Are you smarter than a 4th grader?

Alasliasolonik

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Just because I'm fired up about this now, here's how to learn how to pass a 3rd grade multiplication test up to 12x12 with very little memorization, the way I taught myself.

2s and 3s and 10s tables - simple, if you can't just do this in your head automatically you're below 90 IQ.
4s - just double the 2s.
5s - x10 and divide in half.
12s - Practice counting by dozens in your head until you memorize it backwards and forwards.
6s - You just memorized counting by dozens so just divide those in half. Or you could double the threes.
7s - 7x2 through 7x5 should be easy for you from the lines above, just memorize 7x6, 7x7, and 7x8 for expediency.
8s - Just like the 4s except double again.
9s - Algorithmic, subtract 1 to get the first digit then the first + second digit always add up to 9.
11s - You only have to memorize 11x11 = 121, because the rest are just a pattern, 11, 22, 33, etc, and 121 is still a palindrome.

Now, this does rely on being able to quickly half and double numbers in your head but smart people just do this automatically and less smart people could practice this particular skill via hand calculation and/or memorization rather than practicing the entire table.

You've cut the things you have to memorize down from a whole table to 4 individual items + counting by dozens.
What about 1s and 13??
 
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Aldarion

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Just because I'm fired up about this now, here's how to learn how to pass a 3rd grade multiplication test up to 12x12 with very little memorization, the way I taught myself.

2s and 3s and 10s tables - simple, if you can't just do this in your head automatically you're below 90 IQ.
4s - just double the 2s.
5s - x10 and divide in half.
12s - Practice counting by dozens in your head until you memorize it backwards and forwards.
6s - You just memorized counting by dozens so just divide those in half. Or you could double the threes.
7s - 7x2 through 7x5 should be easy for you from the lines above, just memorize 7x6, 7x7, and 7x8 for expediency.
8s - Just like the 4s except double again.
9s - Algorithmic, subtract 1 to get the first digit then the first + second digit always add up to 9.
11s - You only have to memorize 11x11 = 121, because the rest are just a pattern, 11, 22, 33, etc, and 121 is still a palindrome.

Now, this does rely on being able to quickly half and double numbers in your head but smart people just do this automatically and less smart people could practice this particular skill via hand calculation and/or memorization rather than practicing the entire table.

You've cut the things you have to memorize down from a whole table to 4 individual items + counting by dozens.
You're still memorizing.

Except instead of memorizing 144 numbers, arranged in a symmetrical and regular pattern (276 characters), you've chosen to memorize a set of 599 characters arranged in irregular prose.

Personally I find your solution bizarre, because why replace a regular array of numbers (super easy to memorize) with a list of logical rules expressed in sentence form (hard to memorize). But thats me.
I don't really criticize your solution, because I really doubt it made you any slower at learning it, and either solution would be equally effective once learned.

But you've just memorized in a non standard and longer way.
 
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iannis

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You're still memorizing.

Except instead of memorizing 144 numbers, arranged in a symmetrical and regular pattern (276 characters), you've chosen to memorize a set of 599 characters arranged in irregular prose.

Personally I find your solution bizarre, because why replace a regular array of numbers (super easy to memorize) with a list of logical rules expressed in sentence form (hard to memorize). But thats me.
I don't really criticize your solution, because I really doubt it made you any slower at learning it, and either solution would be equally effective once learned.

But you've just memorized in a non standard and longer way.
Those are tricks you apply. I learned those same tricks, but after Wed already memorized the tables. Those are patterns that pop out of the array, the are not immediately obvious until you've formed it. This is an example of rote preparing the kind for logic.

It speeds it up slightly. There's a murky quadrant at 6-8 by 6-8 where just memorizing is better than a trick. 7x6? 8x8? Just memorize it. But the nines one, you memorize a simple formula. Nine minus ( Operand less one ), and for me it's quicker to do that than memorize ten facts. IT's one fact.

I don't think the human brain operates with bits. Synapses are not a transliteration. It builds from that because how could it not, but doesn't operate from them. It's a higher order.
 
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Lendarios

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Let me hit you with some facts:

Computers were invented by people who really, really loved math but hated the work of actually grinding out mathematically calculations.

Do you have an actual citation for this? Maybe in your memory.

Really mist, mechanical computers were invented and supported by business because keeping a room of people to do mathematical computation was EXPENSIVE and error prone, as the work had to be double checked, and it was lengthy to do the computations and tiring for a human.

People who are good at mathematics don't grow on trees, that is the reality of the human species. Almost everyone is excellent with values under 100, but almost NO ONE, in comparison with the population size, is good with large numbers.

Seriously divide 12388734.3431/23243.234319, no matter what ever method you use, without the aid of a mechanical device(which is just what a computer is, a programmable mechanical device) it will take a good time to compute that to an exact value.
 
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Mudcrush Durtfeet

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Our family is already running into this new math at the 1st grade level. Shit like 9 + _ = 15. 1st grade and they're teaching algebra, but the kid is taught to use the number line and count the places between 9 and 15.

New? This was how it was taught to me in 1973 you moron.
 
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Borzak

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Hey, I'm just happy I know the answer to that one.
 
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Asshat wormie

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It's mudcrush. Bragging about solving x + 9 = 15 is all he has.
 
