Compared with Chinese NMET mathematics, is American NMET mathematics really easy？

Original Dr. Ni from NiNi, Florida, in the United States.

After this year’s college entrance examination mathematics examination paper came out, there was a cry of bitterness on the Internet. As an American math teacher, I also looked at it curiously. Frankly speaking, it can only be described in one word: Meng.

There is no college entrance examination in the United States, only the SAT or ACT exam similar to the college entrance examination. My son, who is in senior three, took a naked SAT math test this year, with a total score of 800 points and a score of 740. This achievement ranks among the top 5% in the United States, and he still has one year to graduate (four years in American high school). Is it difficult to ask him a question? He said it was very simple, and all the tests were the most basic contents.

Compared with Chinese college entrance examination mathematics, what are the characteristics of American SAT mathematics?

1. Most of the topics are multiple-choice questions.

The mathematics part of the SAT is 80 minutes, with 58 questions, of which 45 are multiple-choice questions, and only 13 need to fill in the answers by themselves. The latter will be a little more difficult because it is easier to make mistakes.

I have taken several exams in the United States, and most of them are single-choice questions. The advantage of multiple choice questions is that you can guess the answer, and the error rate is also lower. For example, if there is a slight deviation in the calculation, you will find that there are no required options in the answer and you can’t check it again. Comparatively speaking, there are four kinds of math problems in China’s college entrance examination: single choice, multiple choice, filling in the blanks and solving problems, especially the last kind of solving problems, which needs to be reasoned, proved and solved step by step. It is really not easy.

2. Pay more attention to basic concepts

From the topic, American SAT mathematics pays more attention to the understanding of basic concepts.

The figure below shows the SAT’s examination of mathematical ability. It is divided into four categories, including core algebra, problem solving and data analysis, introduction to advanced mathematics, and other mathematical topics. The last item is related to interdisciplinary topics of mathematics and social sciences.

Taking the introduction of advanced mathematics as an example, the required abilities are: 1) identifying and creating algebraic equations; 2) Create, analyze and solve quadratic equations and other nonlinear equations fluently; 3) Create, use and draw charts of exponential equations, quadratic equations and other nonlinear equations. None of this exceeds the content of algebra 2.

Here are two sample questions to give you a rough idea of the difficulty.

3. The weight of SAT in American college entrance examination

Compared with the official nature of China’s college entrance examination, the American SAT is set and evaluated by the third-party university committee of the non-profit organization. Different from the Chinese college entrance examination, the admission of American universities depends on the GPA, specialties, community activities, community services, and application documents of students in high schools. The SAT is only used as a reference.

In recent years, American educational circles have been debating whether to cancel the SAT, but so far, the SAT is still a very important reference. If you do well in the exam, you will still have a considerable advantage in college admission.

Another difference of SAT is that you can take it many times and get the highest score. The following is the examination time for the 2022-2023 school year. In one school year, there were seven examination opportunities. Therefore, even if you don’t do well in the exam for a while, you won’t feel that the end of the world is coming. Just take the exam next time.

4. Emphasis on concepts in American mathematics teaching.

American mathematics teaching attaches great importance to concepts. One feeling is that sometimes I have to spend a lot of time teaching vocabulary. For example, there are as many as 12 words in the chapter of teaching geometric figure changes, and teaching vocabulary often becomes a difficult problem: how can students understand and remember it more easily?

For another example, American teachers attach great importance to the process of teaching unary equations.

I remember when we were in China, we learned to move all variables to the left and numbers to the right, but we had to change the sign. The United States emphasizes the meaning of "equation", and all operations should not exceed the line of "equal sign". Add a number to the left and a number to the right, as well as multiplication and division, so as to maintain the balance on both sides of "equal sign". Compared with mathematics teaching in China, it is much more complicated, but easier to understand.

Therefore, I take the best of both, teaching with the American method, and doing my own problems with the China method, because it is much faster.

Look at Chinese’s criticism of the deviation of the math college entrance examination questions, while Americans are also criticizing their math education problems, and some also compare China and think that American math education is much behind China. In my opinion, there are only different ideas, and each has its own views on which is better or worse.

Do you prefer the math college entrance examination in China or the SAT math exam in the United States? Welcome to vote. Also welcome to leave a message for discussion.

Original title: "Compared with Chinese college entrance examination mathematics, American college entrance examination mathematics is much easier."

Read the original text