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MrSmith

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Everything posted by MrSmith

  1. IMO all the 'silly mistakes' you cited are in fact conceptual errors. So, it may be that his arithmetic foundation is weak, which causes him difficulties and thus defaulting to the standard 'this sucks I hate doing this why do I need this' response. Even though an algorithm-based approach obviously worked for you and appears to be working for your other son, my recommendation would be to reassess your younger's true level of conceptual understanding. It is very good he wants to know the Why Of It, rather than just 'do this, do that, answer here.', and I think it is a clear signal that a different approach is needed.
  2. If PM is too easy, add IP. If still too easy, add CWP. If still too easy, move faster. If still too easy...hmm not sure never had that happen before. BA is cool and fun but my kid didn't learn from it (he just read them like comics and didn't do the wb, which was fine for us).
  3. Try to find some old MATHCOUNTS and AMC8 exams. Most aren't easy and certainly not predictable.
  4. My kid took it for first time. He got through most of them. He's hoping for a double digit score :)
  5. Depends on the material. My kid finished much of chapter 7 review in one hour. In chapter 11 I was ecstatic with 3 complete answers.
  6. Gil, I am curious to know your thoughts on why you are choosing to use web design as your tool for teaching programming? I've been thinking about this for some time, ever since my son expressed an interest in the subject. I am having trouble reconciling the difference between the theory of programming and the practical side of programming. That is to say: how do I construct a course that focuses on the fundamental principles of programming - ideas such as variables and conditionals - rather than the plug and chug minutiae of any particular language. My largest concern is that computing theory seems a very dry and boring subject (no flashy cartoon characters). How do I convince a kid that he really needs to know for loops and while loop? Boolean algebra? Arrays? Pointers? Hash tables? Linked lists? All these things that are bread and butter of a core education in computer science, completely independent of any given language. But are so. very. boring. because there's not a lot of fun stuff you can do that would pique their interest. Heck, even in undergrad I sometimes scoffed at the contrived examples they used in class. I think I want a Beast Academy for computer science.
  7. Sometimes when students are knee deep in the details it is hard to tell if they understand the concepts, even when they properly apply the material. When we were doing AOPS Pre-A chapter 1, my kid was consistently answering correctly the end of section exercises. It wasn't until the chapter review (and especially the Challenge section) that we saw he wasn't really getting it. So... in keeping with the spirit of 'let's torture Boy whenever possible' , I copied all the properties onto a sheet of paper (there are a lot...). I made him re-work each problem, citing a property for each step he performed. He hated math for about 3 weeks :D, but by the end we both knew all his mistakes were silly errors and not conceptual errors. At the same time, he learned that if he does not understand a concept, it is best to ask Dad ASAP rather than waiting for me to notice.
  8. Transcendentals are not strictly required but I remember most of my calc exams in college were related to trig, probably for that exact reason.
  9. PS teaches. CWP is just a bunch of problems. Both great for their intended purpose.
  10. I don't believe that it is a requirement to do everything in a book just because it's in there. If the child understands conceptually what is going on and can put into practice the concepts, then more repetition is not needed.
  11. My kid went from SM6 to AOPS. It only made ch 10-12 go faster. The rest of the chapters I still got to torture him. So in retrospect he would have been fine going straight from SM5 to AOPS. He was very well prepared, except for the writing everything out part. But, he got over it by ch2. We spent ch1 formalizing all the elementary arithmetic. I finally got to explain all those big words I had been using for years :D
  12. This is really cool! It's much more in line with what I would consider as an elementary introduction to CS, although it's probably not that great for 18yo despite their label... Too bad they still attach the 'coding' moniker.
  13. I used to care a lot about what is 'developmentally appropriate'. Then, I had a weird though: A person who has ever only had the one arm cannot grasp what is the utility of a second arm (or third for that matter). That is to say, 'developmentally appropriate' to them means only to have a single arm. Thus, it is true as you say - they just don't get it. And they never will - that second arm will not grow, no matter the amount of waiting. Since your children clearly have two arms, it is pointless and unnecessary to fret over what one-armed people might say.
  14. Is it the decimals or the negative exponents? One can understand that 0.1 = 1/10 without understanding it is also 10 raised to minus 1.
  15. My kid took first. There were four kids at his grade this year but only two got medals for some reason. The gift kit included an eraser that looked like a mini babybel :p
  16. I asked my kid and he said BA "cuz comics are cool." But I think he cheated a little - he ate lots of pies last winter.
  17. Isn't the 'cross multiply method' equivalent to the common denominator method? To me 'cross multiply' seems a simplified version of 'common denominator'.
  18. It means the 4th grade cohort has a higher average overall. As long as you see steady progress in her scores she's doing fine. The rest is just noise and not worth fretting over.
  19. I made my kid do all the problems himself. I didn't have a magic number for 'mastery' since we discussed every problem (even ones he got right). For reference, he probably got 80% of all problems correct on the first go. He spends on average 6 weeks per chapter, but is on the young and didtractable side.
  20. Why not just use a regular 52 card deck without the picture cards? Take the 10s out if you just want single digit. Added benefit of being random each game.
  21. See - this is why one choose to work in 'Information Assurance'. One simply goes into a project, instructs the stakeholders on the various approaches they can take to 'ensure their information is secure and resistant to targeted infiltration'. Then one leaves after collecting a large sum as compensation. Think 'Bob and Bob' from Office Space.... :laugh:
  22. They called Berkeley the flagship school? Really? :closedeyes: I don't see people in Japan wearing Cal sweatshirts! :laugh:
  23. I'm struggling to find purpose for this course in the grand scheme of a student's life. Is this like the AP CS course for people who aren't really going into Computer Science? Or maybe just a new way for CB to make money?
  24. First of all... IT != computer programming. In the field, 'IT' is information technology, which generally translates to 'people who set up, maintain, and fix computers for other people who actually perform the programming'. IT may also include network infrastructure design, implementation, and maintenance. However, at any company larger than a few dozen people, IT is never involved in programming in the general sense of application development. The terms these days are 'computer programmer' or 'softwware engineer'. While I would like to say that the difference is in name only, oftentimes the differences in financial rewards are stark: 40K for programmers vs. 70k for software engineers (this is for large metro areas like LA). It has always been true that a degree is not needed to be a good programmer. It is really all logic and ingenuity ('do what I meant, not what I wrote!'). Having said that, most large employers today prefer a 4 year degree over a 2 year degree. My recommendation would be to go directly to 4-yr if possible. If not, do a transfer to a 4-yr university and finish there. Most employers in your area will recruit from the 4-yr places, so you could probably ask their Careers people who recruits and check the company for what they look for. Also - what do you mean by 'securities'? Like finance? That's a totally different kettle of fish. If he wants to do finance (I-Banking, sales & trading), he shouldn't do a CS degree at all, and definitely not a 2-yr program for that.
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