What's one thing you never understood in school?

[remnant_phoenix]

Any math beyond Algebra and Geometry. Calculus and Trigonometry were completely alien to me. I tried really hard to understand the concepts and how to employ the formulas, but logarithms, antilogarithms, sines/cosines/tangents...it was like a foreign language to me.

Speaking of which, I also sucked at learning foreign language.

The frustration at these two areas of blatant misunderstanding was exascerbated by the fact that pretty much everything else I did in school came naturally to me. In most classes, I could forgo studying and still make an A or a B. In advanced math and foreign language I'd have to try really hard just to make a C, maybe a B if I was lucky.

 

[RanD00M]

None. All of the subjects I've had and I currently have I understand pretty damn well. The only one I'm falling behind on is AutoCAD drawing, but that's because I dick around on the internet the entire class.

 

[projectX42]

gah English all the way.

I mean with them forcing us to read Shakespeare and any other shit on papper they can find i almost lost my will to read and i was a very dedicated reader back then. an then when they asked us a question i got in trouble for telling them my opinion (basically that the author should shut up and stop winging). oh and then we had language analyses, half a year dedicated to pointing out how the author of a news paper peace was trying to persuade us? i never saw the bloody point of s essay ether



oh and also i recently became increasingly depressed when i say the author of the terrible book had written another laming they where a "best seller" WE HAD TO GET YOUR C*****G BOOK FOR SCHOOL NOT BECOME YOUR ACTUALLY GOOD OR HAVE AN INTERESTING LIFE

 

[RedDeadFred]

Logrithms. Math was really easy for me up until grade 11 and 12...

Good thing I'd already planned on going into music.

 

[Jedamethis]

I have no idea what on earth I did in 3 years of music lessons. Not for an instrument you understand, just...I don't know.

On a slightly related note, I am a dunce. Had to do a presentation on a food product we designed for English. Mine was fucking amazing. The rest of the class were reading off sheets, or mumbling a lot, and generally being terrible. So I walked up, delivered an amazing presentation on fucking soup. I called myself a charismatic stallion, likened my soup machine to the internet(but tastier), and still gave all the information I needed to.
Got one of the lowest fucking marks in the class because I forgot the presentation was supposed to be aimed at some fancy supermarket.

 

[lacktheknack]

Stoichiometry made me cry, but I did figure it out... after the final. Gah.

However, Synthetic Division never made any sense to me, and still doesn't. What a cruel thing to do to grade eleven students.

 

[BigFish]

Why using the bathroom cost me five points off a test and physics! Great at math terrible at physics.

 

[lacktheknack]

nah it wasn't sarcasm
and im in high school so we don't have "lectures"
and besides even if i did pay attention (believe me, i try!) MY head would explode!
but seriously, what is it used for in life?!

Algebra is the very basis of all higher mathematics. If you cannot do algebra, you cannot use calculus, for instance, which is used in statistics, computer programming, and engineering. It's also the base of doing any calculations in Physics, which are integral to pretty much any science-oriented job (medical, engineering, research, development, construction, etc).

So basically, Algebra is really important if you're not an arts student or a dropout.

 

[IpunchFaces]

Maths. My god, my right-sided mind can't wrap around its concept.

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate the subject. I am thankful for those smarter than me that can put it into use for the greater good and made the world essentially what it is today.

I tried really hard to like it. I really did. Some of my friends saw no problem in seeing the beauty in Math; they said each question had a 'pattern' to it; like seeing individual strings on a tapestry. And I can understand how they feel. I just wish I saw what they did.

But as soon as I see a deceptively simple one-lined question and a whole piece of blank A4 just to complete it, something in my brain just shuts off after half-way attempting it and getting stuck in a mathematical dead-end. I end up doodling and getting a well-deserved scolding after.

 

[Kae]

I never understood how to play an instrument, seriously I took flute for 2 years and guitar for 3 and I still have no clue how are you supposed to play music with those things.

