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

[insectoid]

I haven't come across the term 'FOIL' before, but I can expand the equation. However, it's not really fair to expect students who are doing nothing in the vein of maths to do maths. It's the same as a music major asking you (assuming you know nothing about music) something which is commonly known and understood among music students, and saying you are stupid for not knowing the answer.

 

[Agayek]

40% of college students get this wrong, or 40% of American college students get this wrong?

I'm not trying to insult America or anything like that, I am in fact an American College student, but when I sit in class, I find that at least 60% of the people in it are complete dumbshits, with absolutely no reasoning skills.

The reason I say American, is that I have not gone to school outside of America (yet), but I here that schools in Europe and Asia put a lot more emphasis on math and science, which leads me to believe that a lot fewer people would get this question wrong.

Oh, and the answer is:

Spoiler

(x^2)+6x+9

To be fair to Americans, something like 60% (though I would say closer to 90%) of people are completely dumbshits. The vast majority of people out there either do not have, or do not use any sort of ability for logical reasoning. It's depressing as all hell, but there you go.

"Fake?"
FAKE?

As an art major, I work my ass off. Ask anyone in the IRC; I'm always doing working. I'm here taking a break from doing art, then going back for more.

I'm sorry, but if you seriously think that the arts aren't real majors, you obviously know nothing about it.

[/quote]

Two problems here:

1) You are entering a structured learning environment to learn how to develop a completely subjective talent. No one can teach you how to be creative. They can teach you techniques that worked for famous/skilled artists to guide your art, but they will never be able to teach you how to be artistic. That is 100% entirely with you and whether or not you have the ability. It cannot be taught.

2) Artists don't actually contribute towards society in any objective, real way. They're entertainers, and while I am all for the existence and continuation of such professions, I always have, and always will, regard such professions as... "less", for lack of a better word. I don't expect many to agree, especially since as I said, the contribution of entertainers to society is entirely subjective, but that's my $0.02.

Lol @ the "fake majors" bit -- A Bachelor of Music degree is one of the most difficult a person can achieve. In most majors, a class meeting five hours per week would grant 5 units. In music, the units are cut down so new and additional classes can be added to the requirements without the university going over the maximum units per major. That makes the 200 units at 1-2 units per class even more impressive when you think about it. It also boasts the lowest completion rate of ANY bachelors program, at least in the United States.

I am about to graduate with a Bachelors of Music Performance from a top music school, and in addition, am also almost guaranteed a spot in any med program I want, with a MSAT score in the 90th percentile, as well as many law and medical schools giving preference to students with Bachelors in Music, due to them being recognized as such a difficult degree to attain, needing a huge amount of dedication and work to pursue and complete.

I hope you enjoyed your easy bachelors, and most likely no post baccalaureate work at all.

See #2 above for my thoughts on entertainers in general. If you wanna use that to get into medical school, I applaud you. Doctors are both indispensable and quite meaningful.

PS - While my bachelor's wasn't easy (mostly because I'm an apathetic and lazy sack of shit), it was also not very difficult, through a combination of me being exceptionally good at my chosen field and lack of true challenge involved (but that's likely because it played almost entirely to my strengths and very few of my weaknesses). That said, I'm not likely to go back to school, because it bores me to tears. I'd much rather be out working or doing something even slightly meaningful than spending another 4+ years in class.

 

[loremazd]

I'm gonna let you in on a little secret. The reason why 40% of college students don't know the answer is because 40% of all college students havn't seen it for like 5 years.

 

[ethaninja]

I always wanted to learn shit like this. Too bad the highschool I went to was stupid.

 

[buggy65]

I know the answer (though FOIL might throw some people off because that's a pretty specific mnemonic), but why is this even remotely depressing?

This is a largely pointless exercise for the vast majority of people that relies not on any deep understanding of mathematics, but on simply learning a step-by-step procedure to produce the expanded form. In fact, you are EXPRESSLY asking for that unthinking, mechanistic procedure by asking them to FOIL it rather than just expand it. Being able to FOIL means NOTHING. You can teach anyone to foil so long as they know/have access to a basic multiplication table. They may have no idea what they're doing, but they'll still be able to do it. A better question would be how many people STILL can't grasp the concept of variables.

But really, the main point is still that this is a pretty useless bit of information for the vast, vast majority of people and it doesn't sadden me at all to know that 40% of people studying completely unrelated things in college don't know it. In fact, I'm surprised the number is so low.

We need to know how to expand because math is cumulative.

Expanding leads to graphs, graphs lead to derivatives and integrals, and all forms of science/industry/architecture/etc require these "basic" tools. Would you want your Brain Surgeon to not know what an artery was?

 

[Cliff_m85]

It's math. I hate math. Don't care what the answer is, just glad I don't have to put up with it anymore.

 

[ZeoAssassin]

i got it right, very simple stuff and im ashamed my fellow collage students get that wrong =(

 

[Omikron009]

Lets see if I can do this without a piece of paper. Hmmm....(x+3)^2.....

