My son is a mathlete

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Matthiasa

Diamond Member
May 4, 2009
5,755
23
81
What are you talking about? that shit is the bomb diggity.
You must have been on some good stuff to like that stuff... :(
I really don't like it, but if bored I can show people the stuff and have it give them headaches...
So I suppose it's a trade off. :p
 

Fenixgoon

Lifer
Jun 30, 2003
33,332
12,915
136
i was top-10 in the tri-county area one year. the state level kids were pretty ridiculous. ah well. i enjoy what i do :)
 

Leros

Lifer
Jul 11, 2004
21,867
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Precalc basically is trig, or at least it was at my HS.

It was a lot of trig and limits for us. It seemed really unnecessary. The content of pre-cal was either review from Algebra II or Geometry or it was covered in Calculus I anyway.
 

Paratus

Lifer
Jun 4, 2004
17,656
15,868
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So is he in MathCounts. The math competition run by the National Society of Profesional Engineers for 7th and 8th graders or a different math program.

Just wondering because the term mathlete is usually used in conjunction with that program.
 

Matthiasa

Diamond Member
May 4, 2009
5,755
23
81
Ah yeah pre-calc for me in high school was trig, geometry and algebra. Some of thing involved such as finding all roots (real and imaginary) of stupid huge polynomials. Can't remember the equation for the life of me though since I haven't seen it since. Others were limits, and simple derivatives.

Which reminds me... back to finding the stupid E-fields both in and outside of a pn junction.
 
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zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
111,866
31,364
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My problem is I can't BS. I hate BS. I can see right through it and it frustrates me to try to read through the redundant mess that people write to reach some arbitrary word count. Furthermore, most writing courses are a complete waste of time for a student. I think writing is as much a talent as pattern recognition, and pattern recognition is going to be more helpful in 99% of careers.

you probably wouldn't know BS when you see it, I'm thinking. One of my degrees was in writing, mostly theory, technical, literature...all sorts of random crap actually.

One of my grad-level classes--Theory--the prof basically told us that the purpose of college level writing instruction is to train you to fool others into thinking that you know what you're talking about. It's not exactly BS, it's mostly just showing that you know how to research and form cognizant, crafted thoughts around your research--and that you know how to interpret text along focused tracts.

I think people that make such claims--that they are too noble to endure BS--just have writing anxiety. This isn't anything odd. Most actually admit that, they simply hate writing, it doesn't make sense. Others, who are too proud, for some reason, create noble excuses that don't mean anything.

yes, I'm being a dick in Phineas thread...b/c he's a worthless troll. Everyone knows this. It's become quite obvious that everything he posts is a pack of lies. I think you defend him only because you see a companion in your anti-science, anti-thought crusades on these pages.

I believe that you are quite honest in your posts, however

Though, seeing as how you always side with an obvious troll who constantly fabricates BS, this may not speak too well for your rep, methinks. :hmm:

not that any of that matters, naturally.
 

eLiu

Diamond Member
Jun 4, 2001
6,407
1
0
If he goes to the IMO, post about it. Those kids are good at math. Everyone else... well, somewhere between retarded and meh.
 

Baasha

Golden Member
Jan 4, 2010
1,989
20
81
For a high-schooler to be in an 'advanced' math class, they should be taking Calculus BC freshman or at least sophomore year.

Shoot, when I was in high school, there were 2 freshmen in my Calc BC class. That was around 10 years ago. Kids nowadays cover a lot more material in school and it wouldn't be surprising if several of them are already doing calculus in middle school; not just the whiz kids btw.
 

Koing

Elite Member <br> Super Moderator<br> Health and F
Oct 11, 2000
16,843
2
0
Sweet mate.

A few friends and I repreented our year for the engineering challenge. We had to build a bridge out of bits and bobs to see how many mars bars it could hold. We won and we went to the county championships lol. We beat out a bunch of other more academic people with our l337 engineering...but of course we didn't go further then the county comp though :p

I did end up winning an IT scolarship! lol £££

Koing
 

TuxDave

Lifer
Oct 8, 2002
10,571
3
71
They don't have that program but they have Academic Decathlon.

