If I hadn't gone to private school...

[LisaContractorUmbrella]

This is probably because they have fallen for the stories told by those who like to argue "anyone can succeed" based on a few anecdotal examples. Take Lisa's examples here, for example. Alan Sugar and Richard Branson both left school at 16, and the other guy never made it that far.

Oi don't bring me into your arguments

[MyUserName]

Oi don't bring me into your arguments

Yeah, she thinks you are all completely wrong!

[DirtyDog]

Grid method multiplication - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It's wot my kids learnt. Now they just use calculators.

But it's a good point - even the numerate parents struggle to help because the methods have changed. Teaching them the method you learnt just adds to the confusion.

I used to find Elizabethan Multiplication easier to work out.

[mudskipper]

I used to find Elizabethan Multiplication easier to work out.

Ah, maybe that's what zeity's esteemed customers were using. Haven't seen that before. Would ask jr but I am forbidden from speaking to him as he is diligently revising for his mock GCSEs.

[Mich the Tester]

Ah, maybe that's what zeity's esteemed customers were using. Haven't seen that before. Would ask jr but I am forbidden from speaking to him as he is diligently revising for his mock GCSEs.

Swot.

Revising for mock exams? They're mock exams; meaningless, fake, not real. He should enjoy being 16 for now and then revise for the real ones.*




*Life advice provided free of charge by a tester

[mudskipper]

Swot.

Revising for mock exams? They're mock exams; meaningless, fake, not real. He should enjoy being 16 for now and then revise for the real ones.*




*Life advice provided free of charge by a tester

Sadly, I think he does quite enjoy doing past GCSE maths exams...

[Mich the Tester]

Find him a 40 year old GCE Maths exam & see if he likes that too.

[Mich the Tester]

I looked at some CEI Part II papers the other month, and looked at the questions I'd answered, apparently successfully.

Then I started wondering if I ever knew all that stuff.

Coz I certainly don't know much of it now.

In the 1988 GCSE Maths exam, I seem to remember the first question being; 'Write three million and six hundred thousand in figures'. I asked the examiner to check if I had the right paper and he confirmed I did. I got an 'A'; this was before the introduction of the A* and have ever since wondered what feats of number writing people must display to gain the star.

Needless to say, the Common Entrance exam I did at 13 was harder.

But at least I still know how to write 3.00,00,000000.00,0 and 6000000000000000000000,0,000!

[Bunk]

In the 1988 GCSE Maths exam, I seem to remember the first question being; 'Write three million and six hundred thousand in figures'. I asked the examiner to check if I had the right paper and he confirmed I did. I got an 'A'; this was before the introduction of the A* and have ever since wondered what feats of number writing people must display to gain the star.

Needless to say, the Common Entrance exam I did at 13 was harder.

But at least I still know how to write 3.00,00,000000.00,0 and 6000000000000000000000,0,000!

That's that fancy European way of writing numbers isn't it?

Coming over here, taking our jobs, changing our numbers

[Mich the Tester]

That's that fancy European way of writing numbers isn't it?

Coming over here, taking our jobs, changing our numbers

Perhaps the greatest selling point of a British education was that the exams were so easy to pass. Bloody glad I didn't have to do the Swiss school exams.