Dear High School (and College) Students, STOP Making These Math Errors

[@zachstar]

No regrets making this video, the comments are too good. But for those who find these way too easy (yes I know it's not an advanced video at all), this recent one I did on imaginary numbers may be more to your liking. The Real World Uses of Imaginary Numbers: kzbin.info/www/bejne/lZmXapyio7mgjZY

[@lichh64]

Very useful video, I understood everything, but I always messed up in the 4th point. Thank you!

[@puraankushwaha9841]

You listed all the mistakkes that I made thanks for correcting me! You made my day☺️.

[@preronapathak504]

What is the modulus of -x?

[@ewinter9021]

Hey MajorPrep please do more videos like this! I love how you demonstrate exactly whats wrong, and point people in the proper direction. Its a quick overview but thats part of what makes it great. Please do more videos connecting mathematics to programming ;). I tried to find a playlist for this kind of stuff, but you dont seem to have one sadly.

[@victorselve8349]

I find it interesting that most of these were repeated to no end up to the point and if you would ask someone what type of error would be proof that you didn't pay any attention most of these would have made the list. The ones I can understand is forgetting brackets if you use a calculator and so on since that does happen to me on a somewhat regular basis (usually only one though and at some point I started to ignore - if it's just multiplications and arrive at the correct sign in my head since it is simply faster). Also one mistake which didn't make the list and which I do all the time and also see so often it's more of a surprise if it does not appear is forgetting the +c when integrating. I mean I know it's there and all I just rarely write it down.

[@volcanic3104]

Making simple algebra mistakes in a complex calculus problem is the most frustrating thing

[@jasmine2278]

Oh my gosh seriously!

[@jensraab2902]

Absolutely! I remember that when we did matrices in the advanced math class, calculating determinants for anything beyond 5x5 (with simple numbers) was ridiculously difficult because you're bound to do simple mistakes somewhere and the answer is different every time! 😛 I think I wanted to calculate the determinant of a 10x10 matrix just to challenge myself (or I might have done it to distract myself in a boring history class) and I finally gave it up because I had a different result pretty much every time. And I'm good at math!

[@Adam-cn5ib]

@@jensraab2902 No, Jens. You're bad at math.

[@rithvikyagnamurthy6560]

-6 - 2 yep, that's -4, why aren't I able to simplify this derivative, what am I missing!?

[@tyler89557]

Making addition or multiplication errors because you're going to fast.

[@Fost32]

I swear that the biggest math mistake for me is probably misreading the question and somehow turning i into 1.

[@projstax2611]

Lol

[@kelvinubaechu]

I do that too, except it's due to my own bad handwriting (like I will confuse my own 4s for 9s, or my 7s for 1s)

[@hareeshwarr137]

@@kelvinubaechu 🤣same to u

[@MusicalInquisit]

There are times where I lose marks for not seeing that negative sign in front of the equation instead of as a subtraction. I also confuse some teachers with my handwriting when I write my 5s (because they look like 6) or 7s (because they look like 1s).

[@nicholasmohammed36]

Hahaha i = square root of -1

[@HOWardLIA]

Forgetting +C after the indefinite integral

[@randompotato1400]

hit me like a truck

[@yes6087]

Those little shits keep me up all night

[@messaoudi1997]

Or thinking there's a difference between +c or -c

[@MrGiraffeify]

I had a professor make us put "unit^2" ...

[@factsverse9957]

@@MrGiraffeify Well it's true

[@calamorta]

As someone who grew up with bad math fundamentals, these mistakes are extremely relatable. It took me a while to realize I should be more humble and actually study basic math.

[@user-rd6bc2wo6r]

Where should a sophomorer start

[@ernestocortez5820]

@@user-rd6bc2wo6r hire a tutor I recommend

[@Lisi_Mxo]

I went back to khan academy and started at the lowest grade. Turns out I have massive gaps in my knowledge.

[@overlordprincekhan]

Just 3 years ago.... I was so bad at mathematics... I even got an 'F' in my subject & I don't even know how to do these kindergarten stuffs. After that 'F', I worked hard day & night, tried to get all of mathematical rules & geometric formulas theorems, after that 4 months when another test was taken, I triumphantly scored 98/100 & the highest of Math class in my school. That day, I was the happiest to none, it just takes a dedication & inspiration to do better..

