Scientific Calculator and Algebra CLEP

[cookderosa]

Jennifer:

I am so glad to hear I am not the only one with a fear for anything related to math. My husband has a scientific calculator and I have glanced it a few times, but I get REALLY bad anxiety, lol. I am such a baby!!
I am glad to hear you put it at good use and that statistics makes sense I do not know if I am going to test out of statistics.. it seems like a much harder exam than algebra!
Thank you for your feedback!!!!! I am cracking up

Let me assure you, it's not fear, it's lack of intuition. (which maybe feels like fear?) Here is a test.
Can you solve this? 6+4= ?
Now read this:
"Mrs. Donald's second grade class had four green markers, three pencils, and two rulers. When Mr. Sal's children donated a box of supplies, they were given an additional twelve rulers, three pencils, and six red markers. The janitor collected all rulers except for one. If color doesn't matter, how many markers does Mrs. Donald's class have now?"

The math is the same, but the intuition about how to derive an answer in the story problem requires an ability beyond doing 6+4. I used to teach culinary math, and it's arithmetic, but all story problems. (like life!) I knew my students struggled with story problems, but didn't understand why. I only really started to understand all of this when I started to teach my own children elementary math. My children would learn their math facts, but it sometimes took years later before they could really do well on the same "math" if it was in story problem form. The story problem above requires reading comprehension, being able to sort out relevant and irrelevant numbers, the ability to put written numbers into their numeric symbol, to understand that this is addition, etc.... You have to know how to put the number sentence in the correct order (if this were subtraction or division, knowing "what minus what" or "what goes into what").

People who spend a long time doing math develop math intuition (usually) while those of us who didn't/don't. Just looking for the answer and not KNOWING if the answer fits is probably the biggest issue.

I only took minimal math in school, so I feel like I haven't had enough contact hours "doing" it. I am completing algebra with my kids, but I rely heavily on notes. I have very good arithmetic intuition, but that's where it stops. I think if I were required to earn the credit, I'd do better taking the class just because of the time and access to notes. If I had another 10 years... lol