I want to teach myself Calc III

[RabidMongoose]

Originally posted by: kevinthenerd

Originally posted by: RabidMongoose

Originally posted by: kevinthenerd

Originally posted by: yllus
Oh jeez. The possibility of the guy being a genius is hardly ruled out because he messed up in high school and is current attending community college. Lest we all forget, a good number of men and women we now consider to be geniuses had little in the way of quantitative accomplishments at kevinthenerd's age. Pure intelligence and initiative to succeed are separate and do not necessarily reflect upon each other.

Thanks. I guess nobody here read that.

Philosophical genius doesn't mean that one has the drive to succeed in the material rat race. It has nothing to do with an anti-education bias. I've always hated formal education because I've never been truly challenged, so I just gave up. Sure, it was an incorrect assumption, but I arrived to that conclusion from extra-educational thinking. That type of thinking is something that my peers never seem to do.

You were challenged though. You got a 4 on an AP test. You didn't achieve perfection - in fact, you were shown right to your face that you 'failed' for a genius.

I guess every kid in this country is a 'genius' now.

*sigh
Ok... hypothetical example for you. Perhaps you'll understand with that.

I just transported you to a distant planet. You've never heard the language before, but you slowly pick up a word or two. Suddenly, some dude hands you a test you can't even read. Even a genius with an IQ of 300 would probably fail it, but he might pick up a few more words than you or I.

..

My situation was like that. Because I chose not to try, everything was foreign up until the night before. I did quite well considering I never bothered doing anything for a whole year, including but not limited to doing homework, studying, paying attention in class, etc. etc. I didn't care at all. How can I learn if I wasn't trying to learn? The morning of the test proved that I can learn a lot in a short period of time.

You were in the AB class. Even if you were just joking around, I'm sure that some of it 'soaked' in. Taking the AB class and then getting a 4 on the BC test isn't really exceptional. A true genius would have been taking graduate mathematics classes by then....certainly get at least a 5 on a BC calculus test.

Perhaps you and I have different perceptions of genius. You seem to apply the 'genius' label to half of the population of this country. I certainly don't. I suggest that you attempt to surround yourself with people of higher intelligence (certainly more than you are used to) and see how it is.

You just sound like a lazy kid with delusions of grandeur. Being lazy and moderately successful (if you can call it that) doesn't even come near being a genius.

 

[willboxer]

Originally posted by: kevinthenerd

Originally posted by: RabidMongoose

Originally posted by: kevinthenerd

Originally posted by: yllus
Oh jeez. The possibility of the guy being a genius is hardly ruled out because he messed up in high school and is current attending community college. Lest we all forget, a good number of men and women we now consider to be geniuses had little in the way of quantitative accomplishments at kevinthenerd's age. Pure intelligence and initiative to succeed are separate and do not necessarily reflect upon each other.

Thanks. I guess nobody here read that.

Philosophical genius doesn't mean that one has the drive to succeed in the material rat race. It has nothing to do with an anti-education bias. I've always hated formal education because I've never been truly challenged, so I just gave up. Sure, it was an incorrect assumption, but I arrived to that conclusion from extra-educational thinking. That type of thinking is something that my peers never seem to do.

You were challenged though. You got a 4 on an AP test. You didn't achieve perfection - in fact, you were shown right to your face that you 'failed' for a genius.

I guess every kid in this country is a 'genius' now.

*sigh
Ok... hypothetical example for you. Perhaps you'll understand with that.

I just transported you to a distant planet. You've never heard the language before, but you slowly pick up a word or two. Suddenly, some dude hands you a test you can't even read. Even a genius with an IQ of 300 would probably fail it, but he might pick up a few more words than you or I.

..

My situation was like that. Because I chose not to try, everything was foreign up until the night before. I did quite well considering I never bothered doing anything for a whole year, including but not limited to doing homework, studying, paying attention in class, etc. etc. I didn't care at all. How can I learn if I wasn't trying to learn? The morning of the test proved that I can learn a lot in a short period of time.

and i think the hypothetical or rather a real situation was mentioned where there are ppl that have never taken calculus classes in HS and still scored a 5 on the AP test.

 

[WinkOsmosis]

Originally posted by: kevinthenerd

Originally posted by: WinkOsmosis
Oh btw, if you are a genius, why is it so easy for professors to screw you with homework?

Once you no longer care about the grades, it's not "being screwed."

Once you no longer care about grades, it's being screwed and not caring about it, until you end up at community college.