[@z.m.4331]

Any tips or recommended resources?

[@totallegend2480]

yeah from where did you learn all the rules?

[@puturadiansyah8799]

@@totallegend2480 Organic Chemistry Tutor and PatrickJMT

[@KAMZA.]

Congrats! That's a massive inspiration

[@mohammadhafeezlampa2910]

How much work did you put in studying everyday?

[@onlymyrailgununknown2960]

x^2=4 Forgetting the negative result.

[@jokerfever2590]

Did it once *what a shame*

[@wallacechow7892]

OnlyMyRailgun Unknown my exam was tday and some people forgot the plus minus as well

[@maxsimes]

x^2 = -4 ??? *i* dont know..

[@nurneues1662]

@@maxsimes Ok here is the door pls leave

[@amitir22]

@@maxsimes x^2=4 => x1=2, x2=-2 that what he meant

[@whogavehimafork]

"Hey I'm bad at math and I can prove it" Directly or by contradiction? Please show all work to receive full credit.

[@shumailkhan7205]

I see u like pure math :3

[@phuful]

lollll, "nahhh i shall use my deduction skillzzz to prove!"

[@dianedavidson5283]

That is the best comment!

[@cgme7076]

The first thing my Discrete Math teacher ever told us: “Generally, you’ll solve by contradiction. Abductive reasoning takes too long and inductive reasoning takes longer than solving by contradiction.”

[@PerplexedGibbon]

Lmao, spot on

[@edwardho3501]

When u gotta put 1+1 on a calculator JUST to make sure

[@hubb8049]

It's 3

[@amaikoori]

Its 4. Use your fingers. You have to trust in yourself.

[@rakearok8197]

And still got wrong answer

[@amaikoori]

1 >>> 1 finger + >>> 2 fingers 1 >>> 1 finger Count carefully in case you miss any fingers

[@Crystal-rr2kj]

@@amaikoori Thank you for the reminder.Appreciate it

[@christerranaldo906]

Math is like a new language, keep practicing and you'll be fluent. It will become easier trust me

[@necronicles]

thanks creed

[@zukophantom5856]

Thanks creed

[@pedroaf7223]

Thanks creed

[@capitaopacoca8454]

Thanks creed (I don't know how you are though)

[@jekserimek]

No

[@AOandCLProductions]

I stumbled on this randomly and I'm like holy shit there used to be a time when actual numbers appeared in my math problems lmao

[@luisbolanos8393]

I tell everyone that high level maths is like eating alphabet soup and finding a number.

[@justiniheinlein3245]

Especially when you start getting into doing derivatives the slow way…

[@honkhonk8009]

The government elites are taking away our God given numbers, and replacing it with this these letters and imaginary crazy talk 😰😰😢🇺🇲🇺🇲

[@ItsJustVarnekPH]

@@honkhonk8009 very SAD...!!!11!

[@gabelluc9573]

I love how done you sound in this video. I can practically hear your cries of distress from your tutoring years "No, that doesn't work like... this... no, that's not how it's done, you can't just... no please stop - oh goddammit"

[@zachstar]

Finally someone gets it

[@saraps1]

I can hear Gordon Ramsay in this comment.

[@chewinggum5550]

bwahahahaha

[@LDPRxPS3x1]

I guess that's where tutoring people in their mid 20s that still don't know how PEDMAS works gets ya.

[@andreisupervloguri8058]

But these are not that hard

[@parikshitverma2897]

Just remember these things while doing Maths. - Do questions neatly - Do questions patiently - Try not to skip major steps( like not doing them in the head) - Don't be lazy while doing question( Try not to make solution as short you can) And this will increase your chances to get correct answer in the first try. These work for me. And remember don't be lazy, tell this to yourself while solving problems.

[@chandy3859]

Unless your teacher gave a time limit

[@Mryeo5354]

- be confident

[@ilke3192]

-Cry while questioning major life decisions. -End up with an identity. -Realise you forgot to multiply with a minus sign somewhere. -Cry harder. These won't work for me but I do them anyways.

[@death_parade]

Dhanyavad. I'll get back to solving Kreyszig now.

