The New SAT

[+ honcho]

When I first moved to the Bay Area, I waited for the bus to SF opposite a diner called "Salubrious",

and a thought occurred to me:

 

Salacious is to Salubrious as Loquacious is to Lugubrious ...

 

(being an anti-health-food, anti-SAT nut)

[+ FreshFluff]

Since it's relevant to this thread, I thought I'd post her psychometric profile. The green numbers are above average and the grey numbers, not so much.

http://s5.postimg.org/yp1lfdgh3/Screen_Shot_2016_02_10_at_7_17_54_PM.png

[+ Charlie]

Very few public schools require calculus; it's usually a course for students in the highest honors track.

 

Basic algebra can be useful. If your employer gives you $700 total to spend on phone-related expenses this year, algebra would teach you that spending another $60 on your phone means you can afford $5 less on your monthly mobile plan.

True, but how many algebra students realize that they could devise an equation to give them that information?

[+ FreshFluff]

True, but how many algebra students realize that they could devise an equation to give them that information?

 

Under the Common Core, the math curriculum is supposed to focus on problem solving skills of that kind. All the "y=2x+7, solve for x" stuff has supposedly disappeared. I hope the new way works better for algebra than it does for arithmetic.

[gallahadesquire]

Under the Common Core, the math curriculum is supposed to focus on problem solving skills of that kind. All the "y=2x+7, solve for x" stuff has supposedly disappeared. I hope the new way works better for algebra than it does for arithmetic.

 

What's the other equation?

[+ FreshFluff]

What's the other equation?

 

Ha, Gallahad caught out my underdetermined equation. I meant to write "x=2x+7." Told you I'm a fluffhead!

[+ honcho]

"y=2x+7, solve for x"

 

well, one could solve for x in terms of y: x = (y - 7) / 2 .

 

(even if it is undetermined)

[+ FreshFluff]

well, one could solve for x in terms of y: x = (y - 7) / 2 .

 

(even if it is undetermined)

 

Sure, but if that were the solution, the problem (at least in middle school algebra) would be written as "solve for x as a function of y."

[+ quoththeraven]

Andrew Hacker had an interesting article in the Sunday Times in which he argued that very few people ever need to be able to do algebra or calculus once they leave college math classes, so requiring that they pass them is of questionable value. Basic math, on the other hand, is extremely important to master for everyday life.

 

I have used algebra more than once IRL, but perhaps being a benefits lawyer made that more likely. Then again, at least one person thought I was an actuary.

[+ honcho]

I'm going to go *way*, *way* out on a limb - here's the saw guys.

 

My thinking is that doing proofs in high school geometry has been vastly underrated.

 

It is a different kind of thinking than sitting on a jury and having to weight apparently conflicting

pieces of evidence to determine whether there's a preponderance or beyond the shadow of a doubt.

 

It is a different kind of thinking than listening to politicians and trying to divine what the future might

be under them.

 

It's more closely related to what chemists and physicist due in ascertaining how nature works, and

allows one to determine with absolute certainty that something is correct.

 

That kind of thinking can sometimes help one see behind smoke and mirrors and is a very useful

arrow to have in one's quiver, although admittedly it can't be the only arrow.

 

I don't think it's easy to test that kind of thinking on the SAT.

 

Ironically - and I quote from a book encountered in a college history class entitled

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions , by Thomas Kuhn, although proofs

are logical, the process by which one arrives at them are anything but.

[+ WmClarke]

That kind of thinking can sometimes help one see behind smoke and mirrors and is a very useful

arrow to have in one's quiver, although admittedly it can't be the only arrow.

 

I don't think it's easy to test that kind of thinking on the SAT.

Exactly.