 

[kevinthenerd]

Originally posted by: WinkOsmosis

Originally posted by: kevinthenerd

Originally posted by: WinkOsmosis
Oh btw, if you are a genius, why is it so easy for professors to screw you with homework?

Once you no longer care about the grades, it's not "being screwed."

Once you no longer care about grades, it's being screwed and not caring about it, until you end up at community college.

You know what? I STILL don't care.

 

[kevinthenerd]

Originally posted by: willboxer
and i think the hypothetical or rather a real situation was mentioned where there are ppl that have never taken calculus classes in HS and still scored a 5 on the AP test.

They probably learned it on their own because they cared about learning it. I didn't even have that much.

 

[kevinthenerd]

Originally posted by: WinkOsmosis

Originally posted by: kevinthenerd

Originally posted by: mugsywwiii


Based on your comment about the American education system, you clearly have no idea how things work in college. In the classes that matter, it's less about measuring performance and more about the learning.

I take it you have never been to a community college. Not everyone goes to a good school. I was talking about the average. I screwed myself out of the Ivy League by not doing any homework in highschool.

That's what they all say. I suppose high school was boring so you didn't do your work? And you have big dreams after community college, which you are making Bs in. I tell you what. I scored 1500 on the SAT, 1550 on the PSAT. According to these tests I am a genius, yet I can barely do calculus. What does this mean? It means that there is more to the human brain than intelligence level. What do you mean when you say philosophy is your strong point. Do you think deep things to yourself, then come to the conclusion that you are a philosophical genius?
Philosophical geniuses don't screw themselves out of Ivy League AND state and lesser private schools. Philosophical geniuses don't go to community college.

It means you don't know the difference between raw intelligence and opportunity-based education. The SAT is the most biased test I have ever seen. Only people from the dominant middle class can pass those because they test standard English, but standard English itself is based on the rules informally written by those very people!

What if I wanna say "Whaddup, dawg?" Is it incorrect English? It's a language used by many people, but their social class makes it "incorrect." Only tests written by people who seek to secure a high a social position for their posterity consider it "incorrect."

No, they go to philosophical genius schools, right? We all know that there are standardized tests for that. I suppose you have many friends in those schools, right? I just failed out of The Academy because I didn't turn in my scroll.

 

[willboxer]

Originally posted by: kevinthenerd

Originally posted by: willboxer
and i think the hypothetical or rather a real situation was mentioned where there are ppl that have never taken calculus classes in HS and still scored a 5 on the AP test.

They probably learned it on their own because they cared about learning it. I didn't even have that much.

does it help you feel better about yourself making speculations like that?

denial, denial.....poor kid

 

[abracadabra1]

I don't care if you're a genius or not. Either way, you're wasting your time and energy in a useless thread. Get to work and stop questioning whether you're smart or not - find out.
If you are, great. If not, hard work and discipline can get you just as far.

Don't bother replying to this message, just get to studying.

 

[kevinthenerd]

Originally posted by: willboxer

Originally posted by: kevinthenerd

Originally posted by: willboxer
and i think the hypothetical or rather a real situation was mentioned where there are ppl that have never taken calculus classes in HS and still scored a 5 on the AP test.

They probably learned it on their own because they cared about learning it. I didn't even have that much.

does it help you feel better about yourself making speculations like that?

denial, denial.....poor kid

People have to learn what they know or arrive at conclusions based on previous knowledge or observations. That's a fundamental assumption I'm making that you obviously can't comprehend or do not accept. Anybody who makes a 5 on a calculus AP test has obviously had some exposure to it.

(I got a 5 on the AB and a 4 on the BC, by the way.)

Now... I have a very good reason for my assumptions. They have utility. How do you expect your assumptions to produce the greater good? I am making the simpler assumptions based on the same facts, and we all know Occam's Razor.

 

[neovan]

You can take free online classes at MIT

Open CourseWare

 

[kevinthenerd]

Originally posted by: willboxer
does it help you feel better about yourself making speculations like that?

and yes, it does. At this time in my life, I'm smoking everything in school but still getting what everyone else is getting. I feel severely held back. I feel chained to this mediocrity. I really feel deeply depressed by my current situation. I know I can do well in an Ivy League school, but here I am at Brevard Fücking Community College getting straigt A's in bullshît classes. I'm sick of this shît.

 

[kevinthenerd]

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: kevinthenerd

Originally posted by: willboxer
does it help you feel better about yourself making speculations like that?

and yes, it does. At this time in my life, I'm smoking everything in school but still getting what everyone else is getting. I feel severely held back. I feel chained to this mediocrity. I really feel deeply depressed by my current situation. I know I can do well in an Ivy League school, but here I am at Brevard Fücking Community College getting straigt A's in bullshît classes. I'm sick of this shît.

