http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/01/20/literacy.college.students.ap/index.html

Quote :

"Almost 20 percent of students pursuing four-year degrees had only basic quantitative skills. For example, the students could not estimate if their car had enough gas to get to the service station. About 30 percent of two-year students had only basic math skills."

Interesting, I wonder which colleges they did this survey at.

1/20/2006 6:24:51 PM

i don't find this too surprising.

1/20/2006 6:27:06 PM

^^ hopefully they won't do one at NCSU in regards to grammar skills.

[Edited on January 20, 2006 at 6:28 PM. Reason : :]

1/20/2006 6:28:31 PM

Quote :

"On campus, the tests were given in 2003 to a representative sample of 1,827 students at public and private schools. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points."

I don't swallow it.

1/20/2006 6:47:35 PM

Quote :

"For example, the students could not estimate if their car had enough gas to get to the service station."

No, the students just didn't have much money and were putting off filling up their car to the last possible moment.

1/20/2006 7:06:05 PM

Quote :

"hopefully they won't do one at NCSU in regards to grammar skills"

LOL

1/20/2006 8:08:37 PM

Quote :

"More than half of students at four-year colleges -- and at least 75 percent at two-year colleges -- lack the literacy to handle complex, real-life tasks such as understanding credit card offers, a study found."

I'm confused ... where in the article does it mention either of those percentages? You can't throw a number out there and not back it up. Ironic the article mentions something to the effect of "analying news editorial arguments"...

Quote :

"Almost 20 percent of students pursuing four-year degrees had only basic quantitative skills. For example, the students could not estimate if their car had enough gas to get to the service station. About 30 percent of two-year students had only basic math skills"

Congrats ... did you do a comparison to the population of adults in the United States? What percentage of adults in th US can't do these tasks, regardless of education level? It seems there's an inherit assumption that a post-secondary education means you should be able to do these tasks. That is really poor thinking.

Quote :

"On campus, the tests were given in 2003 to a representative sample of 1,827 students at public and private schools. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points."

I'm going to assume they had a statistician or two on staff who helped them design this thing. Let's call it valid/legit for now. I think CNN ripped the findings a new one when trying to compile it into sensationalist news article.

1/21/2006 7:29:05 AM

I thenk there rong. I kan rreed and rite just fine.

1/21/2006 5:51:52 PM

Quote :

"It seems there's an inherit assumption that a post-secondary education means you should be able to do these tasks. That is really poor thinking."

not it is NOT poor thinking.

it is reasonable to assume that college students should be able to do tasks that require ARITHMETIC.

don't defend complacency and mediocrity.

[Edited on January 21, 2006 at 6:19 PM. Reason : inherent, not inherit. yes, with a college education, you SHOULD be able to spell that.]

1/21/2006 6:18:06 PM

REASONS FOR THIS:

CHEATING

and

EASY A PROFESSORS

1/21/2006 6:27:29 PM

Still wonder what colleges they completed this survey at? And too bad they didn't give more examples of the math questions they asked.

In the CNN link for this article they said "students can't calculate tips". To me that is sad if you graduate with a 4 year degree and can't multiply correctly.

1/21/2006 6:41:12 PM

tv

1/22/2006 11:08:38 AM

Quote :

" inherent, not inherit. yes, with a college education, you SHOULD be able to spell that"

I always look for ways to improve ... you just pointed out one, thanks.

Quote :

"it is reasonable to assume that college students should be able to do tasks that require ARITHMETIC. "

I agree with you. However, my question still remains ... "What percentage of adults...". Is it implying that a person with a post-secondary education should be able to do these tasks better/worse than a person with no post-secondary education? What other factors are taken into account in this study other than post-secondary education?

1/22/2006 12:40:16 PM

Quote :

" It seems there's an inherit assumption that a post-secondary education means you should be able to do these tasks. That is really poor thinking."

What?

There is absolutely no reason to assume that people in college shouldn't be able to do arithmetic.

I'll be honest, if after 18 years you can't grasp base arthmetic and don't have some kind of learning handicap or retardation, I'd safely say it's alright to just give up on you.

1/22/2006 2:23:00 PM

http://www.thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=381024
http://www.thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=381113

related topics

I take this study to say "Colleges teach advanced educational material, not common sense that you should have brought to the table"

1/22/2006 3:01:17 PM

Quote :

"Almost 20 percent of students pursuing four-year degrees had only basic quantitative skills. For example, the students could not estimate if their car had enough gas to get to the service station. About 30 percent of two-year students had only basic math skills"

Neither of those are defined.

If i had to construct the "estimate if their car had enough gas to get to the service station" question, it would go:
a car get: X miles/gallon
there is: Y miles to the next station
there is: Z gallons left in the tank

If you're telling me that 20 percent of college students fail to solve that problem, i'm sorry, i don't believe you. Particularly when the article avoids giving details and proper references.

1/22/2006 3:55:02 PM

^ i can beleive 20% missed it. some ppl simply cannot apply even simple math. they understand how everything works, but as soon as you put words like "car" or "service station" in there, the comprehension goes out the window. kinda dumb, but if you barely can do that kind of math in the first place it is a bit understandable.

that said there are TONS of majors that dont require you to have a decent understanding of math, or that allow you to use calculators.

1/22/2006 5:04:22 PM

absofuckinglutely.

i'm continually amazed at the overall ignorance of my peers in my classes and the like.

1/22/2006 5:20:02 PM

Quote :

"To me that is sad if you graduate with a 4 year degree and can't multiply correctly."

i'm a graduate and suck at math.

1/22/2006 6:16:32 PM

what degree?

1/22/2006 6:19:56 PM

Quote :

"I'll be honest, if after 18 years you can't grasp base arthmetic and don't have some kind of learning handicap or retardation, I'd safely say it's alright to just give up on you."

Thats my whole point. I didn't see the article mention a baseline comparison of people with varying education levels. Did they compare this to a percentage with graduate degrees, or high school diplomas, or no high school diploma? You could compare the results to another group in 2 or 4 year students, but there is no comparison to a baseline group.

1/22/2006 9:31:21 PM

^^^ But there is a difference from sucking at math and not knowing how to multiply. Multiplication is something you should have picked up in middle school.

You may suck at math but I would guess you suck at calculus not basic multiplication

1/22/2006 9:56:20 PM

i'm suprised the percentage isn't higher

1/22/2006 10:07:23 PM

What a big surprise.

Looks like I'm going for a third straight fail in Economics over the Summer.

1/22/2006 10:26:06 PM

I'm not surprised since many majors don't require much math. Many of the Ag. science majors don't, such as both of mine, Wildlife Science and Zoology. They require a 100 lvl calculus course (as long as you met prereq from high school). I took Personal Finance for more information on stuff like mortgage, investing, retirement, etc, and that course doesn't count as any of my electives. If people don't want to learn this stuff they're not going to except through experience (which will likely include mistakes).

1/23/2006 9:44:39 AM