Study: Most College Students Lack Skills

[BlancoNino]

Originally posted by: feralkid

Originally posted by: Train

There are high schools in america that literally (no pun intended) graduate kids who can not read.

Do you have even a remote idea of what a pun is?


Don't use words you don't understand.

Definitely a pun if you ask me. Puns are just plays on words and there's no real concrete definition of what a pun technically is or isn't.

 

[feralkid]

Originally posted by: BlancoNino

Originally posted by: feralkid

Originally posted by: Train

There are high schools in america that literally (no pun intended) graduate kids who can not read.

Do you have even a remote idea of what a pun is?


Don't use words you don't understand.

Definitely a pun if you ask me. Puns are just plays on words and there's no real concrete definition of what a pun technically is or isn't.

So where do you see a pun?

 

[BlancoNino]

Originally posted by: feralkid

Originally posted by: BlancoNino

Originally posted by: feralkid

Originally posted by: Train

There are high schools in america that literally (no pun intended) graduate kids who can not read.

Do you have even a remote idea of what a pun is?


Don't use words you don't understand.

Definitely a pun if you ask me. Puns are just plays on words and there's no real concrete definition of what a pun technically is or isn't.

So where do you see a pun?

The words illiterate, literal, literally, literature all have the same etymology from the latin word littera, meaning letter. All of these words are in coordinance with reading. Do you see the pun now?

 

[feralkid]

Originally posted by: BlancoNino

Originally posted by: feralkid

Originally posted by: BlancoNino

Originally posted by: feralkid

Originally posted by: Train

There are high schools in america that literally (no pun intended) graduate kids who can not read.

Do you have even a remote idea of what a pun is?


Don't use words you don't understand.

Definitely a pun if you ask me. Puns are just plays on words and there's no real concrete definition of what a pun technically is or isn't.

So where do you see a pun?

The words illiterate, literal, literally, literature all have the same etymology from the latin word littera, meaning letter. All of these words are in coordinance with reading. Do you see the pun now?

God, that is really the most anemic if you can call that a pun, but to each his own.
.4/10 granted.

But to add "(no pun intended)" when this 1/2 watted attempt WAS intended.....oh, never mind.


:thumbsdown::thumbsdown:

 

[BlancoNino]

Hehe, really? I got it right off the bat and even laughed a little. I knew exactly where he was going with that pun.

 

[feralkid]

Originally posted by: BlancoNino
Hehe, really? I got it right off the bat and even laughed a little. I knew exactly where he was going with that pun.

I had an overly pedantic physics prof who would have laughed along with you, but the rest of the class wanted to vomit...again to each his own.

:wine:

 

[BlancoNino]

Originally posted by: feralkid

Originally posted by: BlancoNino
Hehe, really? I got it right off the bat and even laughed a little. I knew exactly where he was going with that pun.

I had an overly pedantic physics prof who would have laughed along with you, but the rest of the class wanted to vomit...again to each his own.

:wine:

I find myself laughing at things nobody else thinks are funny.

 

[Moonbeam]

I heard that in the sixties at the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, as it were, the earth passed out of a galactic cloud and was radiated by vibrations from the galactic core that temporarily shocked human consciousness to a higher level of being and all of a sudden fighting wars just seemed stupid. We had a temporary flowering of higher intelligence and spiritual evolution, but the earth quickly passed back into the cloud and the vibration can now only be felt by extreme sensitives. So I figure it's cause kids today are born in the cloud and their brains don't function on any of the higher levels.

 

[kogase]

Originally posted by: Moonbeam
I heard that in the sixties at the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, as it were, the earth passed out of a galactic cloud and was radiated by vibrations from the galactic core that temporarily shocked human consciousness to a higher level of being and all of a sudden fighting wars just seemed stupid. We had a temporary flowering of higher intelligence and spiritual evolution, but the earth quickly passed back into the cloud and the vibration can now only be felt by extreme sensitives. So I figure it's cause kids today are born in the cloud and their brains don't function on any of the higher levels.

So... L. Ron Hubbard isn't dead! How goes your eternal battle with Xenu, my liege?

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: Pabster

Originally posted by: Uhtrinity
I blame it on a society that teaches students to score high on tests and little else.

I think much of the blame can be attributed to liberal professors who spend their days spewing diatribes on political nonsense rather than teaching the topic at hand.

Most students are going to take what, 2 social science classes? Maybe 4-6 for a 4-year.

Add to that: what on Earth are anyone but the history/pol sci folks going to go on about? What, are they going to jump from why the power rule doesn't work here to Iraq being a giant mess? (not that I would complain, because Calc II is kicking my ass, right now... )

If they are being that useless, why aren't the students doing anything about it (that is, if that's going on, how is it not the students' fault?)?

