getting the problems wrong a lot more frequently than when I did it in my head. Did anyone else ever have this problem in school?
Yes, my math teacher, Mr. Guiles, freakin' hates me for not showing my work. It's like teachers hate being shown up by a student.
Natalie, I had that trouble too. I got turned off maths and eventually became bad at it. Then again, in the earlier years there was more focus on arithmetic, which I preferred. I am still quite good at mental arithmetic.
I had that problem too Natalie.
At first my teachers would make a big fuss about it. some weeks later, when the teacher got to know me he would accept it (I was the best in the classroom and also used to answer some exercises out loud while he was just writing them on the blackboard...)
I found it funny, but in a retrospective view i can see that some of my peers must have felt frustrated.
Natalie, I had that trouble too. I got turned off maths and eventually became bad at it. Then again, in the earlier years there was more focus on arithmetic, which I preferred. I am still quite good at mental arithmetic.
Hehe. Reminds me. Me too. I was twelve and we were studying algebra. I asked the teacher, "Why are we studying this? What's the use of it?" -- which I genuinely wanted to know, by the way.
That's one thing you shouldn't ask teachers, I suppose. Because they don't like having to come up with an answer.
On the other hand, I can sort of understand now because if anyone ever asks me what's the use of Greek myth I generally tell them to kiss my butt -- or words to that effect.
Greek myth is interesting and maths can be too if it is properly taught and the teacher knows how to engage the students' interest. At high school, my grade 8 maths teacher used to shout a fair bit but the grade 9 and 10 teacher was more even-tempered. I still didn't grasp much of the geometry though and I still can't to this day figure out what that was as I am very interested in shapes.
My grade 11 teacher was a very clever man but he couldn't seem to break his explanations down to the level of understanding of his pupils. The grade 12 maths teacher was simply a berk and most of the students had to teach themselves.
I was too embarassed to tell my parents I was struggling as they expected me to excel academically. It would also have helped to have understood how things such as doing trigonometry would relate to real life. I could see how it was useful to know how to do arithmetic and statistics but not so much how it was useful to know geometry and trigonometry.
Generally speaking, I was more of an arts person, despite also being very interested in biology.
I am awful at mental arithmetic, but I am good at it when I have to do it on paper. When I do calculations in my head I have to visualise myself doing it on paper, complete with crossings out and everything.
It's a tricky problem but I'm sure that some people's maths skills do suffer from being forced to show their method all the time.
Nowadays, I'm pretty much better at EVERYTHING with a pen (or pencil, or sharp-pen, or... Well, you get the point) in my hand.
I am awful at mental arithmetic, but I am good at it when I have to do it on paper. When I do calculations in my head I have to visualise myself doing it on paper, complete with crossings out and everything.
Ugh, me too.