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Sanrith Descartes

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Dont hate. I'm willing to wager that 75% of the adults living in Chicago, Philly and DC cant solve 9 + x = 15 without using their phone.
 
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Borzak

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Dont hate. I'm willing to wager that 75% of the adults living in Chicago, Philly and DC cant solve 9 + x = 15 without using their phone.

You think they know where to look on the phone to solve anything like that?
 
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Asshat wormie

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Dont hate. I'm willing to wager that 75% of the adults living in Chicago, Philly and DC cant solve 9 + x = 15 without using their phone.
I bet if you rephrase the question in terms of crack rocks these adults will turn into Einstein.
 

Lenardo

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I'm 53, my school -as best as i can remember- didn't use a number line. we did flash cards of addition and...the tables

and i never realized that about the nine multiplication table, for me simple math is easy. takes maybe 2 seconds for me to do any of the basic math stuff (up to 12x12) i always tested well in the old standardized text where they gave the results as above x grade. by 3rd grade my reading comprehension was beyond high school (highest it went) and my math was like around 9th..

In high school geometry just came easy to me - no idea why i was just born that way i guess- my teacher disliked me...ya disliked that is the term.for geometry: I never did my homework, it looked like i barely paid attention in class, rarely(maybe one or two all year) got a question wrong on a test or quiz(test and quiz average was over 100-he gave bonus questions), and i pointed out EVERY mistake the teacher made on the board right when he made it. "Mr Sapienza, that is not right, it should be (insert whatever the right answer was). he'd give me a dirty look, step back, look,,,and then change it to what i said...it became a game to me.
 

Void

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You seem content to argue with what you want to think I said rather than what I actually said, so I'm going to let you continue to argue with yourself.
Since most of the other people in this thread seem to have interpreted your words similarly to how I did, I feel pretty good about my stance that you think you're saying one thing, but it isn't coming across that way.

Furthermore, I don't even think you believe what you think you are saying. Because you've pretty clearly said, several times, that people that memorize just don't "get" math the same way you do, because you somehow can't fathom that most/all of us were actually taught the "why" of multiplication just like you were, and after that we were tasked with memorizing the tables. And then you are making up some sort of illusionary reality where new students being taught memorization are ONLY being taught memorization. We all learned both, as is clearly evident by these posts, why can't some teachers still be teaching both right now? You have this block in your head where memorization = bad and somehow excludes learning the underlying theories too.

And then, you go ahead and list out your methods for solving shit in your head...half of which is fucking memorization! You're trolling me and everyone else at this point, you have to be. I get it, you win, I wasted minutes of my work time thinking you were being serious, because someone who talks about the evils of memorization wouldn't type out a methodology that included a shitload of memorization, right??

The sad thing is, I know you're not trolling. Fuck it, you win, you are truly a 148 IQ or whatever the number you said was. I simply cannot follow the logic processes of such a super-genius, and that's why I'm unable to read your arguments the way you actually mean them, regardless of how they seem to the rest of us peons.
 
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Mist

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And then, you go ahead and list out your methods for solving shit in your head...half of which is fucking memorization!
See, you're bad at math. Less than 20% of that is memorization.
 
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Mist

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Those are patterns that pop out of the array, the are not immediately obvious until you've formed it. This is an example of rote preparing the kind for logic.
I think this is the exact wrong way to look at learning. If you train people to just memorize something first, they will be robbed of the opportunity to discover the patterns themselves and build their own mental schema, because they will just memorize it instead. Like I said last night, you can train chimps to memorize just about anything, but you can't teach chimps to to actually understand math.

Effectively memorization engages a whole different subsystem of the brain (a much older and more primitive one) than the newer evolved subsystems of the brain that are used for actual understanding.
 

Void

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See, you're bad at math. Less than 20% of that is memorization.
Ackshually, if you aren't going just by the number of lines you typed, because why would you do something silly like that, out of 11 numbers (since 1s don't count), you want us to memorize 2s, 3s, 10s, and 12s. That's 4/11. Not counting the 3 7s you want people to memorize randomly, that's over 36%!

Yes, I'm being pedantic, to counter yours.

But seriously, your whole point is that somehow it is "better" to have to solve something like 6 x 8 by knowing that 3 x 8 is 24, and then doubling it, instead of just fucking knowing that it is 48. Or your algorithmic trick to do 9 x 7, instead of just fucking knowing it is 63. And let's be clear here, that is a fucking trick that has NOTHING to do with understanding how multiplication works, you realize that, right? Just knowing that it always adds to 9 and subtracting a 1 doesn't teach you anything vital about multiplication that us "memorizers" didn't learn. Unless you truly think that visualizing rows of rabbits and then subtracting one row and then whatever you have to do to rows of rabbits to make them add to 9 is somehow understanding multiplication?

I can guarantee you that every single one of us commenting in this thread understands that we could get to 6 x 8 by going through the 3s like you do, but we also, somehow, managed to make it through life with all those extra memorized tables in our heads! It's not like we have limited RAM and we need to be selective about what we store in our brains.

Why can't you just agree that, if students learn the basics of multiplication first, memorization can be a useful tool to speed up the process in real world environments? Why is that so taboo to you? I really don't get it.
 
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