 

[Dissipate]

Originally posted by: Cerb
Calc II is kicking my ass, right now... )

Pathetic.

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: Dissipate

Originally posted by: Cerb
Calc II is kicking my ass, right now... )

Pathetic.

Yeah, but it's the liberal professor's fault

 

[Gigantopithecus]

I guess all you e-penis waving geniuses were too busy pointing fingers at everything from liberal professors to liberal arts majors to find a more detailed report than what's on the ABC News website.

From the Pew website (you know, the foundation that actually did the study):
"The AIR study found there is no difference between the quantitative literacy of today's graduates compared with previous generations, and that current graduates generally are superior to previous graduates when it comes to other forms of literacy needed to comprehend documents and prose."

I suppose the lack of criticism concerning the actual study itself goes more to supporting the knee-jerk headline than anything else... This survey tested 1,827 randomly selected graduating students. How many 2- and 4-year college graduates were there last year? 500,000? Is 1,827 sufficiently representative? I'm not familiar enough with demographic analysis (at least not for the purposes of evaluating human performance levels), but I'm skeptical.

 

[Strk]

Originally posted by: Gigantopithecus
I guess all you e-penis waving geniuses were too busy pointing fingers at everything from liberal professors to liberal arts majors to find a more detailed report than what's on the ABC News website.

From the Pew website (you know, the foundation that actually did the study):
"The AIR study found there is no difference between the quantitative literacy of today's graduates compared with previous generations, and that current graduates generally are superior to previous graduates when it comes to other forms of literacy needed to comprehend documents and prose."

I suppose the lack of criticism concerning the actual study itself goes more to supporting the knee-jerk headline than anything else... This survey tested 1,827 randomly selected graduating students. How many 2- and 4-year college graduates were there last year? 500,000? Is 1,827 sufficiently representative? I'm not familiar enough with demographic analysis (at least not for the purposes of evaluating human performance levels), but I'm skeptical.

As long as the sample is properly drawn, 1,827 is more than enough to get an accurate survey. You will very rarely see a survey use much more than a thousand or so people, even those based on much larger populations.

 

[Train]

Originally posted by: feralkid

Originally posted by: BlancoNino

Originally posted by: feralkid

Originally posted by: BlancoNino

Originally posted by: feralkid

Originally posted by: Train

There are high schools in america that literally (no pun intended) graduate kids who can not read.

Do you have even a remote idea of what a pun is?


Don't use words you don't understand.

Definitely a pun if you ask me. Puns are just plays on words and there's no real concrete definition of what a pun technically is or isn't.

So where do you see a pun?

The words illiterate, literal, literally, literature all have the same etymology from the latin word littera, meaning letter. All of these words are in coordinance with reading. Do you see the pun now?

God, that is really the most anemic if you can call that a pun, but to each his own.
.4/10 granted.

But to add "(no pun intended)" when this 1/2 watted attempt WAS intended.....oh, never mind.


:thumbsdown::thumbsdown:

Some people cant see humor past slapstick.

I wouldn't call it a half watted attempt, BlancoNino's description is pretty much spot on, (look it up on wikipedia)

And my pun WAS intended? What are you, a mind reader?

 

[Meuge]

Originally posted by: Dissipate

Originally posted by: Cerb
Calc II is kicking my ass, right now... )

Pathetic.

I find that culture, politeness, and basic intelligence are severely lacking within the brain of yours.

I sincerely doubt that your academic credentials entitle you to make any kinds of judgement, much rather one so harsh.

 

[Rainsford]

Originally posted by: Gigantopithecus
I guess all you e-penis waving geniuses were too busy pointing fingers at everything from liberal professors to liberal arts majors to find a more detailed report than what's on the ABC News website.

From the Pew website (you know, the foundation that actually did the study):
"The AIR study found there is no difference between the quantitative literacy of today's graduates compared with previous generations, and that current graduates generally are superior to previous graduates when it comes to other forms of literacy needed to comprehend documents and prose."

I suppose the lack of criticism concerning the actual study itself goes more to supporting the knee-jerk headline than anything else... This survey tested 1,827 randomly selected graduating students. How many 2- and 4-year college graduates were there last year? 500,000? Is 1,827 sufficiently representative? I'm not familiar enough with demographic analysis (at least not for the purposes of evaluating human performance levels), but I'm skeptical.

That's what I tried to say, but it seems the old folks would rather rant and rave about how much better school is when they were young. Actually, this is true in a lot of areas. All you have to do it mention the good old days, and suddenly nobody can think straight any more.

 

[Dissipate]

Originally posted by: Meuge

Originally posted by: Dissipate

Originally posted by: Cerb
Calc II is kicking my ass, right now... )

Pathetic.

