
Using predictive analytics to spot students in danger of dropping out - mooreds
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/02/02/education/edlife/will-you-graduate-ask-big-data.html
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d--b
Instead of you know, having smaller classes and personal relationships with
the students...

I mean this is completely backwards. "The computer is telling us you may have
difficulties."

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bonniemuffin
When I TA'd, I found that the students who ended up having trouble were the
hardest ones to develop a relationship with. They never came to see me during
office hours, never came to complain about grading, so I never had an
opportunity to get to know them. When the end of semester came around and it
became apparent how badly they were doing, it was too late to help them.

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d--b
You were a TA though, so you didn't have a lot of experience with these
things. Perhaps after a few years, you would have been able to spot those who
didn't seem to be catching on.

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drodgers
Or perhaps we could help experienced and inexperienced TA's alike with some
kind of standardised analysis tools.

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ivan_ah
It's interesting to see basic math ability also predict nursing success. Here
are some previous observations about math ability predicting programming
aptitude:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8741868](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8741868)

I wonder what's going on here. Perhaps math ability is just a proxy for
"general intelligence," which is useful in all fields? Or simply correlated to
the quality of student's schooling prior to arriving at university? Or perhaps
it is indicative of character traits like perseverance and self-confidence?

As a math author, I can't help but think that unblocking people fear of math
could lead to significant improvements in society. It sometimes feel like
basic math is a "gatekeeper subject," that decides student's academic
outcomes. Can't memorize these stupid facts that are being drilled into you at
the age of 10? Then you will never finish college/university! It doesn't need
to be this way...

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swiley
I don't know if it reflects "general intelligence" but rather the ability to
just sit down and think/work through something abstract (which is more about
patience than inteligence.)

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closeparen
What do you think is abstract about high school math? Solving linear and
quadratic equations, converting between forms, factoring, applying trig
formulas, applying integral and derivative rules + regurgitating memorized
ones, etc. were the most concrete tasks I was given in high school outside of
gym class. Just follow the procedure you were taught, and if it doesn't work,
you were either misremembering the procedure or sloppy in one of the steps.

The things I consider abstract were literary analysis papers, "identify the
mystery element based on these lab results" chemistry problem sets, etc. where
you had at most some small procedures to string together, not a single given
procedure that would solve the whole task.

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ivan_ah
I guess the "abstraction" the parent refers to is the fact that math isn't
connected to any _specific_ domain (e.g. history, chemistry, or bio), but
instead it is an all-purpose tool. Also, an equation like a*x+b = c is not
something you can touch or otherwise be familiar with from everyday
experience.

(At first I wanted to reply and say how the procedural math skills you
outlined in your comment are not what "real math is like" but then I
remembered my high school math classes which consisted of exactly the same
topics, taught without much explanations. No wonder everyone hates math...)

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dsfyu404ed
This would be useful... if universities know how to actually help people who
they thought were in danger of failing. As it stands "help" is usually
"creating a paper trail to prove to the feds that we tried", it's basically
like getting fired in the real world with the main difference being that in
college you at least have a sliver of hope even after the paper trail exists.

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HarryHirsch
So that's why they teach Organic Chemistry to aspirant medical students. It's
not about the chemistry itself, which the kids won't ever need in the course
of their professional life, it's all about pattern recognition skills. If you
can't hack orgo because you can't spot a pattern you won't be able to do well
in medical school.

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mslate
Or, y'know, because the AMA has to come up with an endurance test to
discourage challenges to their occupational licensure monopoly.

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gpawl
The AMA constrains supply by limiting the number of med school seats; the
classes and coursework don't matter for that.

