# Were you good at high school mathematics? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 21, 2011, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-good-at-high-school-mathematics/586298 "2011-06-21T16:02:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Jaledin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jaledin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaledin)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-good-at-high-school-mathematics/586298/41 "2011-06-21T19:23:27Z")
I was a pretty terrible student in all kinds of maths as a High Schooler. It wasn’t until my late twenties that I blossomed by working deductive proofs and loving the heck out of number theory, because my hero, Edmund Husserl, did that, and by gum, so was I going to. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-good-at-high-school-mathematics/586298/42 "2011-06-21T19:27:08Z")
When I wanted to be, I was. In my senior year I grew lazy and stopped trying too hard and so barely passed calculus. But before that I got an A each course. ---
**Author:** ![kushiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-good-at-high-school-mathematics/586298/43 "2011-06-21T19:38:41Z")
So I’m assuming from the responses here that the US splits math up by subject. That’s a weird concept to me - every discipline was under one umbrella until the highest course, which was calculus. We were set up so that you would have one semester of math every year of high school, so unless you doubled up (which was ill-advised due to the building block nature of math) calc would be your last semester of math. ---
**Author:** ![perfectparanoia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@perfectparanoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/perfectparanoia)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-good-at-high-school-mathematics/586298/44 "2011-06-21T19:47:41Z")
I was good at all maths until I got to university. I am surprised that Calculus is not seperated out here. I have a university math degree and suck at calculus (I specialized in other maths, Graph Theory and Geometry being my faves, I find Algebra dull). ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-good-at-high-school-mathematics/586298/45 "2011-06-21T20:01:06Z")
I didn’t have classes split up by topic like that, all my math classes were integrated. I don’t recall having any particular trouble with any topic in high school. My lower grades were usually due to lack of effort, not lack of ability. > [@NinetyWt](#): > > I found that the higher in math I got, the easier it got, until I got to Differential Equations. :: shudder :: Heh, I rocked at Differential Equations. Partials were hard, but fascinating, and one of my best grades of my entire mechanical engineering degree was Ordinary Differential Equations (my school split the two into two courses, each with a Linear Algebra component as well). I also enjoy linear algebra, at least for simple things; I’ll bust out a matrix and Gaussian elimination for solving pretty much any 3+ equations, something a few of my friends thought was somewhat bizarre, though I don’t know why, because that’s what it’s _for_. What I suck at, though, is basic transcription. I lose minus signs, and do dumb errors due to lack of attention. The only reason I didn’t ace an ODE exam was because I got to the last line of a problem and wrote (amongst other simplifications) 6x-4x = 4x. My prof put an evil little smiley face next to his (-1) when he graded it. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-good-at-high-school-mathematics/586298/46 "2011-06-21T20:04:42Z")
I was bad at both. I managed low Bs to high Cs in algebra, C pluses in geometry, and D minues in algebra II. This is hardly a surprise since math was my lowest grade subject from second grade on. I still hate my guidance councilor for insisting I take algebra II to get into the colleges I wanted - turns out he lied about both colleges requiring it. It slaughtered my GPA (dropping it to a 3.18 out of 4.00) for senior year. My second lowest class average for the year was a A- in anatomy & physiology, imagine what sort of additional scholarships I might have been eligible for if I’d taken something else (pretty much anything else, really) that I could have gotten an A in rather than a D- :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Weedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/weedy/32/301_2.png) [@Weedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weedy)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-good-at-high-school-mathematics/586298/47 "2011-06-21T21:36:35Z")
We just had ‘maths’ at school which I was OK at , and I don’t remember specifically what is algebra, and what is geometry. I remember lots of graphs, what’s the equation of the line, and the tangent to the curve - is that geometry? We also did probability, which I found easier, and a bunch of other things as well. But it doesn’t seem that distinct to me; it was all just maths. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-good-at-high-school-mathematics/586298/48 "2011-06-21T21:49:39Z")
> [@kushiel](#): > > So I’m assuming from the responses here that the US splits math up by subject. That’s a weird concept to me - every discipline was under one umbrella until the highest course, which was calculus. The geometry class I had in high school took a fairly Euclidean approach: theorems and proofs; later theorems proven based on previously-proved theorems; straightedge-and-compass constructions; etc. Is this the kind of thing the OP has in mind as “high school geometry”? ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-good-at-high-school-mathematics/586298/49 "2011-06-21T22:02:28Z")
My history with math is extremely complex going back to the third grade, but by the time I got to high school, I pretty much had my wrinkles ironed out and I excelled. In four years, I think I made one B in one nine weeks for Geometry, and I still believe that was because my Geometry teacher just flat-out disapproved of me and refused to allow me to make all As in her class, because it was universally acknowledged by the students in that class that I was the head of the class. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-good-at-high-school-mathematics/586298/50 "2011-06-21T22:25:02Z")
