I’VE GOT YOUR NUMBER
The Approximate Number System aptitude test is something I’ve taken three times before: in 2012 (before I started my math degree), 2014 (right before I got my math degree), and 2016 (right before I got my MS in stats). So let’s take it again after several years of teaching math and stats and see if anything’s changed!
Eh, they’ve changed a little. My w was 0.13 all the other times I’ve taken this. Probably means I’m getting dumber. If that’s even possible.
Well, at least I’m consistent.
Hey, doods.
Back in 2012, I took an Approximate Number System aptitude test that I found online.
Then, in 2014, I took it again to see if my score had changed (since I’d done so much more math between 2012 and 2014 than I had prior to 2012). My score didn’t change at all.
So it’s 2016 now…wanna guess what I did?
I took it again!
And my score is still the same!
2012
2014
2016
Yeah. I guess the amount of math/numbers I deal with doesn’t affect how good I am at this test. Pretty cool result, though, nonetheless.
RESPECT THE TRIANGLE
So remember this Approximate Number System aptitude test I did back in 2012? I decided to try it again. I’ve been doing so much more math since then, I wondered if that would affect my performance at all.
Results:
OLD (2012)
NEW (today)
HAHA, nope. My Weber fraction (w = .13) is exactly the same. That’s hilarious.
Though to be fair, it’s 4:30 in the morning and I’m kinda hyper, so maybe that’s affecting stuff.
But I’m always like that, so maybe not.
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
ParaLOLogram
Approximate Number System aptitude!
I don’t remember how/when I found this, but it’s an interesting little test of your ability to determine quantity ratios.
Combinations of blue and yellow circles are shown to you, each for a fraction of a second, and you have to choose which there are more of—blue circles or yellow circles. They call this ability your “gut number sense” and good performance on the test is apparently correlated with good math performance in school.
My results:
Lower Weber fraction = better gut number sense.
I don’t remember if I liked math in elementary school, but I was pretty good at it. I was one of three in my sixth grade class in the advanced math “class” (aka, me and two dudes in a broom closet. All of us with dorky math nicknames. Go St. Mary’s.), and I was pretty good throughout junior high except for Algebra I (though I’m 90% sure my issues in that class stemmed from the fact that I missed a very crucial week due to my grandpa getting sick and my family having to spend a week in Seattle for his hospital stay). I stopped taking high school math after Algebra II ‘cause the teacher was a jerk and I would have had him for both trig and calc.
Also, I had stopped caring about school at that point.
But, as in every other area, there is a difference between ability and effort. So who knows.
Take it, it’s fun!
Eigenblogger 