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The article's point is perhaps that it's better to try and gain some intuition for whether or not you have the right answer, rather than checking the answer key

by ronaldx 12y ago

The article's point is perhaps that it's better to try and gain some intuition for whether or not you have the right answer, rather than checking the answer key. Relying on the answer key (or waiting for the teacher to say "you are right!") is an extremely poor habit and we should avoid teaching students to depend on that (in maths class or otherwise): in real life, there is no answer key. One of the philosophical ideas of maths is that there are multiple ways of looking at a problem, and those multiple ways should feed back onto each other to confirm your answer. Maths is not just a bunch of rules that have to be followed without question: in this case, maths is modelling something practical and the answer needs to match reality. Without that, the probability model could not even have been invented. If you can't get beyond the stage of do_question+check_answer, you are never going to be capable of anything more than grinding out other people's mathematical results. I'm sorry you weren't taught maths by this person.

Kenji 12y ago
Before you've gotten a firm grasp on the subject, you might be convinced that your answer is right but it's not. Especially when the maths becomes more complicated. If nobody tells you it's wrong, you will incorporate more and more wrong things in your understanding. I notice this horrible effect every time I'm solving exercises for uni and there are no solutions. I think I've done good work. Sometimes, everything really was right, other times, I made fundamental mistakes all across the exercises, showing me that I didn't understand something important. Of course, when you're in research, there's no key. That's why it's so difficult. But it doesn't make sense to reinvent the wheel, as in, researching things that are already well known.
sanderjd 12y ago
In real life there is no answer key but there is still validation, which is all your parent is asking for and probably what those kids were really looking for.

by ronaldx 12y ago

Kenji 12y ago

Before you've gotten a firm grasp on the subject, you might be convinced that your answer is right but it's not. Especially when the maths becomes more complicated. If nobody tells you it's wrong, you will incorporate more and more wrong things in your understanding. I notice this horrible effect every time I'm solving exercises for uni and there are no solutions. I think I've done good work. Sometimes, everything really was right, other times, I made fundamental mistakes all across the exercises, showing me that I didn't understand something important. Of course, when you're in research, there's no key. That's why it's so difficult. But it doesn't make sense to reinvent the wheel, as in, researching things that are already well known.

sanderjd 12y ago

In real life there is no answer key but there is still validation, which is all your parent is asking for and probably what those kids were really looking for.