40% of College Students get this question wrong. AND IT MAKES ME ANGRY!

[omega 616]

snip

I've always wanted to ask somebody like you this, what do you want to do as a career? I only ask 'cos were are you going to need to expand anything like that.

I am abysmal at maths, if I told you how bad you die of shock .... seriously. I seriously wrote down on two exams questions like the one you provided "who cares?" and "why?", cos I didn't know the answer 'cos I never paid attention in class.

My first primary school was absoluty crap, so while the rest of the country was learning time tables, prime numbers, square roots etc, I was still learning stuff that was meant to be taught 2 years before, so when that school got closed and I moved to a good school they were about 4 years ahead of me and I never really caught up ... saying that there were people in my school struggling with basic addition and they had always atedned the good school.

I never paid attention 'cos under no circumstance would I ever think to myself "I wonder what (x+3)^2 expanded is". How is it relevent to everyday life? Maybe if you were a scientist or somethng but how many people end up doing that as a job?

I think that kind of maths should be a choice, not part of the high school curriculum.

You really get angry with people who can't do unesseray maths? Thats a little over the top don't you think, it also make you a bit of a tool 'cos there has to be stuff other people know that you don't, I doubt they would call you out on it like you have.

 

[Brody Cooper]

Hold up how can we even begin to solve this when we don't even know what the value of x is, therefore is a dud question

 

[iDayman]

Fake... teh fuck mate. Arts is as real as any other profession, if not more important as your work lives on. Music incorporates quite a lot of maths, especially if it's your major. Expressionism travels on to all levels of work, keep your biased beliefs to yourself.

I did not make my original post planning for this, but it's far too perfect an opportunity to use this link I've been sitting on for 6 months. It also applies to just about everyone who's quoted me in this thread:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gk0L83boTw

OOH I GET IT!

You're one of those losers who, as soon as they realize they're wrong/made a mistake/completely retarded claims LOLOLOL I TOLL YOU to pass it off as something other than ignorance. Nice try. I've seen your type before.

 

[Pendragon9]

Oh yeah. I remember learning about that in High School.

But since I never used it EVER, I kinda forgot.

 

[PhiMed]

Go to college for one thing and you will likely get into something that has nothing to do with that education you got....that's the sad thing and one reason I never went to college.

You know that based on the fact that you never went to college.

Hmmm....

Actually no, I read it in quite a few statistical surveys when I was thinking of going to college awhile ago I'm 27 right now, and Decided against it since college is the single largest waste of time in your life, specially the single largest waste of money.

read all the propaganda and it all points to one thing college only benefits you in the given field you study whether it be through education or an increase in money, A college degree and if you get into a job not in the profession you studied means diddly for both your proficiency in that job, and whether you get an increase in wage in said job over your life time.

Then again one doesn't have to read statistical survey's to see its the truth just look at all the people in America all the people in jobs, and you'll see most don't get into a profession they studied for in college.

Your far better off getting a job and going to college in the areas of that job, more often the company will pay for such education and training or help out monetarily, and you are assured of getting a pay increase and promotion based on that training in that job.

@TC
So its a highschool math problem...there's your problem in highschool your taught to read books and papers and then regurgitate the answers back out, your not taught to figure things out, which is why there have been many papers of how college professors grow angry that highschools don't teach the students how to learn only how to repeat like a parrot what they have been taught.

What's tragic about this post is that it could've been dramatically improved by taking a freshman English composition class.

 

[Deadpewl]

Spoiler

42

you win.
OT: Why would I need this? It doesnt look like it would be practical in everyday life unless your job specifically required it(I think my teacher even pointed that out when she taught it to us).

 

[Hondor64]

I was expecting a trick question or something. Mind you it's been a long time since i've done any FOIL ing but I got it right.

 

[EeveeElectro]

We were never taught that.
Our school is awful, at GCSE we weren't even taught basic English techniques :/

 

[gallaetha_matt]

FOIL: (x+3)^2
EDIT: FOIL also means Expand...

Curses! FOILed again!

