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I went to an international school, so I somehow got impressions of the different math systems of various countries through friends from around the world. My im

I went to an international school, so I somehow got impressions of the different math systems of various countries through friends from around the world. My impression was that South Koreans were the most intensely drilled kids. They would show up and panic about being left behind due to the pedestrian nature of IB higher math. Like they would literally show up, see that we are doing some integral, and be like "oh am I in the wrong room? " Scandinavian countries and North America seemed to be the gentle touch. Particularly Americans seemed to show up as if they'd never seen algebra by the time we got to the last couple of years of high school. I remember seeing my cousin's math homework from the US and it seemed too easy for his age. Likewise with a Danish cousin. The British system seemed soft at the time. I sat the GCSE and A levels a year early, thought I'd done badly with the syllabus being a bit different, but the marking was so lenient I got the top mark anyway. My kid is in that system now and he's able able to answer questions for exams that happen in five years, so maybe it's just that the exam is for a very broad range of abilities and he's had good teaching. Eastern Europe was on a par with the top countries. I was actually on a math team where we'd do contests with other international schools. Most years, the winning team was Koreans and East Asians. The year we won it, my two teammates were Polish. You could tell they were well drilled from their previous education. I still talk to them, great friends. I never knew how big a deal IMO was. I know a couple of Iranian gold medallists, and they seemed to have special classes to prepare, lasting a significant amount of time, with a later field's medallist teaching them. I know a guy who did the whole Chinese system, also hugely impressive and with a lot of work. By contrast, a kid from my school got into our national team with barely any coaching before the big event.

zelos 3y ago
Compared to when I was at school, 25-30 years ago, the current UK maths syllabus is much harder. It still focuses far too much on "how" rather than "why", though.
RugnirViking 3y ago
the UK A level maths exam does cover a dramatic range of ability - there are a fair few gimme questions and some ambitious ones towards the back of the exam. There are also specialties, of which you usually only have to pick one (iirc decision maths, mechanics, or statistics. Then if you take further maths you do the remaining ones plus some more "why" stuff with formal proofs etc) In general, having taken maths and further maths, after moving to denmark and studying in university, I found myself a lot further ahead than my peers for years (and subsequently slacked off and had to relearn the discipline aha). I also found that I had quite an advantage at doing things in my head/with blackboard, wheras danish students wanted to go to matlab/computer immediately. I think i'm glad that I learned it this way, although I often will use matlab, I do find it has helped me catch mistakes or things that just dont feel right In uni in denmark they do have strange oral maths exams though sometimes. That was interesting. Personally I quite liked it, although I know some of my peers absolubtely hated it, and spent days feeling nauseous at the prospect of facing a panel of professors
- lordnacho 3y ago
  So you did high school in the UK and uni in DK? How did they convert the grades? My kid might do this someday, that's why I'm asking.
  - RugnirViking 3y ago
    For me they actually didn't, there are two admissions tracks, quota 1 and quota 2. The first is much more based on your "gpa" type thing, which is converted by the educational institution you apply for. The danish grades system is strange, a 12 point scale, with the only possible grades being 0 (a fail), 2 (barely passed), 4, 7, 10, and 12 (excellent grade). Personally my A levels results weren't great so I applied via quota 2, where it is more about the personal statement you submit and other external achievements. I had done work in open source and won some programming competitions which meant I got in relatively easily. Amusingly enough they did want me to submit proof of my English proficiency which was hard because I had never done an exam in it but it was easy enough with a phone call to resolve that (presumably partly because they could hear me conducting the phone call in english aha) here you can find the guidelines they use to convert foreign exams https://ufm.dk/uddannelse/anerkendelse-og-dokumentation/find-vurderinger/eksamenshaandbogen/lande-og-eksaminer https://ufm.dk/uddannelse/anerkendelse-og-dokumentation/find...
    - lordnacho 3y ago
      What degree did you do that you needed english proficiency?
      - RugnirViking 3y ago
        Robotics batchelors (and subsequently masters), offered in english (although one or two of the first year classes were in danish it wasn't too onerous to get around). A few years ago the government had an agenda to reduce foreign students so axed all (most?) of the english language batchelors, so it probably isnt available anymore.

zelos 3y ago

Compared to when I was at school, 25-30 years ago, the current UK maths syllabus is much harder. It still focuses far too much on "how" rather than "why", though.

RugnirViking 3y ago

the UK A level maths exam does cover a dramatic range of ability - there are a fair few gimme questions and some ambitious ones towards the back of the exam. There are also specialties, of which you usually only have to pick one (iirc decision maths, mechanics, or statistics. Then if you take further maths you do the remaining ones plus some more "why" stuff with formal proofs etc) In general, having taken maths and further maths, after moving to denmark and studying in university, I found myself a lot further ahead than my peers for years (and subsequently slacked off and had to relearn the discipline aha). I also found that I had quite an advantage at doing things in my head/with blackboard, wheras danish students wanted to go to matlab/computer immediately. I think i'm glad that I learned it this way, although I often will use matlab, I do find it has helped me catch mistakes or things that just dont feel right In uni in denmark they do have strange oral maths exams though sometimes. That was interesting. Personally I quite liked it, although I know some of my peers absolubtely hated it, and spent days feeling nauseous at the prospect of facing a panel of professors

lordnacho 3y ago
So you did high school in the UK and uni in DK? How did they convert the grades? My kid might do this someday, that's why I'm asking.
- RugnirViking 3y ago
  For me they actually didn't, there are two admissions tracks, quota 1 and quota 2. The first is much more based on your "gpa" type thing, which is converted by the educational institution you apply for. The danish grades system is strange, a 12 point scale, with the only possible grades being 0 (a fail), 2 (barely passed), 4, 7, 10, and 12 (excellent grade). Personally my A levels results weren't great so I applied via quota 2, where it is more about the personal statement you submit and other external achievements. I had done work in open source and won some programming competitions which meant I got in relatively easily. Amusingly enough they did want me to submit proof of my English proficiency which was hard because I had never done an exam in it but it was easy enough with a phone call to resolve that (presumably partly because they could hear me conducting the phone call in english aha) here you can find the guidelines they use to convert foreign exams https://ufm.dk/uddannelse/anerkendelse-og-dokumentation/find-vurderinger/eksamenshaandbogen/lande-og-eksaminer https://ufm.dk/uddannelse/anerkendelse-og-dokumentation/find...
  - lordnacho 3y ago
    What degree did you do that you needed english proficiency?
    - RugnirViking 3y ago
      Robotics batchelors (and subsequently masters), offered in english (although one or two of the first year classes were in danish it wasn't too onerous to get around). A few years ago the government had an agenda to reduce foreign students so axed all (most?) of the english language batchelors, so it probably isnt available anymore.