Spoiler

(x+3)(x+3) = X^2+3x+3x+9 = x^2+6x+9

Is that it? It is! Huzzah! I'm in grade 11 and I know this. Actually, I learned this last year. But I am Canadian, and maybe we do things differently (better) over here.

 

[loremazd]

40% of college students get this wrong, or 40% of American college students get this wrong?

I'm not trying to insult America or anything like that, I am in fact an American College student, but when I sit in class, I find that at least 60% of the people in it are complete dumbshits, with absolutely no reasoning skills.

The reason I say American, is that I have not gone to school outside of America (yet), but I here that schools in Europe and Asia put a lot more emphasis on math and science, which leads me to believe that a lot fewer people would get this question wrong.

Oh, and the answer is:

Spoiler

(x^2)+6x+9

To be fair to Americans, something like 60% (though I would say closer to 90%) of people are completely dumbshits. The vast majority of people out there either do not have, or do not use any sort of ability for logical reasoning. It's depressing as all hell, but there you go.

"Fake?"
FAKE?

As an art major, I work my ass off. Ask anyone in the IRC; I'm always doing working. I'm here taking a break from doing art, then going back for more.

I'm sorry, but if you seriously think that the arts aren't real majors, you obviously know nothing about it.

Two problems here:

1) You are entering a structured learning environment to learn how to develop a completely subjective talent. No one can teach you how to be creative. They can teach you techniques that worked for famous/skilled artists to guide your art, but they will never be able to teach you how to be artistic. That is 100% entirely with you and whether or not you have the ability. It cannot be taught.

2) Artists don't actually contribute towards society in any objective, real way. They're entertainers, and while I am all for the existence and continuation of such professions, I always have, and always will, regard such professions as... "less", for lack of a better word. I don't expect many to agree, especially since as I said, the contribution of entertainers to society is entirely subjective, but that's my $0.02.

Lol @ the "fake majors" bit -- A Bachelor of Music degree is one of the most difficult a person can achieve. In most majors, a class meeting five hours per week would grant 5 units. In music, the units are cut down so new and additional classes can be added to the requirements without the university going over the maximum units per major. That makes the 200 units at 1-2 units per class even more impressive when you think about it. It also boasts the lowest completion rate of ANY bachelors program, at least in the United States.

I am about to graduate with a Bachelors of Music Performance from a top music school, and in addition, am also almost guaranteed a spot in any med program I want, with a MSAT score in the 90th percentile, as well as many law and medical schools giving preference to students with Bachelors in Music, due to them being recognized as such a difficult degree to attain, needing a huge amount of dedication and work to pursue and complete.

I hope you enjoyed your easy bachelors, and most likely no post baccalaureate work at all.

See #2 above for my thoughts on entertainers in general. If you wanna use that to get into medical school, I applaud you. Doctors are both indispensable and quite meaningful.

PS - While my bachelor's wasn't easy (mostly because I'm an apathetic and lazy sack of shit), it was also not very difficult, through a combination of me being exceptionally good at my chosen field and lack of true challenge involved (but that's likely because it played almost entirely to my strengths and very few of my weaknesses). That said, I'm not likely to go back to school, because it bores me to tears. I'd much rather be out working or doing something even slightly meaningful than spending another 4+ years in class.

I would actually argue that art is one of the few majors that actually teach you practical skills to be used when you ply your trade. Because creativity is nice and all, but what you're learning is how to take it out of your brain and produce something.

 

[Denizen]

Thanks for refreshing me on that which reminds me...
I found out through experience and from a professor that the brain seems to work better when faced with tasks it is not very oriented in so for all of us that is not very math proficient or in engaged in daily tasks not of math-focused, it is very helpful to do a little math or advanced math every other day to help what we normally do.

 

[Always_Remain]

HEY! I'm a writer, god dammit, not a mathematician!

EDIT: BUT I just looked at the answer and it makes perfect sense now. I forgot multiplication was needed. Mind you I've had no engaging or good math teachers sense about 7th grade. And I haven't been in a math class for a good two months due to the fact that high school was so non-motivational and just a real piss poor experience. (I live by don't knock it before you try it, I tried it for two years. Wasted two years of my life. ) About to enroll in a technical college though. Maybe my teachers will be able to teach me something!

 

[Signa]

Yeah, I'm a music major. I have no idea about this stuff, and I don't really care.

In fact, I would wager there are a lot of majors, apart from the math, science and engineering that feel the same way.

I could drop a music question, then rage because a load of collage educated people couldn't get it right, it would make about as much sense as this.

I disagree, math always applies. Music doesn't.

A lot of math does, but that is all the basic stuff. The question that was posted has never, and most likely will never appear in my life again.

And before anyone says "Lawl, music = math"

Unless I study really advance theory or sound engineering, I can avoid that side of it.

