English high school - how to choose...?

[Pursuivant]

I had long maths and was struggling, wrote a "B" in it as a fluke. (For me that was excellent, I was expecting an i compensated to A, but that year was hard and our teacher had gone through some extra bits the bonus hard question was on so I got lucky).

The thing back then was if you took "short" maths you had to continue your C-language and write it, and I'd rather eaten a can of worms... That might be the boys/girls divide as I know the last thing teenage boys care of is studying grammar so their grades in languages are a bit "wobbly". Then again usually the guys with the 5 and 6 do all the talking on the class trips while the girls with 10 won't say a thing lest they make a grammar mistake

I think I might have survived it though, as then in business college we had 3 years of obligatory German and I was put according to the aptitude test with people who had done "long German" ... comprehension OK, just don't make me write anything

[Rosamunda]

Interesting... and kudos for taking long maths :awe: I'm a bit surprised that you find the short and long maths quite similar, my eldest started off with long math but took short maths in the final exams. He thought the difference was huge.

I disagree that lukio maths should aim wholly at getting kids into Otaniemi/Tampere to study engineering or Helsinki/Turku etc for medicine. Far more students (numbers of) go on to study business- or commerce-related subjects in UAS and, as you say, need practical maths skills. I frequently have students who can't calculate percentages (eg VAT up and down) or struggle to work out FIFO stock rotations and things like that. That has knock-on effects when learning how to use spreadsheets and other business tools like accounting software. Though, to be honest, some of those who struggle come from abroad where maths is not even compulsory in high school.

There is an A-level course in the UK called "Use of Mathematics" which focuses on applied maths and skips some of the more abstract "pure" maths. I don't know anything about it but it sounds like a great idea to supplement humanities/language based curricula.

[onkko]

As for onkko´s rather predictable "immigration"... There may be some truth that immigration has an impact on results. For several years now students from immigrant families have out-performed white British children in the UK in many subjects including mathematics, as per this government paper (2011). https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... -RR079.pdf

And meanwhile in finland, http://www.iltalehti.fi/uutiset/2014030 ... 3_uu.shtml
On average 2-3 years behind according to pisa study.

[Pursuivant]

"Back in the day" before Peruskoulu when you had the chav an elite schools, the chavs had "kauppalaskento" that was exactly VAT percentages etc. Also calculating areas and ackerages, and stuff like "how many sacks of wheat you need to seed a 1 hectare field" or "to build a house 5X6 m and the chimney is 80x80 if the päre is 30x10 and the roof is at 35degrees and you leave 2 foot overlap calculate how much wood you need if you can get 10 logs off a pine and 56 päre off a log."