[@rooost9856]

Engineering admission in bangladesh gives small space so its discouraged to make it long asf

[@TheGrooseIsLoose]

I like how many people commented on this video about other commenter’s egos, just to inflate their own egos and point out how humble and perfect they are because they’d *never* do such a thing. I don’t know what that says about me, commenting on their comments on other people’s comments, but lets just assume I have some really messed up ego issues and move on.

[@funnyyellowdog1]

Nothing But The Austin Meta ego

[@utkarsh3708]

😂👏👏👏 What a comment!

[@raghavmurthy7387]

I guess everybody is proud of their hard work, observations, etc. Can't blame them. Really underrated comment as I could not find a single egoistic calc nerd, just "humble" humans.

[@viletomedoze5036]

Inception all over again

[@eklhaft4531]

If you come up with any way to fu*k up math there is a 101% chance I have done it before.

[@ferguson1376]

That awkward moment when... You forget the +C in an indefinite integral You forget the negative root of a square or any even power You square an expression early on but still give the negative answer You give negative answers to questions on absolute values when the question said 'positive integers' You convert a logarithm to a base but then later on convert it back You forget that the definite integral of 1/x from -1 to 1 is undefined You are reading this comment instead of studying for your paper tomorrow

[@Rzko]

integral of 1/x on [-1;1] is = to 0

[@関強-k7h]

@@Rzko No. If you haven't studied enough calculus, you can understand it as the natural log of a negative number is undefined

[@Rzko]

@@関強-k7h watch the video of black pen red pen about it

[@関強-k7h]

@@Rzko I'm sorry for making a mistake of forgetting the absolute value sign from the integral of 1/x. But still, if you integrate 1/x from -1 to 1, you'll get -infinity + infinity, which doesn't tell you anything, it could be either divergent or convergent and you have no way to tell. This is a problem of the ways we defined things in calculus, not some fundamental truth about the universe or something.

[@Rzko]

@@関強-k7h Nope because there is exactly the same quantity at the left of the y axis than at the right. Again if you are interested about this watch the video of bprd about this or search it on internet on online integral calculus

[@firstwavenegativity6379]

I'm coming back to this video 3 years after seeing it for the first time and wow, everything seems really basic now, which probably means I improved a lot, but it really helped me back when I first watched it. Thank you for making this, these simple foundations are essential for those struggling before they can really learn to enjoy Math.

[@sabutp35]

bruh i'm watching this and it does NOT seem basic to me lol

[@kohinoorbanerjee4009]

​@@sabutp35 it will soon if you try hard enough

[@gabem.5242]

7:37 - Dividing by x isn' technically wrong, but you have to specify that you're assuming that x isn't 0 and you're essentially giving up on a possible solution which you must specify later (x=0).

[@jofx4051]

If it is an equation of x^2/x=1 then you cannot have 0 as a solution for that case since it will be indefinite if it is plugged

[@rajdeepsindhu9268]

I was just going to comment this.

[@tasneemahmed5821]

Exactly, they're the same value. You can device them as long as the × does not equal zero. I don't understand why he said that we can't

[@JDC2890]

If you're dividing by x, you have to take care of the case x = 0 separately first before you can continue with the case where x = 0, otherwise the video is spot on.

[@angelmendez-rivera351]

@@tasneemahmed5821 Because doing that is bad, unmathematical practice, and not something you see mathematicians do, so there is no reason to advocate for that. Just do it the way mathematicians do it. Problem solved. It ain't that hard to follow.

[@azizuladnan2957]

You know what suprises me the most... Eventhough I have use the same calculator for almost 3 years, there are still some more formulas, or hidden methods, or something that is in the calculator that I still don't know of...

[@pantherpanther5040]

Azizul Adnan lmao ikr😂

[@blah7983]

TIs can calculate derivatives, integrals, and a bunch of statistics related things. Also you can program it to have flappy bird

[@SerbAtheist]

DON'T use calculators. Learn to do all basic operations by hand. You can't learn the structure of numbers or what they mean if you rely on calculators as a crutch.

[@zakimoshi8686]

@@SerbAtheist i spent a whole year doing that and i dont regret one bit buying one

[@alansmithee419]

@@SerbAtheist can't do that in tests though. Spend ten seconds doing it by hand or two plugging it into a calculator? You need these time saves.

