Electrician

[Phylactery]

Interesting. Yeah I deal with matrices every day in statistics. It's not a big deal since I write programs to handle them for me. They're pretty important for dealing with high dimensional anything. I guess depending on your applied route the max you'd see is a 4x4 or so. Earlier today I was working on a small data set with a 36x36

Yeah, never dealt with particularly large ones since it would be impractical to do them by hand. I didn't meet them until university, which is weird because the basics of them are very simple. I feel they should be introduced in education earlier.

What's your favourite branch of mathematics?

I relearned calculus when I was studying for Actuarial exams and understood it way more than the first time I took it.

You're an actuary? That's what my mother always wanted me to do with my degree. What were the exams like?

 

[Baroque]

What's your favourite branch of mathematics?

Music theory. No joke

But in the sense you're looking for, maybe statistics. Being able to discover unknown facts about the real word is fascinating. With pure math you never see some things applied in real life, it's imagined. With applied math you build exactly what you want to build. With statistics you can make new scientific discoveries, and there is plenty of room to be creative and develop new analytical techniques.

 

[no country for old wainds]

when i was a kid i was an exceptional mathematician, skipped a grade in school due to my numeracy/literacy and coasted through getting full marks in SATs etc, was part of a gifted child program, had a private tutor on the side teaching me algebra while we were still doing basic shit in junior school, joined an experimental express group for GCSE mathS and got an A 2 years early. then i absolutely slammed into a wall at A level (don't know the american equivalent for this stuff sry). couldn't do it at all. part of it was a lack of interest and a laziness instilled by the aforementioned coasting through school, but it was more than that, almost like the subject changed at that level into something different that my brain wasn't wired for. i recall the problem was with retaining and/or organising certain types of information in order to build on them but idk, it just felt like i was missing something crucial to the processes. anyone know if this is a common thing with mathS when you hit a certain level?

of course, the alternative is that the internet just fucked my brain by then.

 

[Krow]

I hear you, but on average how many things can you do in the job that would kill you? a lot?

I'm a bit of a worrier but the thought that literally at any time you're working on wiring something could be energized (maybe not even by you) and you're literally toast is pretty brutal.

 

[Baroque]

I'd have to know the American equivalents. Also what your age was at those stages. There are a couple key developmental turning points in life for your logic brain. But also yeah whatever you're going through at the time, diet, sleep, social life, addictions? will affect your mood and thus your ability to learn.

 

[Phylactery]

when i was a kid i was an exceptional mathematician, skipped a grade in school due to my numeracy/literacy and coasted through getting full marks in SATs etc, was part of a gifted child program, had a private tutor on the side teaching me algebra while we were still doing basic shit in junior school, joined an experimental express group for GCSE mathS and got an A 2 years early. then i absolutely slammed into a wall at A level (don't know the american equivalent for this stuff sry). couldn't do it at all. part of it was a lack of interest and a laziness instilled by the aforementioned coasting through school, but it was more than that, almost like the subject changed at that level into something different that my brain wasn't wired for. i recall the problem was with retaining and/or organising certain types of information in order to build on them but idk, it just felt like i was missing something crucial to the processes. anyone know if this is a common thing with mathS when you hit a certain level?

of course, the alternative is that the internet just fucked my brain by then.

This is actually rather common. The gcse does not prepare you for A Level at all. I had a similar experience of coasting through high school, shit required no effort at all. Then I got to college and suddenly I had to actually put some effort in. I was not prepared. The content at gcse also doesn't really prepare for A Level. A Level has so much emphasis on algebra and algebraic manipulation of which there just isn't enough of in gcse. You can achieve a B grade at gcse without having any actual mathematical foundations. Unsurprisingly, those that go on to study maths at A Level with a grade B usually fail, or achieve the lowest pass.