> [@kushiel](#): > > So I’m assuming from the responses here that the US splits math up by subject. That’s a weird concept to me - every discipline was under one umbrella until the highest course, which was calculus. We were set up so that you would have one semester of math every year of high school, so unless you doubled up (which was ill-advised due to the building block nature of math) calc would be your last semester of math. In the U.S. it’s an entire school year. My district’s HS order (i.e. what I took) : Geometry Alg. II Trig Calculus/Stats (which I took) ---
**Author:** ![kushiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-good-at-high-school-mathematics/586298/51 "2011-06-21T22:44:42Z")
> [@etv78](#): > > In the U.S. it’s an entire school year. My district’s HS order (i.e. what I took) : > > Geometry > Alg. II > Trig > Calculus/Stats (which I took) Sorry, looking back at what I wrote I goofed up. It’s one class per _semester_ of high school, not _year_ of high school. I barely remember what went with what class. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-good-at-high-school-mathematics/586298/52 "2011-06-21T22:59:52Z")
I, also, am curious about why the poll options included only geometry and algebra. I was done with those by the first year of high school. I always found algebra to be intuitive. The spacial aspects of geometry were similarly pretty easy. Proofs drove me nuts, because I could _see_ how step 4 implied step 6. It was obvious. I had a horrible time trying to figure out what step 5 was supposed to be. Proofs dragged my grades in geometry right down the toilet. I did well in functions and trig, and fairly well in 1st-year calculus. Like several others in this thread, though, differential equations kicked my butt and convinced me my future was not in math. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-good-at-high-school-mathematics/586298/53 "2011-06-21T23:08:32Z")
**Hated** Geometry and those blasted theorems & proofs. I always did well in applied Algebra, Trig or Calculus solving physics or chemistry problems. Proofs in math always gave me trouble. I understood triangles and other figures in geometry. The proofs kicked my ass. ---
**Author:** ![CT\_Damsel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CT\_Damsel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CT_Damsel)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-good-at-high-school-mathematics/586298/54 "2011-06-21T23:19:38Z")
I am great at math; I find it extremely easy. I received all A’s in algebra, geometry, trig and calculus. Trig class was first period, I slept through it most mornings, and still got an A. 😃 I am an electrical engineer. ---
**Author:** ![Invisible\_Chimp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f05b48/32.png) [@Invisible\_Chimp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Invisible_Chimp)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-good-at-high-school-mathematics/586298/55 "2011-06-21T23:39:14Z")
I chose good at both, but I was better at algebra. My last math class I took was Vector Calculus in my only year of college; it featured a lot of geometry and I got a D or F, I don’t remember which. ---
**Author:** ![JoThrive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@JoThrive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoThrive)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-good-at-high-school-mathematics/586298/56 "2011-06-22T01:21:07Z")
I liked math, and since I liked math I always got good grades. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-good-at-high-school-mathematics/586298/57 "2011-06-22T01:39:48Z")
[quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:52, topic:586298”] I, also, am curious about why the poll options included only geometry and algebra. I was done with those by the first year of high school. [/QUOTE] At my high school, you would have had to been in the honors track in math to get to Calculus before graduating. The on-grade-level/college-prep math track was Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, Algebra III/Trigonometry. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-good-at-high-school-mathematics/586298/58 "2011-06-22T01:44:16Z")
I got A’s in all my math classes, from basic algebra and geometry to college-level calculus. None of them were ever what I would consider hard, but geometry was by far the one I found least intuitive. ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-good-at-high-school-mathematics/586298/59 "2011-06-22T02:13:07Z")
I was horrible in math. When I was in HS, we had a combined requirement of 3 or 4 credits (can’t remember the exact number…hee) in math and science. You were allowed to take any combination as long as you had at least 1/2 or 1 credit of each, I barely made it through my math credit requirements and spent the remainder of HS taking all science classes for the remaining credit requirements. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Girlfriend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.girlfriend/32/193_2.png) [@Dr.Girlfriend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Girlfriend)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-good-at-high-school-mathematics/586298/60 "2011-06-22T02:21:36Z")
I sucked at algebra, sucked at geometry, and sucked at trigonometry. My high-school trig teacher was also the calculus teacher, and after dragging me kicking and screaming through trig she insisted I sign up for calculus the next year. I said she was nuts, I had sucked at everything up to that point, why would calculus be any different. She said “Trust me… if you suck you can drop the class.” Calculus turned out to be disgustingly easy for me. The teacher said she knew I’d do ok with calculus because of my way of looking at things. I’m not sure if that was a nice way of saying I’m somewhat warped or what… 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-good-at-high-school-mathematics/586298.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-good-at-high-school-mathematics/586298.md?page=4)