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

[_tinned_magpie_]

I really don't know what the fuss is about here. So some people don't know the FOIL method, never mind. I don't know FOIL, and that's because it's never even been on the curriculum in my county, so kids here are not even taught it. Yet many of us are intelligent enough to be taking college degrees. Hell, maths and algebra don't even apply to a large percentage of courses, so it has no bearing on us. For Science or Mathematical majors, then definitely, but I'm a German Language major, aiming for a teaching degree after that. I'll never need to apply algebra to my studies, or in later life.

Although, I think I get the point you're trying to make. It is rage-inducing when people who are supposed to be intelligent can't answer obvious questions. I just don't think that FOIL is a feasible example of that.

Certain General Knowledge questions on the other hand? I'd hit the ceiling, I really would.

 

[A Pious Cultist]

I didn't get it. Clearly my time spent studying for a GCSE in Maths was well spent.

 

[Elburzito]

Nah its pretty easy.

 

[kommunizt kat]

this is the reason why I found "are you smarter than a 5th grader" fun to watch back then

 

[Angerwing]

I don't know how to do this equation. Why? Because it's utterly irrelevant to whatever I want to do. It's been years since I've learned any of this and since I knew I wouldn't ever use it (don't give me bullshit about using it in obscure fields. I'm not in those obscure fields) I forgot it rather quickly. I'm doing Psychology next year. That's not a 'fake' major, and it's quite meaningful. I could turn around and say that you're an idiot for not knowing Piaget's developmental theories.

As it turns out, you're just not focused in that field.

 

[Rblade]

Spoiler

(A + B)^2 = A^2 + 2AB + B^2 thus x^2 + 6x + 9

ofcourse it's easy. But seeing how at least half of the population is in psychology for the lack of knowing what they want (note that I have a friend that acctually cares about psychology but he has loads of fellow students that just didn't want to start a job after high school). yes I can imagine around 50% of people failing this.

Although I am a firm believer in the fact that most people could do basic math if 2 conditions are met

1 caring yourself (thus being properly motivated to care by revealing how usefull math is through relevant examples)
2 a half decend teacher that just tells you what you need to do without conceiling it in mountains of useless trivial details. Who couldn't fill in the above equation (under the tag) but the mentally challenged.

sadly high school world wide tends to fail at 1 or both requirements

 

[Marsell]

damn thats amazing stupid
facepalm

 

[McNinja]

It'll be a cold day in hell before I have to "FOIL" any algebra equation ever again.

I'm a history major. I will never, ever use math again. Well, at least not this kind.

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

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}

Higher education is useful for people becoming very knowledgable about one thing, like teeth...and I don't care even a little if my dentist can do algebra, as long he doesn't butcher my mouth. To be "saddened and angered" by this is to ignore that people have different priorities in education(and life in general), and that there is actually enormous disparity in standards of education...my maths teacher didn't speak English.

 

[zahr]

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}

I never bothered learning that FOIL stuff. Or a lot of math, for that matter.

Don't need that to get into college, unless you're actually doing something math related.

 

[Legion]

We never got told this "foil" stuff, and I assume that this ^2 is supposed to mean squared?

i have to respond to this with a question. Who cares? its the same argument i gave to my teachers back in high school, it never comes into practical everyday use, so it's useless outside of studies.

Ask the military. They will tell you how useful it is in ordinance and R&D.

Well yes, but anyone who is interested in that section of the Military would probably have an interest in that kind of stuff. For most "normal" jobs it isn't necessary. I am not saying schools shouldn't teach it (after all, it makes people use their bloody brains) but you can't expect everyone to remember it years after they leave, unless they have actually used it since they were taught it (which a lot of people haven't).

Granted, people going to college should still have an idea, seeing as it wouldn't have been too long ago that they were taught it.

 

[_Serendipity_]

Oh my word, people who don't care about maths aren't very good at it!

Shock.

Horror.

Etc.

Yes, that is an easy question, but I don't see people's failure to get it right as being a damning indictment of society as a whole. English students, or politics students probably haven't done maths since they were 15 and I'm not exactly one to judge them, as I can't see them mocking me for my shaky grasp of the 'First Past the Post' form of electoral representation.

On a side note, I'm a few months from a Masters Degree in Physics, so I clearly do care about maths and all that it entails. Indeed, I think that it, as a subject, needs to be much more widely and thoroughly discussed, but going 'OMG people are so STOOPID!' isn't going to help the general view of maths as something elitist and impenetrable.

 

[Grayjack]

Shit, Algebra. Probably my worst math subject.

 

[ZeLunarian]

Haha Its been 4 years since i was in school and i still remember to expand that:
Square the first figure, square the second... and twice the first by the second
woot~
But in the defence of those college students. if they dont have a math based course then why should they know it?
I had an unfair advantage cuz i worked with sums like that for the past 3 years in architectural technollogy.

 

[Arachon]

I think it's:

Spoiler: the answer

x^2+6x+9

 

[ICantBelieveItGoesBoom]

Worked it out in my head but I'm pretty sure it's...

Spoiler: DON'T SPOIL THE ALGEBRA!!!!11!!!11

x^2+6x+9

Also from what ages is college in America, I forget. Because if 40% couldn't work that out and it's taught as a basic for maths GSCE (14-16)in Britain that's pretty shameful.

 

[Pipotchi]

We never got told this "foil" stuff, and I assume that this ^2 is supposed to mean squared?

i have to respond to this with a question. Who cares? its the same argument i gave to my teachers back in high school, it never comes into practical everyday use, so it's useless outside of studies.

Ask the military. They will tell you how useful it is in ordinance and R&D.

Well yes, but anyone who is interested in that section of the Military would probably have an interest in that kind of stuff. For most "normal" jobs it isn't necessary. I am not saying schools shouldn't teach it (after all, it makes people use their bloody brains) but you can't expect everyone to remember it years after they leave, unless they have actually used it since they were taught it (which a lot of people haven't).

Granted, people going to college should still have an idea, seeing as it wouldn't have been too long ago that they were taught it.

Exactly! I studied English language and Linguistics at Cambridge but I didnt even know what this question was asking me to do. Does it hold me back or limit my potential? not in the slightest. I happily admit I suck at math but i dont need it much and I have a calculator. I cant even remember how to do long division

 

[beddo]

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}

As a mathematician I am saddened that you accept this bizarre 40% result without question, how useful that it's a round number and there are no details let alone discussion of test bias and so on.

In any case, as I have a mathematics degree I would not be surprised that people get it wrong because most people are busy learning other things relevant to their subject. Moreover, it's not that they CAN'T do it, once you tell them they will remember and generally be able to do it easily.

Also, it's mathematics, not math, I have no idea why the short omits the 's' at the end either.

 

[LiftYourSkinnyFists]

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}

I've no idea what curriculum you're taught by but I've never encountered the term "Foil" meaning expand.

 

[primitivescrewhead]

Haven't done maths in years (left school 3 almost 4 years ago and don't do anything maths related at uni) however I'm pretty sure I have gotten this right

Spoiler

{x^2+6x+9}