Another excuse for more failures:-)

[newshound]

There have been some interesting competitions

(1947)

(1967)

[Chris Hogg]

Standards have really slipped! :-)

[John Rumm]

I have seen a few do shoddy work though :-)

[Harry Bloomfield Esq]

NY presented the following explanation :

Simple - calculate in d, then adjust the answer at the end to £ s d.

[Harry Bloomfield Esq]

ARW presented the following explanation :

No calculator back then and you had to demonstrate the working out on the answer paper. You got points for the method even if you got the answer wrong. I don't remember them being that hard, when I did my O levels.

[Harry Bloomfield Esq]

on 07/02/2022, ARW supposed :

Must not attempt more than 9 of the questions - 10 listed. I half remember that.

[Harry Bloomfield Esq]

Colin Bignell used his keyboard to write :

That is not the way I remember it, showing the calculations and determining that there was an easier option, would gain you marks.

[Harry Bloomfield Esq]

Robin expressed precisely :

I grew up with it, was well used to it, but I certainly welcomed the change to decimal currency, plus the etc..

[Harry Bloomfield Esq]

Chris Hogg brought next idea :

I still have some tucked away.

As above and yes I can just about remember how to drive one.

[Harry Bloomfield Esq]

Brian Gaff (Sofa) formulated the question :

Me too. I never managed to learn the times table, rather I devised a method of remembering a few in each and via addition and subtraction, I could fill in the gaps quickly.

I think the main point of an education is to teach you to think. The selection processes, demand often demand people who can think and the easy way to do that is by assessing level of exams passed. It does sort of work, at least until someone offers a better method.

[Colin Bignell]

We must have had different maths teachers :-)

However, as you say, showing your working was vital. In any case, for me, working in £sd and guineas is the easier option. The calculation is simple as soon as you discover that the price of the gas is three guineas.

[John Rumm]

I would argue with this question, you need a decent understanding of the currency system to be even able to convert all to pence in the first place. So so long as you showed the working, came up with the right answer you ought to get all the marks. (especially as the answer is a number of cu.ft expressed as a base 10 integer)

(If one of the goals of the calculation was a "price" for something, then yes, displaying that in LSD would be "better" than just showing an answer in D)

Yup, got the same answer (and I have never used or been formally taught LSD)

[Theo]

I have never seen a slide rule, let alone know learnt to use one.

Never had to use a log table either, although I could probably work it out if I had to.

I think logs were formally introduced in A-level maths, but possibly touched upon in a roundabout way in GCSE. Still seems to be the case:

Theo

[JNugent]

I'm sure I was taught how to use log tables in the first year at grammar school (some years later than 1950!).

I'm fairly sure it was included in O Level GCE.

[Steve Walker]

Logs and log tables were introduced at 'O'-level in the '80s. However, comparing to my sons' lessons today, some 'O'-level things are not brought in until 'A'-level today, but others have been moved from 'A'-level to GCSE.

[charles]

I'm absolutely certain I used logs at O level in the 50s. It must have been for the upper Maths paper - was it called Additional Maths?

[RJH]

They were required for my Os (1979) but ISTR not As (1981) - something was going on with calculators at that point. Never came across a slide rule.

[RJH]

This 'think' thesis is all well and good but you have to know what to think about. So, I would suggest, a decent background about what is there to be thought about is a basic starting point?

History is a good case in point. For example, you might 'think' war is bad in abstract, for a whole range of ethical reasons. But knowledge of the history of conflict would help somebody to *understand* the concept and consequences.

Even thinking can be taught with no one 'right' - dialectics, scientific method, inductive and deductive reasoning etc.

[Tim Streater]

While this is true, it is nonetheless the case that you don't get to be a physicist or engineer without a thorough grounding in mathematics, which you don't get by just picking at it.

[Tim Streater]

Same with transport systems.