[@elliotlaw1590]

I never learnt that "keep it, change it, flip it" its so simple, yet it changes everything, thankyou! xD Excellent video, I think people get caught up in degrees like engineering doing the advanced calculus/physics courses, that they often forget the basics when it comes to maths and end up tripping themselves up on simple topics

[@spiralhalo]

Finally, a math video that doesn't make me feel stupid.

[@bentleyghioda8843]

1. Multiplying binomials 2. Simplifying expressions inside radicals 3. Absolute values 4. Simplifying rational expressions 5. Complex fractions 6. Setting up quadratic equations 7. Using parentheses on your calculator

[@JaimeTorres-os6cc]

Bentley Ghioda I did all of those on algebra 1

[@zenchiassassin283]

The one I didn't think about the most is the absolute value

[@Blox117]

but what does x mean??? is there treasure buried there! :D

[@lol-nd5it]

You mean polynomials right?

[@timmurski2075]

Well, more in a more generalized way, yes. The concept carries to longer polynomials but the video covered binomial multiplication.

[@daniel_960_]

"I’m bad at math... and I can prove it" 🤣😂

[@Blox117]

pi=2 now wheres my medal!

[@addy7464]

If you are bad at maths.... How can you PROVE anything.😁😁😁

[@jensraab2902]

@@Blox117 I don't see anything wrong with this. It's a simple equation and the answer is p = 2/i 😛

[@leonhardeuler9839]

"... And I can prove it mathematically"

[@IkKorp]

666 likes satan confirm

[@mob1766]

Its so true what he said at the end, everyone just memorizes formulas and rules that they just don't know what they are doing. I have always tried to stay away from memorizing anything and most of the time I just try to understand the concepts and it has just become second nature to me. The best thing for math is don't memorize but try understand the concepts.

[@jaridwilliams739]

Bilal Memon the problem is thats how its taught, for some reason, but like physics is taught intuitively like hey guys lets figure out why we say there is a fictitous force opposite to linear acceleration due to differing inertial reference frames, in a way that makes u understand w h y that is and can make sense of where it comes from instead of accepting it like magic and completely missing the point of education like maths does a lot

[@umcaraqualquer3640]

The big problem is that most teachers don't tell you WHY it works, they just say it works. Sigh... Miss you Mister Jonathan. You were the only good math teacher I had...

[@jaridwilliams739]

ki kus No there are teachers who explain why and those who dont thats mutually exclusive

[@-butterfly-594]

@ki kus I mean, sometimes that's true, but I've certainly seen teachers that are like "just do it it works and even though I'm a math major I also don't know how it works so there do it"

[@MrHatoi]

The most annoying thing is watching people complain about how many formulas they have to memorize for physics, when all they're actually memorizing is 30 different rearrangements and substitutions of 5 actual formulas.

[@danielwan2410]

I especially agree with the last bit. Don’t memorise method, memorise what it means, then “just figure out” the method

[@Hidious10]

Math teacher here: This video is so accurate that I feel like I'm grading student's exams at this very moment. Not a good feeling.

[@eirdonne_]

im sorry for your loss

[@samuelcarlson2534]

I’m in calculus and I make these kind of mistakes. Getting better, but this was helpful because it has ALL the common ones together

[@tamircohen1512]

lol seriously?

[@williamplay1000]

Samuel Carlson Wow, for real?

[@ItsAllEnzynes]

theFizzyGaming there’s a difference between a brain fart and habitually making an error. It it happens once then you get the test back, smack your forehead and go “doh! That was silly”. But if you regularly make that error, it shows that you lack some fundamental knowledge that you should have, and “math rules” won’t teach you that knowledge.

[@randomguy263]

@@tamircohen1512 lOl SeRiOuSlY¿

[@randomguy263]

@@williamplay1000 WoW, fOr ReAl¿

[@JacobGoodman]

Why did I watch this video in full? Why did I scroll through the comments for so long afterwards? Why am I now making a comment? Why do I exist?

[@Alex-02]

Jacob Goodman Omg, this is literally the most relatable thing I’ve seen in all of 2019

[@ilonachan]

Why did I read this whole comment? Why am I commenting on it? Why am I doing this 8 months after? Why do I think doing this is at all clever?

