r girls good at math?

Post Reply New Topic

r girls good at math?
last semester in high school, my math class was an ib (International Baccalaureate) advanced calculus class. it was plit into 3 levels. Studies was for just ppl who waned an IB diploma, but had just average math skills, or closer to level 1, like engligh/arts ppl. SL was for ppl who where generally interested in math. This is comparable to AP calculus BC in the USA. and HL, for ppl who are good at math and suck at everything else, like me

the studies seemed to have more girls than guys. i noticed a lot of the ppl who where best at english and french where in that class. the SL was like half guys, half girls; i was originally in that class. and when i gt into the HL class, it was all guys.

when i was in SL, i mostly just sat there and looked around at ppl, never took notes or did practis work, but i always did challenge questions and aced tests. the teacher used to try to stump me, but i think overall he liked me. he would catch me by saying "to three digits... the question" and i would wip out my TI89 and solve it, and give the exact answer (TI89 is a programmable calculator that does algebraic manipulation) and he would just say "no". so i would try a dif way, get the same answer, think im wrong, try another way, etc. they would be interesting problems w/ lots of different ways to approach them, using all the skills we have done upto then, plus what we where leading into. anyways when i was accepted in HL, he told me i would have to learn to pay attention, i would have to do my work, i would have to "learn to take notes" and everything.

this really explained how much of a higher level of math this is. its no longer simple concepts i already understood, just written down. it was very abstract stuff, nasty profs, and very fast pace. this class was just 6 guys. i wonder if girls just arnt cut out for it? if their brains work different? im not trying to be sexist or anything, but im really curious about it.

in chem class, the female teacher explained to the class that guys are better at "thinking 3d" when we where talking about how compounds shape, and i wondered why that is. i never had a problem thinking in 3 dimensions, and thought neather did any1 else. when i try to imagine 4d, i end up breaking it down into 3d planes, is that how girls think 3d, array of 2d planes? i tried to imagine the 3d version of the pythagorean triangle like this, but cant. i just see it 3d wise. on paper i can draw it inside the 3d cube illusion thing, is that what its like for a girl to think it?

I know some girls who are very good at math- in fact two are getting their Ph.D in math right now.
I was always pretty good at math too (I'm a girl). We didn't have an IB program at my school, but I got a 5 on the AP Calculus exam. It does seem to be true that *more* guys are good at math, but that doesn't preclude a girl finding it interesting as well.

The common wisdom is that guys are better at math and science, while girls are better at languages. They've done studies to show that guys tend to outperform girls on mathematical thinking. HOWEVER, they've also done studies where they've told the girls before the start of the test that the particular math test they were about to take was specifically designed to eliminate the male advantage. When these girls then took the test, they performed as well as the guys did. When guys were told that the test was designed to give the advantage to girls, they performed worse than the girls. So really, the apparent gender difference may not be due to innate ability at all, but just effects of societal expectations.

As to how girls think about math, I have a nonverbal learning disability, so I have to really rely on verbal skills rather than spatial skills when I do math. I talk myself through everything, so I don't know how an NT, or even an AS girl would think about math.

pffttt!! !

anyone can be good at math

PhD in math, wow. what kind of jobs would that open up for you?? i would like to just take math i university so i dont have to do anything else

also the social expectations thing is interesting. maybe none of the girls wanted in the HL class simple to be "girly" cuz math is considered very male-like

They're going to be math professors, teaching at a university and doing research. Their dad is a math professor also. Smart family!



Also, they probably weren't encouraged to pursue math, even if they had an interest in it. In addition, from a young age they were probably conditioned not to expect that they would be good in math. That could definitely have an effect both on their interests and their perceived abilities.

No less so then men and no more so then men.

The relative low frequency of females to males working in math is stated by most studies to be attributable to cultural and social reasons rather than genetic ones and I am in full agreement with this as it makes more sense than to think otherwise.

Last edited by JakeG on 20 Apr 2007, 6:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I'm good at math.

Girls are good at cooking and cleaning.. and hunting and rebuilding harleys and driving monster trucks and uhhh.. so why do we need boys again?

I hate maths, so I'm no good at it.

I'll be honest, as concerns math. When it stops being applicable to the real world, I stop caring. lol

I'm a girl and I majorly suck at math! Language Arts is my strong point. Usually with AS, you're good at one or the other, but not too often both.

Yeah, Men are supposed to be bad at language, and Women are supposed to be bad at math. I am pretty good with language, and OK with math. If you remember, I used to say bad with math. Math hasn't been my strongest subject. I actually kind of envy people that really LOVE math so much, because they are so good at it. Then again, most of my "teachers" have been women, and my 3rd grade "teacher" actually "apologized"(I don't consider an apology an apology unless it is contrite) to my mother, AFTER THE FACT(After the year was over), for being such a bad math "teacher". It was her first foray into "teaching".(That was her "excuse".) I DISTINCTLY remember two things about her. ONE, she was hawaiian, and wanted to make it look like a fantastic place. Another was she apparently liked singing more than ANYTHING! Such teachers should be forced to work only menial jobs, and pay those they "taught".

I have, obviously, known some women that were VERY good at math. Besides, has ANYBODY really hit their potential on ANYTHING?

Steve

Alas...very very very very bad....I thibk I have (sp?) Dyscalclia possibly maybe...but I can beat people left and right at Dominoes, which is a counting game.
I struggle doing things like counting money though ....really simple stuff....I wish I was better....I hate the stereotpe of women not being good in math..yet I perpetuate it hard core...

Not true. Some people seem to have real blocks.
I have something oddly like this with Calculus, where
I can grasp the underlying concept, but have a lot of
trouble caring about the different methods of integration.

Many are, but not me.

I used to be a math-phobe, but got over it. I know some women who are extraordinarily good at math. Research seems to suggest that the historical difference in math performance had to do with social expectations re. gender.