Pupils To Sit Times Tables Check From 2019

[mikey4444]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-39053483

Am I to understand, from this astonishing news, that children are NOT tested on their times tables now ?

[grumpy01]

Not only times tables but mental arithmetic is also a thing of the past.

[douglas9401]

I remember the day that the penny dropped vis-a-vis slide rule and calcliaton.
That was the very same day that Casio shares went through the roof.

Anyhoo, I still wear my mental calculationalism as a badge of proid, nothing better than a power cut and a checkout teenager to restore my sense of self worth. :)

[Mamyalynne]

Always hoping the till doesn't autolock of course.

[naomi24]

Children in this area learn their times tables by rote at primary school, but I agree with Sherrard and agchristie that the maths they’re taught is far too advanced for their age groups. I recall having a conversation with Jim360 about times tables. I think he’s about 26 or 27, so would have been at primary school in the 1990s. He said he’d not been taught them at school.

[Jackdaw33]

I wouldn't know what to do with a slide rule if it hit me in the face. Someone once showed me how to work it but I was none the wiser. Had no problem with mental arithmetic or log books, though.

[Jackdaw33]

I cannot recall how to do it now, but I remember my Maths teacher telling us how to calculate the square root of a number without the use of tables, by trial and error. Once we had mastered that we were allowed to use them.

[zebo]

Until the last few years, teachers were not allowed to have pupils learn tables, it was rote and hence verboten. Teachers are not free to teach as they wish, I once heard a supply teacher being chewed out by the Head for having her class chant tables and the Head was her husband! There was an emphasis on understanding the process rather than just being able to do it. As a person who has taught Maths to A level, I probably learned more about the mechanics of Mathematics when I did some Primary supply that ever before, such as what we are doing when we 'borrow' to subtract, I'd never thought about it before. Some of the work expected of Year 5 and 6 is very hard, there are spellings that don't exist in any dictionary and the deconstruction of sentences that is akin to the Clause Analysis that I loved in grammar school. The pendulum has gone too far the other way.

[Jackdaw33]

Anyone remember having to learn this?


Quadratic Formula: x = −b ± √(b2 − 4ac) 2a.

[Jackdaw33]

That didn't come out quite right but those who were there will know what I mean.

[melv16]

Quadratic Formula: x = −b ± √(b2 − 4ac) 2a.
That just made me shudder :-(

[Baldric]

Join the club ^^^

[zebo]

Should be b^2 and /2a, can you derive it from first principles though! It's one of those things that sticks in the mind I would imagine, even if you never use it.. It really demonstrates that there's no need to know where it comes from, just to be able to use it when the need occurs.

[Jackdaw33]

the 2a ought to be beneath of the rest

[Jackdaw33]

This link should put your minds at rest.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadratic_formula

[Bazile]

Well , i knew my multiplication tables from 1 to 12 , by the time i was 7 years old

[Baldric]

A Late Developer than Baz?

[Cloverjo]

We used to recite our times tables every morning at junior school (in the late 1970s). I don't remember being tested on them though.

My son (now aged 25) used to get homework tests on multiplications at age five to seven, but he says they never had to recite them.

I only recited them up to the ten times table. I still have to think for half a second if I need to multiply by twelve.

[jno]

I learnt them up to 12 and they've been more or less useful with quick mental calculation over the years, but these days I imagine any kid with a calculator (or an abacus) would do it faster.

As for multiplying 378.73 by 1559.2 ... I've never needed to do that; how many people do? On the rare occasions I need to find anything bigger than 12 x 12 - that's when I use a calculator too.

[Old_Geezer]

That's just cruel, threatening having to make pupils learn basics. Probably against human rights. Who do folk think this younger generation is ? Their parents ? Got machines to do your thinking for you in this modern age. Understanding went out with the Ark, grandad.

[jno]

machines don't think. They calculate, a mechanical process about as immoral as the machine that drives you to Aldi or the one that cleans the floor. I wouldn't worry about it.