Man you're bringing back old memories now. Academic Decathlon was a ton of fun. I was recruited my junior year because I screwed up my GPA my freshman year and my overall GPA qualified for the 2nd Division (1st division being the highest). They needed me to go wipe out the competition in Science and Math. I felt bad for the other kids.
 

TuxDave

Lifer
Oct 8, 2002
10,571
3
71
For a high-schooler to be in an 'advanced' math class, they should be taking Calculus BC freshman or at least sophomore year.

Shoot, when I was in high school, there were 2 freshmen in my Calc BC class. That was around 10 years ago. Kids nowadays cover a lot more material in school and it wouldn't be surprising if several of them are already doing calculus in middle school; not just the whiz kids btw.

Calculus BC in freshman year high school? That's a little much...
 

TridenT

Lifer
Sep 4, 2006
16,800
45
91
ALG2/Trig as a sophomore? Thats normal for HS students around here, accelerated would be taking pre-calc as a sophomore, Calc as a Junior and then taking whatever was above that at the magnet high school/local CC as a senior which one of my friends did.

This.

Normal is Geometry->Algebra 2->Pre-calc->Calc.

Advanced is something like Geometry+Algebra 2->Intense pre-calc->Calculus->More Calculus and maybe LA/DE
 

TridenT

Lifer
Sep 4, 2006
16,800
45
91
Calculus BC in freshman year high school? That's a little much...

Any calculus in freshmen year is definitely way ahead of what the public school system is preparing anyone for.

Calculus in junior year is the earliest at any school I've heard of.
 

PhoKingGuy

Diamond Member
Nov 15, 2007
4,685
0
76
Any calculus in freshmen year is definitely way ahead of what the public school system is preparing anyone for.

Calculus in junior year is the earliest at any school I've heard of.

A friend of mine in college took all the undergrad math classes as a freshman and went on to take grad level classes after that, but thats the most extreme I've ever seen.

I was math retarded and even I took Alg2/Trig as a sophomore, lol.
 

TridenT

Lifer
Sep 4, 2006
16,800
45
91
A friend of mine in college took all the undergrad math classes as a freshman and went on to take grad level classes after that, but thats the most extreme I've ever seen.

I was math retarded and even I took Alg2/Trig as a sophomore, lol.

Talking about freshmen year in high school.
 

Malak

Lifer
Dec 4, 2004
14,696
2
0
I believe that you are quite honest in your posts, however

Though, seeing as how you always side with an obvious troll who constantly fabricates BS, this may not speak too well for your rep, methinks. :hmm:

I have shown I will side with anybody that is unjustly aggravated. I would do the same for you. I would like for you to reconsider your feelings on this subject.
 

Malak

Lifer
Dec 4, 2004
14,696
2
0
Any calculus in freshmen year is definitely way ahead of what the public school system is preparing anyone for.

Calculus in junior year is the earliest at any school I've heard of.

Well technically if you have taken the pre-reqs, you can take calculus at freshmen in any school. I moved around all the time so I could never get ahead, but at one point I was in advanced courses in 4-6th grade, and we were getting into algebra in 6th grade. That would have put me in calculus by freshmen year in high school.
 
Aug 8, 2010
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So is he in MathCounts. The math competition run by the National Society of Profesional Engineers for 7th and 8th graders or a different math program.

Just wondering because the term mathlete is usually used in conjunction with that program.

No, it's a regional math league formed by a math professor from the university in conjunction with some business leaders.
 

Matthiasa

Diamond Member
May 4, 2009
5,755
23
81
Okay yeah you guys are crazy got done with the problems I had, not counting graphs, one was 5 pages long and the other was 4. If I wrote smaller I could have gotten it to half or a third that but still, even with that my head still hurts from it. :(