>college algebra
>i'm sending out a practice test a few days before the exam, along with all the answers
>it's exactly the same as the test only with the numbers slightly changed for each problem
>half the class still drops out by the end of it
Is this just a thing that math teachers do in college?
If I take more advanced math classes will they still let me see the test days before I take it?
Some do, some don't
it depends on the professor
>it depends on the professor
So universes just leave it up to the professor to decide if he wants to give the class the answers to tests or not.
How many of you math majors got your major by having all the answers handed to you before the test?
>babby's first year in college
>66
Yes. So is that why some colleges are so much more expensive then others? You are pretty much guaranteed a diploma?
It's free in my country, so I don't know
in my experience, of the 24 subjects I passed, what you are describing happened ~6 times
No: some colleges are so much more expensive because capitalism.
Depending what kind of advanced Mathematics you do you'll probably not really have many numbers on your exams anymore, if any. They may let slip one or two questions which you could learn by rote but for the most part you'll have to either do a large number of textbook problems to cover possible questions and even still have to work out a lot of the problems on the fly in exams.
(I'm finishing a Masters in mathematics by coursework after having completed undergraduate Mathematics.)
>let me see the test days before I take it
This is my favorite thing that profs do. And not all of them will, but I've seemed to notice a trend of more of them doing it at my school.
I think it comes down to how some people just don't like tests, and they don't wanna make anyone have to retake a class just because they get test anxiety. I personally love tests, but I like them even more when only have to spend about an hour studying for them.
what kind of "college algebra" are we dealing with here?
>college algebra
I've always been curious, what is college algebra? Is it like an introduction to abstract algebra?
every textbook i've seen called "college algebra" is usually highschool stuff, hence
It's a remedial class for kids who will likely never finish a degree.
Hes right. It was basically all the stuff you do in highschool with a very little bit of pre-calculus at the end. It's a required class for any degree.
>required class for any degree.
Jesus christ
Is that not common?
I just thought it was one of those things everyone does.
Well I think I finally realize why my college has such a low GPA. Maybe it's because the professors don't release the exams before people take them. shame on them
I'm not a math major but in all my math classes leading up to calc II I had no tests like you described.
In calc 3 and differential equations my professors gave us tests from previous years. Wasn't exactly the same but we basically knew what would be on the test. Sometimes a question would just be backwards.
I got a BMath degree, and there was only one math class I took which was remotely like this. It was a Probability course that was basically just a course in problem-solving, where at the begging of the term the prof gave us a list of 100 problems of varying difficulty (from trivial to pants-shittingly hard), said "The exams will consist of some of the problems on this list," and then that was the entire course.
Most of the classes I took were proof-based, so you can't really "change the numbers a little bit" to make a new problem. Typically what would happen is they would tell us 1 or 2 specific theorems we should know the proofs of, and then make us prove random theorems from the lectures and sometimes new theorems we hadn't seen (the questions with new theorems were my favorite because I hated studying).
That's depressing.
I always thought it was a universally required class. That's odd. Degrees don't require some sort of math where you are from?
It all depends on how high in mathematics you go. For the most part, everything up until calc 3 will be similar.
Then there is a huge switch from arithmetic to abstraction. And there is no cookie cutter method for abstract thinking.
Where I'm from we don't offer high school algebra at university.
So I could go to your country and become a chemist without doing any math at all? Where are you located user?
Provided you meet the entry requirements. Once you start at university the math classes you'll take will be at the suitable level for an undergraduate degree.
You usually take university level math as opposed to repeating the same thing you just spent 4 consecutive years failing to learn.
God forbid they require basic math competence
Nearly all my professors have done this.
I can appreciate it.
I think my school just has a lot of chill math professors. Who are more interested in presenting the material and having a good conversation in class rather than making sure the class has an equal distribution of A's B's and C's. If you show up to class, converse, and try, you'll pass.
My baby proofs professor was great. He would grade based on reasoning and such. Always asking kids to explain the problem on the board and working through it with the class if there was an issue. Sometimes he would send pictures to our emails of like a cake he was eating, and ask us to prove some geometric thing about what shape the cake was in. If we explain it on the board next class we get credit for the next quiz. I know this sounds cringe, but some of the questions were interesting.
I know some people like the grading system because it "rewards" kids who go above and beyond. Which is fair. "Why would the kid who never got anything right get the same grade as me".
The only class that was strict and heavily based on performance is calculus 1 and 2. But I think it's because it's relevant to a lot of degrees and there is some sort of meta for calc courses across most schools.
>If you show up to class, converse, and try, you'll pass.
This is cancer and leads to incompetence. It could even be dangerous in the professional world.
>Not requiring it before accepting them onto your course.
Senpai, pls apply urself.
I'm exaggerating mostly. It's "within reason". Pass with a C doesn't really show much competence anyway.
Plus, these are from the math department. I'm sure the physics/engi/cs department are much more strict.
Like I said, some people prefer a more elitist approach.
>Because capitalism
You know almost all universities receive almost all their money from public funding, right?