Jumping in on your conversation, I just wanted to say that I always felt that Math was more about learning to use logic and procedure to solve a puzzle than actually about the pure number crunching. I take the 40% statistic as a bad sign not because people don't remember their 9th grade homework, but because 40% of college students don't have an ounce of procedural logic in them. The bullshit line about arts and history not counting as majors is a little harsh, but it's not completely uncalled for because education is supposed to help you prepare for life and its challenges. Not being able to logically think yourself out of a cardboard box could lead to problems later while still having an arrogant "I graduated college!" attitude.

Spoiler: BTW

x=-3
If I remember how to do this shit correctly, but I can't type the quadratic formula out too well. And yes, I know we didn't set (x+3)^2=0, but a lot of people already answered the obvious already.

 

[loremazd]

I know the answer (though FOIL might throw some people off because that's a pretty specific mnemonic), but why is this even remotely depressing?

This is a largely pointless exercise for the vast majority of people that relies not on any deep understanding of mathematics, but on simply learning a step-by-step procedure to produce the expanded form. In fact, you are EXPRESSLY asking for that unthinking, mechanistic procedure by asking them to FOIL it rather than just expand it. Being able to FOIL means NOTHING. You can teach anyone to foil so long as they know/have access to a basic multiplication table. They may have no idea what they're doing, but they'll still be able to do it. A better question would be how many people STILL can't grasp the concept of variables.

But really, the main point is still that this is a pretty useless bit of information for the vast, vast majority of people and it doesn't sadden me at all to know that 40% of people studying completely unrelated things in college don't know it. In fact, I'm surprised the number is so low.

We need to know how to expand because math is cumulative.

Expanding leads to graphs, graphs lead to derivatives and integrals, and all forms of science/industry/architecture/etc require these "basic" tools. Would you want your Brain Surgeon to not know what an artery was?

The question is why are you expecting your brain surgeon to know what fractals are?

 

[Lost In The Void]

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.

Wait...Fake Majors? I'm sorry but I'm in my first year of my Poli Sci major and I can say that these majors are anything but easy. What is your major and why is it so hard then tell me that before you start calling other people's skills "Fake"

 

[Chewster]

It makes you angry that people forget/don't know things that are not at all related to their discipline, even if they were forced to study it for their entrance exams?

Why?

 

[theamazingbean]

2) Artists don't actually contribute towards society in any objective, real way. They're entertainers, and while I am all for the existence and continuation of such professions, I always have, and always will, regard such professions as... "less", for lack of a better word. I don't expect many to agree, especially since as I said, the contribution of entertainers to society is entirely subjective, but that's my $0.02.

Sorry to break this to you, but all values are subjective and arbitrary. Even values like "being alive". There is nothing objective about your opinions.

 

[Fire Daemon]

Good old Foil. First, Outside, Inside, Last. You don't have to do it in that order but I guess it helps getting ax^2+Bx+c=0 and what not.

Anyway, I'm not to sure how the college system works in America (being an Australian) but I would think that people go there for degrees/courses that don't involve maths. Even though it is simple high school maths I'd wager that there are plenty of people with greater, more difficult concerns on their mind (things that students who go do math degrees wont understand) and so when asked this (I would imagine out of the blue) you can't expect them to get it. If however it was a question on a test that would give access to college (you guys call em the SATs, right?) than 40% of students not knowing that is pretty appalling.

I heard of a similar number of people who didn't know that out of Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan which were not members of the Axis powers. Most that got it wrong said Imperial Japan, meaning they either believed that Japan were their allies during WWII and the Soviets an Enemy or had no idea what the axis powers were. Either way I have to wonder why the American education system left out that piece of information.

 

[Always_Remain]

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.

Wait...Fake Majors? I'm sorry but I'm in my first year of my Poli Sci major and I can say that these majors are anything but easy. What is your major and why is it so hard then tell me that before you start calling other people's skills "Fake"

No no no music is not a fake major at all. It gets really complicating whether you're in theory or actually learning to play an instrument.

Art is hard because the art in general is subjective. But majoring in a more valid subject does make more sense. Logically.

 

[Hobo Joe]

This is basic algebra - I don't see how anyone who did it at school could not do it.

 

[Koganesaga]

You're a math majo

College is supposed to be a place of higher learning. To get into college you must also pass high school and a number of exams. Yet, based on a recent campus wide survey conducted at my school 40% of college students cannot FOIL. I am a math major and this saddens and angers me. So Escapist, I ask you:

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

Please put your answers in spoiler tags so people can't cheat without actively looking. To do a spoiler tag you place [mathspoiler]{content}[/mathspoiler] but remove the "math" part.

Remember, 40 freakin' percent fail at this. Try not to be one of them.

The correct answer is

Spoiler

{x^2+6x+9}

That's the thing, you're a math major, I'm in college and I took the most basic level of math I needed to get the requirement out of the way. Many of us do go for higher learning, but we don't need math for what we want to do so we don't learn it and don't care about it. Unless you're in a field that requires math, do you really think we'll ever need anything beyond basic algebra?