this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2024
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In maths, we have calculators, including ones that break down every step for you. Things like wolfram alpha have been around for what must be decades now.
How did we solve the problem for maths?
We didn't. Students cheat on their homework and do poorly on tests and beg and whine for ways to make up the grade with other cheatable assignments.
Source: taught math in universities for 6 years
But isn't that then the problem solved? They can't pass the exam if they don't study, I don't see why ChatGPT changes this.
You might think most people who pass math classes learned what the class is about, but that's not correct. People pass by learning slightly less than the bare minimum and cheating.
That is a very "one size fits all" opinion. I am very gifted in math at a baseline but failed to fully master the fundamentals. And have no ability to memorize a formula I would look up every time in the real world. I only ever cheated by adding the formulas to a program in my graphing calculator.
However, even with these flaws, I graduated high school, having not taken trig, only geometry and algebra. I tested past all pre trig classes by figuring out what sin cos and all are vaguely from context clues.
I then failed hard as you can imagine, and though I fully understood the concepts, I would make small errors in computations. I wouldn't write out everything I did step by step because I was so used to doing things in my head before the teacher was done with the question.
Everyone is different. Signed someone who probably would have made some breakthrough in math with proper mentorship with zero interest in learning math.
I was also never ever taken aside by a teacher who showed any interest at all in my math abilities. Still bitter about it.
Math is one of thoses subjects where you both need muscle memory and full conceptual understanding. Unfortunately there is no skill out there that translates well into giving you that, like geography would to history, english to another language etc. It requires very deliberate practice, which is painful and effortful, so I understand how hard of an obstacle it is for students out there.
Well, it was a generalization after all. The point is that cheating is easy and indeed people do it. Not that nobody ever failed because they weren't given enough of a chance.