Why do you think you'd do any better at an ivy league school than at the other 4-year school you flunked out of? They'll still make you take tests and do homework there.

 

[RabidMongoose]

Originally posted by: kevinthenerd

Originally posted by: willboxer
does it help you feel better about yourself making speculations like that?

and yes, it does. At this time in my life, I'm smoking everything in school but still getting what everyone else is getting. I feel severely held back. I feel chained to this mediocrity. I really feel deeply depressed by my current situation. I know I can do well in an Ivy League school, but here I am at Brevard Fücking Community College getting straigt A's in bullshît classes. I'm sick of this shît.

Well if you're a genius, write to a professor at one of these Ivy League schools or do something that will get you noticed. Show your philosphical genius. Again, I know of people at MIT and other such schools that did NO work in high school, but displayed fantastic skills.

Also, wouldn't a genius get a 5 on the BC test if he had exposure on the AB level? Hell, I know people that took AB Calculus and got 5's on the BC test.

 

[jaydee]

I don't think he's a genius (such a subjective term anyway), but I don't see why everyone else is such an a-hole about it.


Good luck kid, follow your dreams.

 

[kevinthenerd]

Originally posted by: neovan
You can take free online classes at MIT

Open CourseWare

Cool. I'm quitting useless chat, message board trolling, and most other wastes of time just to pull this off.

This is was I was looking for, not some neffing flame to shoot me down.

Life gave me lemons, but I love lemonade.

 

[RabidMongoose]

Originally posted by: kevinthenerd

Originally posted by: neovan
You can take free online classes at MIT

Open CourseWare

Life gave me lemons, but I love lemonade.

Now I see your philosophical genius!

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: kevinthenerd

Originally posted by: neovan
You can take free online classes at MIT

Open CourseWare

Cool. I'm quitting useless chat, message board trolling, and most other wastes of time just to pull this off.

This is was I was looking for, not some neffing flame to shoot me down.

Life gave me lemons, but I love lemonade.

Well genius, I posted a link to that at the top of the second page.

 

[Rayden]

don't know if anyone has suggested this this, but you can take Calc III at community colleges. It is very cheap compared to universities. its something like $18 a unit here in california. went up from $11 this semester.

 

[WinkOsmosis]

You are going to keep failing unless you start to care about grades.

 

[kevinthenerd]

Originally posted by: WinkOsmosis
You are going to keep failing unless you start to care about grades.

Grades are an indicator of performance. If one performs well, one needs not to worry about the grades themselves.

It's all about focus. I personally believe that no teacher should teach to a test. No student should seek the highest test scores. Rather, one should strive to learn all that one can without worrying about the scores, and the scores will come naturally along with a greater awareness, understanding, and retention of the subject material.

I strongly beleive in active learning that should never stress rote memorization. Everything should be considered a skill or a concept; facts, numbers, and statistics are best stored by computers, and only those facts necessary to prove points or are interesting should be memorized.

 

[kevinthenerd]

Originally posted by: Rayden
don't know if anyone has suggested this this, but you can take Calc III at community colleges. It is very cheap compared to universities. its something like $18 a unit here in california. went up from $11 this semester.

As much as everyone complains about taxes, I really wish at times Florida had more. (We have no state income tax, mind you.) I'm paying $53 per credit hour over here, and it's that low only because I'm a resident in good academic standing.

I wonder, after I figure in the cost of living, whether it would be cheaper to move to an area with higher taxes for lower tuition.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: kevinthenerd

Originally posted by: WinkOsmosis
You are going to keep failing unless you start to care about grades.

Grades are an indicator of performance. If one performs well, one needs not to worry about the grades themselves.

It's all about focus. I personally believe that no teacher should teach to a test.

They don't at good colleges.

No student should seek the highest test scores. Rather, one should strive to learn all that one can without worrying about the scores, and the scores will come naturally along with a greater awareness, understanding, and retention of the subject material.

Either way, you ought to end up with high test scores, right?

I strongly beleive in active learning that should never stress rote memorization. Everything should be considered a skill or a concept; facts, numbers, and statistics are best stored by computers, and only those facts necessary to prove points or are interesting should be memorized.

Some school subjects can't be expressed as "concepts." I guess you think we shouldn't learn history?

