Mathematics and the Male brain

[Tossu-sama]

I'm bad at math. I can deal with basic stuff and when I have the actual expression in front of me I can probably solve it, if I can actually remember the formula for it. But if I gotta figure out what to count from text, it's almost the same as if you'd make me read Chinese. I've had problems in that kind of exercises ever since I started school in 1997.

I ended up with math grade 8 when my compulsory school ended (I believe it's equivalent the to US grade B) and it's mostly thanks to the math teacher I had for the last three years. Math got very complicated for me and I would've struggled way more than I eventually did if it were not for that teacher. She was amazing and had a way of teaching that made even someone like me understand enough that I could complete basic stuff with relative ease.
Verbal exercises, though? No luck, I always misinterpreted something in them and my solutions were wrong. Although, I had problems with cosine, sine and tangent as well... I don't know how I looked at my triangles since I always chose the wrong function for those exercises...

My mom and my aunt (mom's sister) are also terrible at math but surprisingly their mother isn't. She's like a walking calculator. I bet she would've done amazingly well if her parents had let her study more than just what was compulsory back then. But she can multiply two and three digit numbers with ease and seeing her old report cards from the late 1940s and early 1950s, she always had top grades in math. Maybe she's a one hit wonder in our family.

[Emileeeee]

Mathematical ability has nothing to do with what sex brain you have but how you are taught in my opinon. I was bad because the teaching was bad, I started to doubt my own ability, hated and feared the subject and ended up in a vicious cycle that was easily broken within a year by some decent coaching and a willingness to succeed.

Absolutely true. I nearly failed math several years in a row. It just didn't make sense. I argued with guidance for weeks to allow me to take AP Calculus despite my math history. I had a phenomenal teacher and I ended up acing it, and getting enough AP credit to skip a few Calculus classes in college too. I'm also the type that needs to know why we need to learn something. Those math courses I struggled in were all single-subject subjects and none of the teachers would explain the usefulness to me. Calculus brought them all together and almost every example was a real world problem.


There is also the "born with an x brain, in a y body" thing. So since I'm MtF, wouldn't that mean I have a female brain? With this math/gender idea, that should mean that I would never be able to grasp math. It would also mean that FtMs should excel at it.

[KarlMars]

Yeah, I'm a statistician. 

The PhD in charge of our analysis department is female.  I don't think any gender related trends are related to aptitude.  Maybe just related to interest.

That sounds like a great job. Do you enjoy it? I'm obsessed with statistics even though I've always questioned or doubted the accuracy of them because they were just a random sample of people.

[Deborah]

I do really enjoy it when I get to do it.  Unfortunately, most of the time I have to do other things.

Math and statistics are perfectly honest and are accurate predictors, within a specified margin of error, when applied honestly and correctly.  However, since almost nobody understands it unscrupulous people can misuse the techniques to provide whatever result they want to present.  They have given the science an undeserved bad reputation.


Sapere Aude

[KarlMars]

I do really enjoy it when I get to do it.  Unfortunately, most of the time I have to do other things.

Math and statistics are perfectly honest and are accurate predictors, within a specified margin of error, when applied honestly and correctly.  However, since almost nobody understands it unscrupulous people can misuse the techniques to provide whatever result they want to present.  They have given the science an undeserved bad reputation.


Sapere Aude

I'm impressed with your knowledge. You're such a smart lady.

[Tysilio]

Math and statistics are perfectly honest and are accurate predictors, within a specified margin of error, when applied honestly and correctly.  However, since almost nobody understands it unscrupulous people can misuse the techniques to provide whatever result they want to present.  They have given the science an undeserved bad reputation.

Too true.

I've said for years (decades actually) that a basic course in probability theory should be a requirement for graduating from high school, and everyone who graduates from college should have taken a basic statistics course.  Understanding the basics of this stuff is essential to learning to think.

Hardly anyone understands coin flips, fergodsakes.

[KarlMars]

Too true.

I've said for years (decades actually) that a basic course in probability theory should be a requirement for graduating from high school, and everyone who graduates from college should have taken a basic statistics course.  Understanding the basics of this stuff is essential to learning to think.

Hardly anyone understands coin flips, fergodsakes.

I may not have graduated then. I had an IEP (Individualized Education Program) because I was mentally ill and had social problems. I can't do fractions or algebra. I did well in everything but mathematics. Government and Environmental Science were my favorites. I don't know if I could get any kind of degree in Environmental Science though.

[Deborah]

Hey, I spoke too soon this morning and will be doing data analysis full time.  Yaaaaay

I went to a job interview after lunch and was offered the job at about the same salary I am getting now.  So I'll submit my two week notice on Monday.

I'll be assisting in experiment design and doing the data analysis for simulation experiments.  I'm looking forward to it.  Its been a while since I had an interesting job that required turning on more than a couple of brain cells at a time.


Sapere Aude

[Deborah]

Hardly anyone understands coin flips, fergodsakes.

If they did the casinos would be empty.

[arice]

No. I am good at math and tend to be masculine of centre but I know many cis women who are equally good at it and cis men who are lousy.
I used to tutor university math classes and most of my students were people who had just never been taught math in a way that worked for them.

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