It’s that time of the year again when about 1.13-million grade 9 pupils in SA must make their subject choices for the senior phase, the last three years of high school.
That choice could damn them or help them and no subject is more crucial in such decision-making than whether to do mathematics or its intellectually less demanding cousin, mathematical literacy.
Here are seven key considerations when making that all-important decision. Parents and pupils, listen up.
One, be realistic. If in your previous grades (7, 8 and 9) you consistently get less than 30% or 40% in mathematics, do not even think about choosing pure math in the final sprint (grades 10, 11 and 12).
Short of a miracle, you are simply not prepared enough to do the real math.
This does not mean you are incapable of doing math — you might simply be in a school with teachers who did not serve you well in the subject.
The problem for you is that this problem should have been resolved in the foundation years of primary school; it is too late to fix your math in grade 10 with so little time left.
Almost every subject can be taught for the first time in the senior phase but not mathematics.
Two, think careers. If you are a 50% pupil in mathematics and you want to one day study engineering or medicine or the natural sciences, you need pure math.
So, do not go for mathematical literacy because you think that 70% in math lit looks better than 50% in math. Big mistake.
The best universities will not take you into most of their disciplines if you did math lit.
Three, do not listen to your friends. If your friends as a group say, ‘hey, let’s all do math lit so we’re in one group’.
Remember, it’s your future and these chaps will drag you down for a short-lived camaraderie while you, a good if not brilliant math pupil, will be crying bitter tears at the end of grade 12.
Four, anticipate extra effort. A 50% mark in grade 9 is not a good predictor of a good pass in math in grade 12. You have to work for it.
Unless your parents put in money for tutors, unless you go to every extra classes in math, and unless you spend one to two hours a day doing math, forget about a comfortable pass in the subject.
Simply attending regular classes in a subject like math will not get you a strong pass in the subject unless your given name is Albert or your surname, Pythagoras.
Five, consider risk. Let’s say you are a borderline case (30-40% in grade 9 math) but decide to take mathematics anyway and you fail the subject.
If you fail another subject (say, physical science or accounting), it’s all over for.
If you fail two subjects in grade 12, then you fail the entire exam even if you achieved distinctions in the remaining five subjects.
In this case, rather do mathematical literacy.
Six, beware of some principals or teachers. You might be a regular 50-percenter but the school worries about the average grade 12 pass rate and sees you as a risk.
So they push you to do math lit because the school fears that if you fail, you will bring down the overall pass rate.
Do not let the school decide your future unless you feel you can make it with the extra effort and resources that might require (see point four above).
Seven, prayer won’t help you. I stand to be corrected, but nowhere in anyone’s scriptures, regardless of your faith, does it say that praying alone will help you with differential calculus or analytical geometry.
My Bible says that faith without works is dead. Prayer can calm your nerves or focus the mind but you still have to put in the hard yards to achieve a code 6 (B) or 7 (A).
Parents, if you do not easily talk school with your children, this is a good time to start having conversations with them.
Do not push them in your preferred direction; listen also to what they want.
If you have a healthy conversational relationship with your child, try to come to a joint decision about whether it will be math or math lit.
Consider the seven points as a considered set of options rather than as one or the other.
If your child does choose to do pure math, understand this will mean an investment from your side to ensure they get all the help they need.
If you and your child believe the more realistic option is math lit, make sure they understand the decision is not a comment on their intellectual, let alone, human value; there are many other ways in which to be smart and talented including poetry, music and the performing arts.
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