I got back a graded math exam from my College Algebra course today. Among the highlights:
I confused the Y-intercept and slope of a problem in an answer for a Y-intercept, then ignored the part about where it asked for the slope too

I, in working a problem, had -6 squared as being..+6. I remembered to flip the sign but I forgot to square the damn number

I, for no apparent reason, changed all the signs on a problem except for one of them to the opposite sign. On at least some problems, flipping *all* of the signs can still get you a correct answer. But flipping all but one is disaster.

I omitted a negative sign from an answer

But the all high king BIGGEST WTF:

I didn't graph an equation when, in the directions, it said "graph the equation" .
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Math classes and I have historically not gotten along well. But THIS? To get a 78 instead of a 100 because I was sloppy and couldn't even take the time to make sure I hadn't made 22 points worth of careless errors? Unbelievable.

It was one thing, in high school or in previous attempts in college when I missed problems due to simply not knowing them. But to be dropped to a high C just because of my carelessness?

While I'd normally file this in the complaint department, this one's really eating at me, because it's something I clearly could have fixed but didn't. I have a 78 instead of 100 for no other reason than I was careless.

I'm sorry, Seth. I've never been a math brain. Math and science were always my weaknesses - I was much better at English and history. So I feel your pain!

Take heart Seth. When I took an Applied Statistics class in college, I really blew the first exam, which was on the easiest material and got a low C-. Most of the mistakes I made were silly ones. I made a vow I was going to learn from my mistakes and did. Did lots of practice problems from then on, made sure I read the test questions carefully, which BTW lots of profs stress, got old tests & took them under test conditions. The 2nd exam got a B, an A- on the final & an A- in the course.

Me too. Anything over elementary math I hate.


I got a D- on my first test in calculus. I didn't go back. I barely eeked through stats.

I'm another person who isn't any good at math or the sciences (not counting biology). Math problems which would be simple to pretty much anyone else would cause a great deal of frustration for me. I'm much better with english and history.

Me too. Anything over elementary math I hate.


I got a D- on my first test in calculus. I didn't go back. I barely eeked through stats.

I never even made it into calc. :eek:

I'm sorry, Seth. I've never been a math brain. Math and science were always my weaknesses - I was much better at English and history. So I feel your pain!

Same here. I'm much better at English and history too. I think that is the way it normally is though. People who are good in the math and sciences are not good in English and history and vise versa. Well, except for those very few who are total brains and are good at everything. I hate those type of people. :lol: ;)

Count me in as one of those people who loves and excels in Languages, History, and The Arts and Humanities!

Seth,
I SUCK at math...when I do something wrong, I don't even know why the hell it's wrong!!! LOL!!! So you're ahead of me there!! Math is like reading a foreign language to me, I am awful awful awful at it!!! I took it one year in college then had to drop it or risk dropping my GPA, same thing another year...then finally this past school year I had to take it in order to graduate (stupid requirements!) and the teacher sucked. She would just work out problems on the board and expect us to know what she was doing. She wouldn't tell us what she was doing or talk us through her process while she worked them out. Anyway, I dropped that class (again) and took Math for Critical Thinking. It was great!!! A breath of fresh air!! It was more of logic and statistics and stuff...no stupid formulas or anything to remember, I actually enjoyed that math class...plus, we learned to gamble and actually be good at it! :D

i can relate. math sucks. i don't know why we need to take any in college after four years of it in high school, unless it's related to your major.
careless mistakes costing points always bugged me in math too. it sucks and i would be thinking about it all day as well.
but i hope you do better on your next exam & that you'll be able to catch any mistakes you have before the teacher does. good luck with the class.

I never got why you have to take math if it doesn't relate to your major either. I'm a Spanish and History major...I doubt I'll ever need math in either of those fields, and if I do, I'll just use a calculator! LOL!

Even with the occasional drop-offs in common sense (seriously, not even reading the question far enough to see that I was supposed to graph my results), I still did better than quite a few folks in the class, so I shouldn't feel that beat up, I suppose.

You did a lot better than I would've done!! Plus, sometimes seeing a math problem itself (for me at least) causes me to blank out, and when trying to work it out, I just get tired, lost, and confused and give up lol!!

You did a lot better than I would've done!! Plus, sometimes seeing a math problem itself (for me at least) causes me to blank out, and when trying to work it out, I just get tired, lost, and confused and give up lol!!

That's the way it is for me too.

i was always crap at maths- in the uk the word is a plural so there is an 's' at the end of math. i can only do the simple stuff- add, subtract, multiply and divide- the rest i struggle with. like the rest of you, i seem to fare better at arts and humanities type of subjects than maths, english, science. and so seth, you're not alone on this!