This is the first year of the new mathematics gcse. The difficulty has been ramped up, questions are supposed to now require reasoning skills and application of several techniques within the same question. Hopefully this will better prepare students for A Level.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

I was math retarded through most of school but I'd have certain strong points. In 5th grade I excelled at most things but still didn't understand fucking long division of all things, so I was in the regular kid math rather than the smart kid math, and I always hated geometry too, but then something came up (can't remember what) that I was really good at and I got to join the algebra group. In college, calc I was my lowest grade ever (C+), but I did better in calc II, still fucking hated integrating polynomials rotated about axes and shit, but then my score actually went up on the exam where the class average dropped 40 points (Taylor series and stuff, felt totally natural and intuitive), so I dunno, I felt like I was good at limited things especially anything involving patterns but otherwise I was too shit at other things to ever want to stick with it.

 

[Phylactery]

I also teach Year 12 students doing the first year of A Level maths and honestly, their algebra skills are just not there. This causes them to really struggle accessing any of the material. It's really difficult trying to motivate them to put work in outside of class, especially since I know I didn't. But really it's the best way, you need to practise these things a lot and then it becomes far more manageable.

Having said that, I didn't actually love maths until A Level. That was the point I knew it's what I wanted to do at degree. I'd had plans to go into Law before that. How far did you get with the A level?

Re Hamburgerboy - I love Taylor Series. I also love volume of revolution, which is the integration you were talking about. Although I never did it with simple polynomials, it's usually on more complicated trigonometric or exponential functions.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Yeah we'd integrate trig functions and stuff too. It didn't feel completely beyond me, but there always seemed to be a lot of steps for me to fuck something up in the middle.

 

[no country for old wainds]

This is actually rather common. The gcse does not prepare you for A Level at all. I had a similar experience of coasting through high school, shit required no effort at all. Then I got to college and suddenly I had to actually put some effort in. I was not prepared. The content at gcse also doesn't really prepare for A Level. A Level has so much emphasis on algebra and algebraic manipulation of which there just isn't enough of in gcse. You can achieve a B grade at gcse without having any actual mathematical foundations. Unsurprisingly, those that go on to study maths at A Level with a grade B usually fail, or achieve the lowest pass.

This is the first year of the new mathematics gcse. The difficulty has been ramped up, questions are supposed to now require reasoning skills and application of several techniques within the same question. Hopefully this will better prepare students for A Level.

yeah, this is what i figured. i was pretty damn good at algebra to a point though and unlike the kids around me i was doing it from like 10 or 11 years old. i think the problem came when i had to memorise more stuff. people around me had all these foundational rules and equations memorised and could intuitively build on them, and of course the teacher would teach as though you've got those things down as well, so i started falling more and more behind as i was scrambling to follow stuff that only made sense if you had the basics to build on. lessons regularly felt like jumping in the deep end without having learned to swim yet. i always wondered if it was due to other kids being trained to memorise stuff like multiplication tables (which i never needed to do 'cause i could process those kinds of sums automatically) so that when they had to memorise more difficult stuff they were prepared to do so and i wasn't. it's also true that i just have a very selective memory in general though, usually dependent on level of interest, so maybe it was that. incidentally i started to gain a greater interest in the arts during this time and english lit became my favourite subject, so it's also possible that my brain was changing in certain ways.

edit: i went all the way (after dropping from the express group to the regular group) but i think i finished with a D lol. that's not so bad given i was still doing it a year early i guess. i can still put 'maths A level' on my CV

@Baroque: GCSE is typically completed at 16 and A-level at 18, although that didn't apply to me. i'd say i started to struggle with it around age 15?

 

[RedStorm]

ive always been on level in every math.

 

[Phylactery]

It's probably your lack of interest then if your algebra skills were good. If they were there then you should have had no issue getting a C at least. While some of the topics at A Level are actually rather conceptually difficult, the exams do not very often require you to understand them on a conceptual level, they're just rote application of methods.

You sound like my friend, who was a maths protege throughout primary and high school, and similarly flopped at A Level. By all rights, it should be him with the maths degree and not me.