What bugs me about this whole thread is that you seem to be blaming the "system" for your own screw-ups in life. You think the system should suit you, rather than you adjusting to the way the system works. Guess what? You'll have to deal with "systems" that you don't think make sense for your whole life, so you better get used to it. You knew what you had to do to get good grades in school, but you chose not to do it? Why? Seems kind of unintelligent to me. Blaming the schools for making you do homework and take tests and God forbid MEASURE YOUR PERFORMANCE is as lame an excuse as the people who say they got bad SAT/CAT scores because they "don't do well on tests." It's just an excuse. Get good grades at community college and get yourself into a real school where you can actually develop your mathematical abilities and learn theory rather than Calc III (which, as someone else pointed out, will get you nowhere in what you want to do). You're just spinning your wheels and wasting your time unless you get into a graduate program... I seriously doubt you'll make any substantial contributions to mathematics otherwise. That's genuine advice, I'm not flaming you. Or you could take the genuine advice I gave you earlier in the thread and use your mathematical abilities for something that actually COULD make a difference - like physics or engineering.

 

[kevinthenerd]

Originally posted by: mugsywwiii

Originally posted by: kevinthenerd

Originally posted by: WinkOsmosis
You are going to keep failing unless you start to care about grades.

Grades are an indicator of performance. If one performs well, one needs not to worry about the grades themselves.

It's all about focus. I personally believe that no teacher should teach to a test.

They don't at good colleges.

No student should seek the highest test scores. Rather, one should strive to learn all that one can without worrying about the scores, and the scores will come naturally along with a greater awareness, understanding, and retention of the subject material.

Either way, you ought to end up with high test scores, right?

I strongly beleive in active learning that should never stress rote memorization. Everything should be considered a skill or a concept; facts, numbers, and statistics are best stored by computers, and only those facts necessary to prove points or are interesting should be memorized.

Some school subjects can't be expressed as "concepts." I guess you think we shouldn't learn history?

What bugs me about this whole thread is that you seem to be blaming the "system" for your own screw-ups in life. You think the system should suit you, rather than you adjusting to the way the system works. Guess what? You'll have to deal with "systems" that you don't think make sense for your whole life, so you better get used to it. You knew what you had to do to get good grades in school, but you chose not to do it? Why? Seems kind of unintelligent to me. Blaming the schools for making you do homework and take tests and God forbid MEASURE YOUR PERFORMANCE is as lame an excuse as the people who say they got bad SAT/CAT scores because they "don't do well on tests." It's just an excuse. Get good grades at community college and get yourself into a real school where you can actually develop your mathematical abilities and learn theory rather than Calc III (which, as someone else pointed out, will get you nowhere in what you want to do). You're just spinning your wheels and wasting your time unless you get into a graduate program... I seriously doubt you'll make any substantial contributions to mathematics otherwise. That's genuine advice, I'm not flaming you. Or you could take the genuine advice I gave you earlier in the thread and use your mathematical abilities for something that actually COULD make a difference - like physics or engineering.

I'm going to take a minute out of my now-busy schedule to clarify...

When I say that Ignatius Loyola founded the Society of Jesus in 1540, what comes to mind? If nothing comes to mind, then there's something wrong with your previous education of the time. I believe that history should be taught as a series of interlocking events, and time periods should be "understood." If you can't learn to think like a Nazi and know what was going through their head (and understand the subsequent experiments by Asch and Milgram), how could you possibly pass a value judgement on them? I believe everything should be taken in context, and dates should be associated with more than just chronology.

I knew I was capable, but I didn't WANT my performance to be measured. I opposed the means of measurement THAT much. It was just a stubborn principle against the system. I didn't turn stuff in, so how could they have possibly measured it? I didn't have that drive to prove myself. I guess it was depression or something; only God knows. I'll admit up, down, and sideways that not doing homework wasn't the best solution, but it's a decision I can't take back. It's done and over with. I can only move on and make better decisions in the future.

I've learned quickly from my past. Dwelling on it will be self-destructive because it only depresses me.

Now... if you'll excuse me... I have some calculus to learn, homework to do, and sleep to catch up on. Good night ATOT.

 

[kevinthenerd]

Originally posted by: mugsywwiii
Or you could take the genuine advice I gave you earlier in the thread and use your mathematical abilities for something that actually COULD make a difference - like physics or engineering.

You know almost nothing about me. Who says I'm any good at physics or at any particular type of engineering? There are too many professions, vocations, and callings in life to be so general in your advice. If I want to be a mathetician, a random chump on an Internet forum* isn't going to persuade me otherwise.


foot note:
* Applying the impersonality of this whole thing yet again, that comment of being a "chump" was not personally directed at you.