[@randomguy263]

Relatable

[@yiumyoumsan6997]

Got so deep in a sec

[@yuvimoi3065]

Go watch exurb1a

[@peasant8246]

>During courses: this >On exams: "Calculate an elliptical integral of second class."

[@peasant8246]

@@gytoser801 So... you're saying... it *does* have solutions?

[@death_parade]

Here I am trying to wrap my head around covariant, contravariant, christawfull, tensor calculus and topology. Then I come across "elliptical integral" and I don't even know WTF that is.

[@natew4724]

In class: Perimeter of a circle On the test: Perimeter of an ellipse

[@NerdyCatCoffeeee]

@@death_parade it's like an Integral, except elliptical

[@DarthDose]

This reminds me of the day I, as a 8th grade student, understood the explanation of the binomial formulas better than the teacher explaining them to me. We had a long discussion, she called some other students to correct my "mistake" and two weeks later she had to admit she was wrong... I really hate the fact she didn't even acknowledge that her entire campaign against me was completely out of place or even that i was right all along.

[@shmerox7683]

At least she stated she was wrong. Bro i had a similar situation (11th grade) in chemistry. It was about a simple temperature increasing if the volume increases. Basic but the teacher made the class question what i said and ultimately said i was wrong. Lol.

[@spring.on.neptune]

that actually sounds epic lol, what example did you use to prove her wrong? (If you can remember at this point)

[@uncanaldeentretenimiento9918]

Yes, Yes, YES... It had happened to me before. Focusing in lots of rules has made me forgotten what math really is. The rules are just a summary. Maths is the language of how reality works.

[@johnbutler7321]

I'm a high school math teacher, and I see these mistakes ALL THE TIME! You're feeling my pain, bro! The worst is when I know I've harped on these things several times in a short interval of time and see absolutely no decrease in these mistakes!

[@naga1018]

as a sophmore i can tell you that really dont like simeltenous and quadratic equations

[@ltpetrenko]

I walk on mental crutches solving 12/x=6 by multiplying by x and dividing by 6. I learn to “walk” as I try to teach my kids in elementary school to skip crutches. Are we still training kids to follow rules and mnemonics without building _intuitive_ understanding and feel for these rules? I asked adults including PhDs, why pemdas? Like me no one ever thought why, “they told me so”, “convention”, while it’s common sense if we recall that multiplication is repeated addition. I helped 7 y.o. figure out herself that 19 x 3 = 20 x 3 - 1 x 3, so hopefully a (b+c) = ab+ac in middle school will be common sense. Before they learned long division I came up with the idea that you share whatever number of candies you want in the first go, and then attempt to share the rest. But it’s hard to reinvent the wheel. Will appreciate any links to building intuitive understanding.

[@stippystips9418]

@@ltpetrenko you sound like the math teacher everyone on the planet needs

[@ian1352]

@@ltpetrenko Montessori schools use all physical tools to demonstrate basic arithmetic operations.

[@mayabartolabac]

@@ltpetrenko dayum i wish i had you as a teacher

[@setsunaes]

yeah, most people who watches MajorPrep are in calc courses or Differential Equations, physics or something else; not anymore in linear algebra courses BUT, Guys, Please, drop the Ego: Admit that sometimes we make mistakes. I have made these mistakes, more than I wish to admit. Hell I did one of these in the final of calculus III last year. Saved me that my teacher got my stupid mistake and just pointed at it in the test but did not rest me points for it, and he could... he should actually. I messed it up big time.

[@whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat]

Yeah, seriously. The reaction from some of the comments come off as condescending and makes the channel feels unwelcoming to those who are new to engineering (me, for example) or anybody who wants to get into math.

[@kayeassy]

I really have made this mistakes in past and mistakes should be corrected and should not be kept hidden...

[@Thomas-er8xg]

This isn’t linear algebra?

[@TheClonerx]

Wtf, quadratic equations aren't linear algebra

[@cosminroman5878]

i never made these mistakes.

[@blah7983]

Can you do a video of stupid mistakes in calculus? Like the algebra concepts everyone forgot about, formulas everyone forgot about, proofs errors, etc. - Someone in AP calculus who needs help.