I find that culture, politeness, and basic intelligence are severely lacking within the brain of yours.

I sincerely doubt that your academic credentials entitle you to make any kinds of judgement, much rather one so harsh.

No, actually you are describing yourself.

I got an A in calc 2. That's all the credentials I need to criticize. I think math illiterate people ought to be ashamed of themsleves.

How much math do you know, BTW?

Stick to medicine, your thoughts on politics are absurd, incoherent and logically invalid. In fact, I would consider radical leftists as yourself and BabyBaliDoc a threat to the integrity of our healthcare system.

 

[3chordcharlie]

Originally posted by: Dissipate

Originally posted by: Meuge

Originally posted by: Dissipate

Originally posted by: Cerb
Calc II is kicking my ass, right now... )

Pathetic.

I find that culture, politeness, and basic intelligence are severely lacking within the brain of yours.

I sincerely doubt that your academic credentials entitle you to make any kinds of judgement, much rather one so harsh.

No, actually you are describing yourself.

I got an A in calc 2. That's all the credentials I need to criticize. I think math illiterate people ought to be ashamed of themsleves.

How much math do you know, BTW?

Stick to medicine, your thoughts on politics are absurd, incoherent and logically invalid. In fact, I would consider radical leftists as yourself and BabyBaliDoc a threat to the integrity of our healthcare system.

So if the doctors and med students need to stick to medicine, what qualifies our self-proclaimed 'Calc-2 guru' to comment on politics?

FTR, just because Cerb says Calc-2 is kicking his ass doesn't mean he won't learn the material, or even necessarily that he won't come out of the course with an A.

 

[Meuge]

Originally posted by: Dissipate

Originally posted by: Meuge

Originally posted by: Dissipate

Originally posted by: Cerb
Calc II is kicking my ass, right now... )

Pathetic.

I find that culture, politeness, and basic intelligence are severely lacking within the brain of yours.

I sincerely doubt that your academic credentials entitle you to make any kinds of judgement, much rather one so harsh.

No, actually you are describing yourself.

Boy, that's a creative comeback. :roll:

Originally posted by: Dissipate
I got an A in calc 2. That's all the credentials I need to criticize.

You're wrong.

Originally posted by: Dissipate
I think math illiterate people ought to be ashamed of themsleves.

Speaking from my own level of education, I believe that calling people who can't get through Calculus 2 "math-illiterate" just emphasizes how full of ****** you really are. After all, I think you should be ashamed of yourself, since you would likely fail molecular biology.

Originally posted by: Dissipate
How much math do you know, BTW?

Most likely no less than you, if not more.

Originally posted by: Dissipate
Stick to medicine, your thoughts on politics are absurd, incoherent and logically invalid. In fact, I would consider radical leftists as yourself and BabyBaliDoc a threat to the integrity of our healthcare system.

LMAO. I won't even bother.

 

[tec699]

Originally posted by: Uhtrinity

Originally posted by: Pabster

Originally posted by: Uhtrinity
I blame it on a society that teaches students to score high on tests and little else.

I think much of the blame can be attributed to liberal professors who spend their days spewing diatribes on political nonsense rather than teaching the topic at hand.

Nice way to politisize it :roll:

I'm not talking about College level, I am talking grades k - 12. It seems more important now to score high on all the standardized tests than to actually learn how to think. When these students hit College level they are ill prepared. And btw, this started before 'No child left behind', though that didn't help either.

edit: And for this this reason I am planning on putting my son in Charter School for K - 8, for 9-12 I'm not sure what options are / will be available (locally).

lol, the charter schools in Southern NJ fail horribly. Their test scores are usually at or near the bottom of the pile.

 

[Dissipate]

Originally posted by: 3chordcharlie

Originally posted by: Dissipate

Originally posted by: Meuge

Originally posted by: Dissipate

Originally posted by: Cerb
Calc II is kicking my ass, right now... )

Pathetic.

I find that culture, politeness, and basic intelligence are severely lacking within the brain of yours.

I sincerely doubt that your academic credentials entitle you to make any kinds of judgement, much rather one so harsh.

No, actually you are describing yourself.

I got an A in calc 2. That's all the credentials I need to criticize. I think math illiterate people ought to be ashamed of themsleves.

How much math do you know, BTW?

Stick to medicine, your thoughts on politics are absurd, incoherent and logically invalid. In fact, I would consider radical leftists as yourself and BabyBaliDoc a threat to the integrity of our healthcare system.

So if the doctors and med students need to stick to medicine, what qualifies our self-proclaimed 'Calc-2 guru' to comment on politics?

FTR, just because Cerb says Calc-2 is kicking his ass doesn't mean he won't learn the material, or even necessarily that he won't come out of the course with an A.

