General Chat

There are 10 types of people in this world

Those who understand binary, and those who don't

:-D :-D :-D :-D :-D

Obviously there are some on this site who don't ;-) :-D :-D

:-D :-D :-D :-D

I had to look it up!

Just like to say, I accidentally became a member of MENSA aged 30, and took my maths GCSE aged 34.

The 'MENSA' thing was 'get back' at the younger of my older brothers who, at 16 called me 'thick' when I, aged10, couldn't answer his GCE questions.
We both (as did our dad) completed a quizz in a local paper.
All 3 of us were invited to take a 'MENSA' test for a fee, Dad wouldn't do it - but he would have beaten both of us,

I persuaded my brother to do it, just to get our IQ, to justify his calling me thick.
I'd passed my 11+, but he'd never taken it, because we lived in Scotland when he was 'of age', so we didn't have that to go on.

I didn't think it would go any further. than us finding out our IQ.
Well, it transpired, we both had exactly the same IQ - slightly lower than Einstein's - but high enough for us both to be invited to join MENSA.
I joined for a year, and went to about 4 of their meetings - they were soooo dull!

Because my eldest was becoming a 'problem' teenager, I, at 40, with no 'A' levels, but with a GCE in English, and a GCSE in Maths embarked on a degree course (through UCAS - so it was subjects no-one else wanted to do), so that I could arrange my lectures around her needs.
I got a 2:2 BA(Hons), and eldest has become a lovely lady, who works for the NHS.

My younger daughter went to Uni. Her reason for going? 'If you can do it, mum, it can't be that difficult'. Well, that put me my place!!!
She also likes dinosaurs, so, because of this, did a degree in Geology. She works for the Environment Department, so deals with 'dinosaurs' on a daily basis.

I still have my MENSA card. All it proves is that I'm as 'clever' as my brother, and can think in a particular way. However, I'm still useless at maths, and many other things. :-D

:-D :-D :-D

Ten out of two for that joke, Allan. :-D :-D

Maggie, our class at college, the year after leaving school, all did a preliminary MENSA test too. I got a high score so was asked to do the next test but, like your Dad, I would not do it as I did not think I ought to pay.

I don’t know what your Dad’s thoughts were but mine were, ‘Do they think I am lacking in common sense?’

Like you, I did my degree (BSC Hons) much later - not for any other reason other than I knew I would get a hefty pay rise. :-D

Before that, at college immediately after leaving school, I got a bookkeeping and accountancy qualification which meant I was never out of work.

Several in my family have taken up Maths in various forms as careers so, while I think I think I am fairly good at Maths, I am, happily, far outranked by my children and grandchildren. :-S

I definitely can't do maths the way children are taught nowadays!

Even the ex - who's dyslexic, but took a maths degree, then a Masters - both when he was well over 40, couldn't help our (then) 12 year old grandson with his homework! :-D :-D :-D

The 'scariest' grandchild is 7 year old Amber. Her teacher has said 'Her scientific knowledge and understanding is incredible'.
Apparently, a travelling planetarium came to her school to teach them about space. Amber asked about the Oort cloud. None of them knew what it was. Amber had to tell them.
Well, granny can't even remember the mnemonic for the order of the planets, and had no idea about the Oort cloud.:-S

At 3, Amber could identify most cars by their badges :-S

and the other 6 use hexadecimal...

Will going back to the Imperial System affect this? ;-)

Those poor kids who will have to start learning rods poles and perches now. :-(

I agree, Kense :-(

They're also not allowed to enjoy reading any more - they have to 'understand' whilst trying to learn to read, what all the types of nouns and pronouns are, what words are verbs, adverbs, etc.

It's enough to put anyone off reading - they should wait until the child can read with confidence before breaking down the language.

Strange, I missed out on quite a bit of thls sort of thing, due to changing schools, and every school having a different curriculum, but I can still manage to string an understandable sentence together.

WE did the Binary system in primary school and I really enjoyed doing it. I always loved maths including Algebra etc and loved all aspects of English. Read books all the time, loved spelling tests and doing crosswords.

I also did a home Mensa test and was invited to do a supervised test but the centre was on the mainland so didn't get to take it.I still have my certificate though in a box somewhere.

For my love of numbers I ended up working in banking for 16 years and then in teaching in Learning Support for 11 years. So I worked in the field of my 2 best school subjects, strange really.

Florence in the hebrides

As we are going to be able to use both imperial and metric systems and because metric is much easier calculation-wise, I doubt whether children of today will put too much effort into learning imperial, particularly those already at school or on the verge of leaving school.

I know I wouldn't. :-S

strange, methinks...we buy most things under a metric banner, but to my mind, petrol is still based in gallons...


IF petrol was priced in gallons........would we have stood for these price rises? going metric, a few coppers on a litre doesn't sound like much of an increase, but it is 4.5 times that

eg. £1.73 equals £7.78 per gallon (in my car, just under 40 mpg)

Too true Bob.

I still cant weigh in grams, i will always use lbs and ounces. All of my jugs and scales have both metric & imperial as do my cookery books.

But decimalization made it easier in maths counting in 10s instead of 12's ( doing money)but I can quickly covert new money to old money with no problem. i will also still measure in inches not cm. 12 inches= 1 foot but no idea how many cm that is??? :-S

I still do my weight and height in stones and pounds, and feet and inches.
I do know that a foot is slightly less than 30cm - but that's only because most of my rulers have both measurements on :-D