[@eirdonne_]

++++1

[@ivansintic2101]

This is such a great video. I've been pretty lousy at maths all my life, and recently I've been working with a tutor because I want to go to a college that needs you to pass a higher math test (like SATs but a Croatian version I guess). These are ALL the mistakes I made and had to unlearn. After I learned the proper way to solve these problems, math has gotten so much easier!

[@darkvertx3158]

As someone who enjoys math and has taken AP Precalc and is soon gonna take AP Calc next semester, these are very good tips. Tips that I grew up learning through trial and error over my early high school years. While math may be difficult to a lot of people at first, the BEST advice I would give is PRACTICE! Math is learned through a process of trial and error and repetition. The more you do it, the easier it’ll get.

[@DeepWebLurker]

The ego in the comment section is glorious

[@mohammedjawahri5726]

Whomst've doth calculus like me sincr 6th grade ?

[@GangGang-qk1se]

Mohammed jawahri learn how to type.

[@PunzL]

The Shocking woooosh

[@gtas321]

"I learned this when I was in 1st grade!"

[@GroovingPict]

goes well with the ego in the original video then...

[@seulgi9509]

This helped me so much it’s ridiculous. I was never somebody who could learn math easily so when I was put into an advanced course I couldn’t catch up with the rest of the class and ALWAYS missed the small details. Watching this now made everything make MUCH more sense because all of my teachers always told me when I did a problem wrong but never really told me WHY I did, they just repeated a bunch of steps and expected me to just get it on my own. Any who, I know to a lot of people in this comment section these are really easy mistakes but to people who aren’t the best at math like myself we really needed it 😂

[@---cv1dj]

I remember when I was in algebra 2 in high school, a lot of my fellow students had these issues. Unfortunately a lot of these students were dismissed by math teachers as being lazy and not wanting to do the work. Though some of the kids just wanted the easy way, plenty of kids were struggling with basics like this because they were thinking of math as memorization of rules instead of what was actually happening with the numbers and functions

[@joeyGalileoHotto]

I can't believe I got all the way to Calculus III without realizing that. Math is basically a set of rules/propositions/theorems that guide you to solving different types of problems, not a step-by-step procedure on getting the right answer. It took a F and a D- on the first two exams for me to realize that.

[@frankchen4229]

how about how these teachers keep doing memory tests as if thats what mathematics is? or somehow arithmetic errors somehow disprove your understanding of concepts?

[@phantom_drone]

To be fair you can only get an understanding of how functions work once you understand the rules and can play around with them.

[@perkinsdearborn4693]

Practice, practice, practice - even saying out loud what you are doing can help, showing each step helps. I often see people doing the math in their head silently. Doing that before fully grasping each step can cause errors and make it hard to solve problems. When stuck, I often start by doing each step written out fully - nothing to chance. thx

[@pianoman47]

Man, I forgot what it was like learning this stuff for the first time. It's all second nature and I do it in my head, but I remember having to reason my way through it back in the day.

[@heroslippy6666]

This gets brushed over in school. I'm now in calc and and I still make these mistakes. Instead of showing us how to read word problems half the time, they should of taught us how the simple math works.

[@Jewboyy]

You're in calculus, you know how math works. Its called slowing down and checking your work, making sure you're operating within the mathematical constraints and remembering the rules.

[@byakugan422]

I totally agree, there are a lot of high schoolers that make these mistakes. Another thing I would totally add to this list is trigonometric functions. People have all these absurd ideas about notation, graphing them, memory aids... that just really muddy the waters, instead of treating them like any other function. There are much better ways to teach those concepts rather than relying on memory aids that students forget from year to year.

[@zachstar]

I ALMOST added trig stuff to the video cause I see people have like sinx=.5 and they’ll sometimes try to divide both sides by sin which is just painful to see.

[@zenchiassassin283]

We're humans. We do mistakes

[@geico105]

For whatever reason the way trigonometry is taught in school is complete ass, which is terrible because it’s the single most important area in math for learning physics.

[@nirv2796]

SOH CAH TOA

[@redgamer2163]

My problem is throwing sin (π) in the calculador in degree mode

[@ChangedNames]

Our math teacher used to give us a song for every new topic and to this day I havent forgot what I studied in grade 10 & 11 & 12

[@segmentsAndCurves]

Now that's what I call a teacher!