I didn't say all of them need to. In fact, we need more people like this guy in medicine.

I'm not a 'guru' in math, but I think that everyone should know math up to at least ordinary differential equations(intro to ODEs), and perhaps introduction to mathematical proofs.

Math is simply the most fantastic a priori discipline around. Not only is it important philosophically in the world of ideas, but it is very important as a method of thought. The necessity for rigor in math is simply unmatched.

Here at my university (UCSD) they have this dumbed down 'math 10 series.' Totally bogus.

BTW, the undergraduate bio majors only have to take some courses in the '10 series.' *wink wink* at Meuge.

 

[Moonbeam]

Originally posted by: Train

Originally posted by: feralkid

Originally posted by: BlancoNino

Originally posted by: feralkid

Originally posted by: BlancoNino

Originally posted by: feralkid

Originally posted by: Train

There are high schools in america that literally (no pun intended) graduate kids who can not read.

Do you have even a remote idea of what a pun is?

I hope the people arguing about this get hit in the head with 907.18 Kilos, no ton impended.


Don't use words you don't understand.

Definitely a pun if you ask me. Puns are just plays on words and there's no real concrete definition of what a pun technically is or isn't.

So where do you see a pun?

The words illiterate, literal, literally, literature all have the same etymology from the latin word littera, meaning letter. All of these words are in coordinance with reading. Do you see the pun now?

God, that is really the most anemic if you can call that a pun, but to each his own.
.4/10 granted.

But to add "(no pun intended)" when this 1/2 watted attempt WAS intended.....oh, never mind.


:thumbsdown::thumbsdown:

Some people cant see humor past slapstick.

I wouldn't call it a half watted attempt, BlancoNino's description is pretty much spot on, (look it up on wikipedia)

And my pun WAS intended? What are you, a mind reader?

 

[3chordcharlie]

Originally posted by: Dissipate
I didn't say all of them need to. In fact, we need more people like this guy in medicine.

I'm not a 'guru' in math, but I think that everyone should know math up to at least ordinary differential equations(intro to ODEs), and perhaps introduction to mathematical proofs.

Math is simply the most fantastic a priori discipline around. Not only is it important philosophically in the world of ideas, but it is very important as a method of thought. The necessity for rigor in math is simply unmatched.

Here at my university (UCSD) they have this dumbed down 'math 10 series.' Totally bogus.

BTW, the undergraduate bio majors only have to take some courses in the '10 series.' *wink wink* at Meuge.

Calculus is certainly a useful discipline - I will always remember my Grade-12 physics teacher calling it 'the math of life'. And he was right. I also think it's a disgrace that the last experience many people have with math is a pitty-pass through grade-10 algebra. But that really falls under choices and frerdoms, don't you think?

Your arbitrary ODE cut-off stinks quite heavily of 'that's the last thing we did in calc-2' and I can't see a reason that ODE, or Taylor series or that sort of thing needs to be strongly encouraged in the average person; it's complicated, obscure, and not really related to the ability to 'think mathematically'.

FTR, I took 2 courses that were roughly calc-2; one in engineering which was more like calc-2 and calc-3, but very light on theory (very mechanical, here's a problem / here's how you solve it), and one for economics (taught by an insane math professor) which was very similar to the pure-math calc-2 course. I did just fine in both courses

 

[Dissipate]

Originally posted by: 3chordcharlie
Calculus is certainly a useful discipline - I will always remember my Grade-12 physics teacher calling it 'the math of life'. And he was right. I also think it's a disgrace that the last experience many people have with math is a pitty-pass through grade-10 algebra. But that really falls under choices and frerdoms, don't you think?

Yes it does fall under choices and freedoms. But where is the choice when we have to take humanities and social science courses? They don't offer 'dumbed down' versions of those. If the HSS profs want us to take their pseudoscience B.S., their students ought to have to take an entire sequence of our stuff and NOT some dumbed down sequence.

Your arbitrary ODE cut-off stinks quite heavily of 'that's the last thing we did in calc-2' and I can't see a reason that ODE, or Taylor series or that sort of thing needs to be strongly encouraged in the average person; it's complicated, obscure, and not really related to the ability to 'think mathematically'.

Why is it arbitrary? ODEs are an important part of calculus. Pragmatically I think there should be a cutoff somewhere. I'm not claiming everyone should get a PhD in math.

FTR, I took 2 courses that were roughly calc-2; one in engineering which was more like calc-2 and calc-3, but very light on theory (very mechanical, here's a problem / here's how you solve it), and one for economics (taught by an insane math professor) which was very similar to the pure-math calc-2 course. I did just fine in both courses

You dropped out of an engineering program and went into a social pseudoscience only to end up going to work for the government? Talk about falling off track.