 

[no country for old wainds]

i forgot to mention this but the reason i didn't get first honours in my degree is due to me taking a logic module (after acing the foundational logic module in first year that didn't count toward anything) and getting something like 43/100, dragging my average down several points. that was pretty much identical to what happened in maths which is unsurprising given it's very mathematical and the step up was quite similar to GCSE ---> A level i reckon. i was stupid to take it lol, should've learned my lesson the first time round.

not that it matters given my degree was in philosophy and no employer gives a flying fuck either way.

 

[Phylactery]

You could still be a maths teacher with a philosophy degree! I know someone who is. You just need the maths A Level to be accepted on most mathematics PGCEs since there is such a shortage of us.

 

[RedStorm]

Question. Do you guys prefer your education system over ours? I personally don't care either way. But the way you guys divide it has always seemed weird to me, but ours does not typically point you to anything specific. It's basically all a bunch of bullshit until you get to 11th grade and take the act and sat (fuck both of those, i haven't and probably won't take them). I don't plan on going to college, which is what the american system points to, it assumes everyones the same. I don't know... But yeah I am Just ranting.

 

[The Ozzman]

You're an actuary? That's what my mother always wanted me to do with my degree. What were the exams like?

I'm not. I gave up on that dream. I passed one of the exams which was mostly based on financial mathematics and things I learned with my degree. There were other items I had never heard of on the exam. There's another based on options and futures pricing that I am interested in taking but study manuals can be $100+ and the exam fees are at least $200 and it's self financed in my case so yeah.

Not many people can say they've passed an actuarial exam so that's a good conversation point heh. It did take me 2 times to pass it, but I recognized what I needed to work on when I was walking out of the exam and focused on that the second time around.

Exam was 35 questions (including 5 'pilot' questions). Scored between 0 and 10. A zero doesn't necessarily mean you didn't get anything right but it means you were more than 50% away from a passing score. A 6 is usually a passing score based on how the pool of testers scores. It can be a 7, but I think that's more unlikely.

I was going to take Exam P which is all based around probability and calculus based statistics but I kept hitting walls, getting frustrated and had lack of focus at the time. Baroque would probably get a perfect score on it.

at any time you're working on wiring something could be energized (maybe not even by you) and you're literally toast is pretty brutal.

Probably depends on how powerful the source is though. If you're working on the wiring in a guitar and get shocked it won't kill you. I've disconnected wall outlets before and been zapped. It's a weird feeling.

 

[Krow]

I've been lit up pretty hard by a wall outlet.

...you didn't turn the breakers off before you worked on an outlet? Fuck that. Of course lower voltage isn't as dangerous but I'm pretty sure it can actually still kill you.

 

[rms]

when i was a kid i was an exceptional mathematician, skipped a grade in school due to my numeracy/literacy and coasted through getting full marks in SATs etc, was part of a gifted child program, had a private tutor on the side teaching me algebra while we were still doing basic shit in junior school, joined an experimental express group for GCSE mathS and got an A 2 years early. then i absolutely slammed into a wall at A level (don't know the american equivalent for this stuff sry). couldn't do it at all. part of it was a lack of interest and a laziness instilled by the aforementioned coasting through school, but it was more than that, almost like the subject changed at that level into something different that my brain wasn't wired for. i recall the problem was with retaining and/or organising certain types of information in order to build on them but idk, it just felt like i was missing something crucial to the processes. anyone know if this is a common thing with mathS when you hit a certain level?

of course, the alternative is that the internet just fucked my brain by then.

we the same person, yo. offered 3x (2->3, 3->4, 7->8) but was too cool for school. Math competitions yearly until I was like ~13 then I started playing games and didn't give a fuckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

 

[CF87]

So I am turning 18 in September and am getting help from my dad and this company to help train me as an electrician. Now obviously they have some contract shit saying they can hire me out for the first year, as in I cant apply anywhere else (dont know why I would).

Any already electricians here? Any advice?

I'm not an electrician, but you should do it, don't even second guess it.

 

[RedStorm]

Why do you say?