I'm not even sure what you mean. Surely you played something musical in those years.

Not busting your chops, mind. I really don't get it.

Well, I actually was never able to play anything, I don't know why but I always seemed to have forgotten everything for the next day, so basically every class I had to learn how to play the notes again because I didn't remember, it was strange specially considering how much pointless information I've memorized I can't really understand why I can't do music. So I guess I'm simply not a musical person at all, it's kind of annoying that I was never able to play even those really short songs that only had like 6 notes.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Eh, I'd say maths, but then I can usually figure out a problem perfectly if I've been taught how to do it ie trigonometry and algebra.

If someone shouts a sum at me though I can't do it. I have some sort of wierd panic attack and even if I got it right I'd have to check it on a calculator. They put me in the highest maths class at school so I don't know, I think it might be anxiety related.

 

[SckizoBoy]

... why the Headmaster was such a dickhead...!

Oh, you mean subject... um... general studies in sixth form... we didn't take any exams for it, we just had lessons for it, but I haven't the faintest idea what the hell went on or why we even did it...

 

[Burntpopcarn]

Math. Math all the way. Everything else is good, but math...I'm not too sure about math...

 

[Jonluw]

Maths.
That is to say: I understand maths and all, I just don't understand the way it interacts with me.

See, I will sit there in class and understand every word the teacher says, but I'm absolutely horrible at doing homework, so I don't do any exercises and thus the stuff doesn't stick.
I've gotten a 3 (rough equivalent of a D. We use a scale from 1 to 6. A 6 is slightly harder to get than an A.) on practically every maths test in the last three years.
And still, I managed to get a 5+ on the big end of term test.
I don't know how it works.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

I was ok at maths, hell I even got an A-level in it... But I NEVER got the hang of Differentiation and Intergration! :S

Also, most of the stuff we did in A-level Physics before I gave up, I just couldn't do! It was crazy! I got the space stuff though! And I loved the e=mc^2 stuff! I remember finding out that Mars has a bigger gravitational pull on a baby, than its mother standing a meter away from it! That was a great use of maths and theory!

 

[Vhite]

Chemistry. Im sorry chemists, your science is really interesting but shouldn't let aliens to make a naming system for you.
Electrical engineering - I was quite interested in it until school ruined for me by flooding us with theory and not explaining anything at all.

 

[Shadu]

I couldn't understand the relevance of a lot of stuff taught. I mean, now I'm constantly asked by a teacher from a different nationality if we were taught certain things (mostly history) in our school, and I always just wanted to ask him why it was so important. I don't care, I'm not going to us it. So what's the point?

It's not that I didn't get the subject because I did. It's that I didn't get the relevance. I have forgotten most of what I digested in school that I will never use.

The other thing I didn't understand is why are sports so highly regarded? Especially when compared with things like band. Musicians put in just as much work as athletes. Even in my school, where the band won a lot of awards and the sports teams couldn't win one game, the sports came first. I mean, what?

 

[imnot]

French and to a lesser exctent German.
I hate French as a language, and German is just a ***** to learn (Is a bloody cool language though)

 

[Thomas Eshuis]

Adding? Easy as pie.
Subtraction? Same.
Division and multiplication? If you give me a couple of secs.
Anything beyond that won't stick with me.
I swear, Math was compulsory for 6 years in highschool and every year my teacher had to explain the basics to me again, because for some reason it just wouldn't stick.

I barely passed my exam with a 5.9 (out of 10), suffice it to say I was very relieved.
Anything else in high school I did not have to study for, but Math was hell.

 

[kasperbbs]

I don't get literature written hundreds of years ago which i had to study in school, 1/3 of the words were almost in a different language and i'm supposed to follow the story. I didn't understand how people interpret all kinds of weird stuff from literature, i see a book about an old man who loves nature and enjoys walks in his garden so i write about it, but apparently it was about space and a tree of life or something.