School Help?

[Balwinder Kaur]

Tell me...do any of ya guys have to learn probability ?? Is it part of your syllabus ?? It really confused the hell outta me when I was in school !

i had to do probability for my 1st and 2nd year stats courses at uni (which are core subjects for me unfortunately :doh: )...it is confusing at first but once you read and get the hang of it, it's really fun to do. loved it heaps in 2nd year of uni especially...just so fun

[Raju]

well good for ya then.

My basic problem in probability stems from the fact that most of the problems in probability are related to cards, card this...card that...and I know jack about cards and worse I could not even make myself bother about it. And I still don't know much about cards. Also somewhere down the line the feeling somehow got ingrained into me that playing cards was a vice, like drinking liquor etc and if I didn't know bout it I would not have to deal with it etc.

Just as I felt that I was beginning to understand probability, come to grips with it, around the corner would be a 'card problem' and my understanding would go for a toss soon thereafter. Even dice problems in probability tested my nerves because of the vice of 'juaa' being so imbedded in my mind.

I would dismiss these games by saying that they are just mindless games ... so what da heck. When ultimately probability came face-to-face I just could not bring myself to learn these cards, and dice stuff.

But you are right about probability, once u understand the basics it all just falls into a pattern and all one has to do is to fill up the dots.

Another big problem was ratio and proportions. Questions like a man is 1.8 Metre tall and has a shadow that is 3 metres long find the length of the nearby lampost....lol.

Two cars X and Y are travelling at 70 Km and 90 Km respectively, which car will reach its destination first....and I am thinking like I care.

But atleast one can make a 'start' with these question, apply the formulae and stuff and let it take me wherever it wanted to, the answer might likely be wrong but one would atleast get some marks for application of the correct method & stuff.

But how do I tackle probability when I don't even know 'or care' how many kings, queens, Jacks..lol, are there in a set of cards.

[Balwinder Kaur]

wait till you have to play with probability in a GENETICS class...now that will drive you mad...my close friends knew how much i was crying and screaming over this genetics class i had to do last semester in uni which ended up being more of a PROBABILITY class than a genetics class... what are the odds of finding a DNA match?? what is the probability of identity given that bla bla bla leads to bla bla bla?? now THAT is something to vomit blood over.

[prabjit singh khalsa]

lol! thanks ppl... the teacher told me i could get my marks up to 90 on the first term if i pass every exam!

[prabjit singh khalsa]

lol! thanks ppl... the teacher told me i could get my marks up to 90 on the first term if i pass every exam!

[prabjit singh khalsa]

lol! thanks ppl... the teacher told me i could get my marks up to 90 on the first term if i pass every exam!

[Raju]

wait till you have to play with probability in a GENETICS class...

124460[/snapback]

well imma bit too old to study probability now, but I guess I can see what u talkin about. I think the problem with many of the applications that modern day math has in different fields like statistics, computing, and as you say finding out probability in Genetics is that instead of first tackling the question and then finding out a suitable solution the genuises who teach stats, biochemistry, physics & stuff try to do it da opposite way.

They'll frame some question and throw an answer at ya and then watch u squirm when u try to decipher what the problem really is. because unless one positively understands the problem and what really is going on how can you get to grips with a solution.

The keys to this mess are ofcourse in the hands of your teacher, and u bet they are gonna play around with ya before they hand over those keys. I often get the feelin that many people who have taken up the teaching profession esp subs like math are indeed sadists of some sort.