I'll get you next time, Gadget. Next time.

Seriously though, I gave this up before even trying. I'm so bad at maths that I have to take my shoes and socks off if I need to count any higher than ten.

I haven't done any algebra since way, way back in year 10 of high school. Lucky for me I've repressed everything from high school, so there's no fear of me ever getting an algebra question right! In fact, the last time anybody asked me an algebra question I...

.....

... fantastic. Back to therapy for me.

 

[Aphroditty]

To be frank, not being able to use FOIL at a snap isn't a problem, is it? I can guarantee you that all, or nearly all, of those kids took algebra in eighth or ninth grade and had to relearn expanding throughout the rest of their math career. It was the same for me: I took algebra, got an A, forgot about algebra over the summer, came back, got a problem wrong, and quickly relearned what I needed to know. Because, let's face it, FOIL or expanding is not advanced math, it doesn't require any special knowledge of thought; it's entirely mechanistic and requires no thought. So I can and will forget that shit, because it's easy as anything to just pick it back up when I need it. Of course, I might as well remember so I don't get a bunch of math majors making fun of me, but that's the most practical reason I can think of for retaining that near-useless tidbit.

 

[Piorn]

Spoiler

x^2+6x+9

I don't get it, it's basic knowledge.
But, which years are college? I'm from germany and we have another school system.

 

[Donttazemehbro]

Foil stands for "first, outer, inside, last" but i dont know how to do it with the numbers given. This is why I'm not a math major, i do medicine.

 

[Kimjira19]

hahaha. This is easy as hell: x^2+6x+9
I learned this shit in 7 and 8th grade for fucks sake.

 

[The DSM]

The thing is that question is pointless.

There is no situation at all in the average workplace where that question will come up so its just a case of knowing it for the sake of doing so.

I am never going to use half of the crap they are teaching me right now.

 

[RockTalk21]

Exactly, it was taught in Algebra I. I'm sure I knew it well my sophomore year of high school, but if you don't use this stuff you lose it. I got all A's in math in high school, but in college I focused on a different major that didn't involve math. I think the highest math I had to take was Statistics 214. So yeah, sorry it makes you angry but not every college student takes Algebra in college.

 

[chris11246]

I did it in my head its not hard. Although it's easy to see that anyone that isnt a major that uses any math wouldn't know it. (even if its basic)

 

[MetaKnight19]

I am just terrible at math so I had no idea. The situation was probably this stuff was being taught, everyone is taking notes, while I was too busy flicking pencil-top erasers into the fan and drawing stick men killing each other.

 

[TheTim]

sounds like something i really don't care about and will never need to use

 

[RvLeshrac]

I'm not sure this really qualifies as "advanced" mathematics. I knew how to do this in the 8th grade.

Touché, but that was hardly my point.

[edit]

Oh, and I finally had time* to format the solutions, which are here:
http://pbckt.com/s1.dFVA

*I spent like five minutes on them, so I'd figure on at least one error.

 

[WhiteTiger225]

Well, I wasn't sure what FOIL means, as I usually refer to it as "expanding" or some variation thereof, but I did know the answer.

Edit: Also, there are a lot of people who study fake majors (like Art, Music, etc), and they don't tend, or need, much in the way of math classes so it's somewhat understandable. Depressing, but understandable.

And how will FOIL help me to understand the complexities of a simple organism such as a fruit fly, in order to find a way to cure, or even prevent autism?

sounds like something i really don't care about and will never need to use

This... This X Infinity.

This is Algebra I stuff. It is taught in High School!

This one is correct. FOIL method is from algebra, its taught in high school, and is generally useless in "real" math. Trig, Calculus and some others are actually USED in some real jobs, unlike most of algebra. Generally the long ridiculous process of math is basically to see if you're capable of absorbing things that are routinely used in physics, if you choose to go that high. Makes me wonder why they don't just hand you a calculator if you're heading for a career that doesn't use a lot of math skills. Guess they have to have *something* to fill all that grade school babysitting nonsense time.

This X Infinity X Infinity