It becomes way to easy for someone to copy and say they did it in their head

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Showing your work is helpful to remind you what your thought process was after you've taken the test, but I still don't think you should lose points for not showing it.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

If the teacher says to show your work and you didn't you should be counted off for not following directions. It's like those test that say to read the directions first and the directions end up just saying, "Write your name at the top of the paper with a smiley face next to it." No ever ends up reading the directions.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I agree. There are some questions on tests that I know the answer to that I don't know how to get the answer, so I really have no work to show.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Then you shouldn't credit for something you don't know how to do.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

But why does it matter if they know how to get the answer, as long as they get it right? Most of the questions that require you to show working are fairly complex equations anyway, if they don't show their working the teacher shoulg give them a new problem after the test and see if they can do it in their head.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

No, teachers shouldn't have to bother doing extra work for every lazy student. The test is to see how well you've learnt what you were taught, if you do what the teacher was teaching you and you get the answer, that's good. If you do what you've been taught and not get the answer, it's still fairly good. A wrong answer with nothing gives nothing to the teacher, it just tells him that you're stupid.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

But it isn't about a wrong answer with nothing, it's about a correct answer with no working. Surely if you can do those problems in your mind without the working you aren't being challenged enough and need harder work.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

What if we're learning factoring and I solved it by the quadratic formula? Sure, I know how to solve it, but did I learn what was taught? No.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

If you solved it using the quadratic formula you wouldn't have done it in your head. If you had a real life problem it wouldn't matter how you got the answer as long as you did, why should it be any different in tests?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Because tests are meant to TEST things, like to TEST how well you've learn that specific one way to solve the thing, to TEST how well you know how to factor. And yes, in some cases it's possible to use the formula, since not all functions need to be complex.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

But why does it matter if you get the correct answer in the end? In real world terms no one would care.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

But it isn't the real world, in the real world you'll just use whatever you remember but this is one specific test to TEST how you learnt the one specific lesson. They're not testing you on how well you're going to live on your own, it's THIS lesson that you need to be able to understand. You've got to know a certain list of things to advance onwards, and if you keep using last chapter's formulas you won't learn anything else.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Because it's too easy to copy and say you did it in your head.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Whenever I had tests i would be too far away from anyone else to copy. And it really wouldn't be all that hard to just get the person to do one extra equation in the next maths class in his head to prove he can do it.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

The reason for that is to prove that you know what you're doing, and not just copying off of someone else. Also, it helps you remember how and why you get an answer, and can also be used as a reference if you need to

by Anonymous 12 years ago

For anyone that's wondering, this was a personal experience. It also was really easy stuff: just adding and subtracting fractions, such as 1/6 + 1/9. She wanted us to show the ENTIRE process of finding the least common denominator (factor tree, putting it in exponential form, etc.) when I know in half a second that the LCD of 6 and 9 is 18. I just think it's unnecessary to waste that much time with something as simple as that. Of course, with complex equations you SHOULD show your work, but if you don't want to that's your choice, and you have a higher chance of getting a question wrong. That's the student's risk, and the teacher should let them get the question wrong if they decide to take the faster way. But, I think not showing your work should not count as lost points.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

What math are you taking?! Once you get into calculus and math analysis, it doesn't matter whether or not the teacher will take off for not showing work. You WILL screw up if you don't work out the problem entirely and show all of your work on paper.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I'm only a freshman, and right now in my math concepts class we're doing multiplying, adding, dividing, and subtracting fractions. It's so easy, but there are no higher level classes for freshmen. I would take one if I could, seeing as I have a 101% in that class..:/ A lot of kids are actually struggling with these concepts...

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Really? As a freshman, I took geometry, but adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing fractions is something that I remember learning in middle school. If kids are still struggling with that as freshmen, they're going to have some trouble when they get into algebra and calculus.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Shit, I'm in Calc 1 as a junior and our class laughs when the TA is grading the Geometry papers out loud, "a tranle has *blank* sides. -answer- 8".

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Triangle* Stupid keyboard

by Anonymous 12 years ago