[@jyothia6770]

share some of those

[@artic7529]

That's awesome tbh

[@diamondsky3787]

I like how my teacher already prevented these errors from happening! Clearly the best math teacher I had.

[@bakangndaba]

You probably wont see this, but thank you. I never had a maths teacher who was really invested in teaching me like this, all we ever did were examples from the text books, I think learning from the common errors helped me realise what I was doing wrong. I appreciate it. Thank you...

[@dvashunz7880]

Excellent video! I think a large part of the problem is that often 'teaching' consists of telling students rules they can follow that helps them make it look like they know what they're doing. This becomes reinforced due to a fundamental limitation of testing, namely, we can measure only what we can see. As such, understanding is largely inferred. Unfortunately, tests often can't really tell the difference between looking like you know what you are doing, and actually understanding what you are doing.

[@spring.on.neptune]

Yeah cus they know they understand the rules, but they dont apply them in the way they should be applied. Or, at least they dont realize which rule counts in that scenario.

[@nihmathaafiya2246]

"yeah, that's completely wrong " xD I don't know why that sounded so sassy xD

[@akenow.]

Watching maths at 4am, everything is ok

[@Slixkk_alxx]

lamoo, ive been wathcing math since 3am instead of doin hw😂

[@shreenidhhi8633]

SAME I-

[@farrukhsaif108]

Ahahah the clock just hit 4(am) for me

[@philb2972]

That last part reminded me of a Tom Lehrer quote. "The important thing is to understand what you're doing, rather than to get the right answer."

[@homemadesauce6153]

That 12/x =6 explanation just blew my mind

[@patrickgambill9326]

After tutoring for the past few years, mostly college level. I want to add a few more of my own geared towards upper level math. The mistakes you mentioned still apply to a fair number of my students, even some math and physics majors, on occasion. 1. Not saying ± after taking the square root 2. Exponent and Logarithm rules (something about simplification of these really trips up some students) 3. Basic trig identities (mainly geared at calc students who forget unit circle and pythagorean identity) 4. Forgetting to take the derivative of the inside function when doing chain rule 5. Forgetting to write dx for implicit differentiation 6. Forgetting to write differentials when writing integrals 7. Forgetting + C when calculating indefinite integrals 8. Forgetting to substitute the original function back in after a u-sub or trig sub. 9. Mixing up partial and complete derivatives 10. Using a ' to notate a derivative in a multivariable function 11. Forgetting the Jacobian 12. Taylor series 13. Mixing up trig functions and hyperbolic trig functions 14. Vector and matrix notation 15. Surface Integrals and Divergence Theorem 16. Laplace and Fourier Transforms (not understanding how to use a table) 17. Not normalizing orthogonal bases. (Especially physics students taking QM. A lot of nice properties come from orthonormal bases. If the wave function is not normalized, you can't use these properties) 18. My biggest pet peeve, between steps in a solution, stating all steps are equal. For example, 1+7x=15= 7x=14 =x=2 Not all of these are the student's fault. Some if thesr concepts are taught poorly. These common mistakes also depend on the level of math and physics a student is at. I don't expect a trig student to know derivatives obviously. When I am explaining a physics priblem to students who are done with Diff EQ but forgot how to use Taylor Series or how to properly write differentials, it can be difficult. I have been guilty of some of these in the past and I still sometimes make some of these mistakes.

[@eirdonne_]

omg i do 18 ill stop lol but srsly half of those mistakes dont make sense to me, i mean i havent learned anything of the logarithms and differential stuff but it... sounds cool ig

[@haraldmbs]

Another smart thing you can always do when dealing with algebra is simply putting in the numbers instead of the letters when you think you have the solution and check "did i actually do it right?" and if you do that you should technically never be wrong unless you do something wrong in your checking :) Have a great day and thanks for reading everyone who is reading this!

[@jelly458]

So basically substitution? ^^

[@joeldoxtator9804]

I think this happens a lot because we are taught such important math lesson so young. This is mostly pre algebra and algebra one which is taken around 13 years of age. Many people just do not have the maturity to take their education seriously at that point and wind up without the basic foundation. Having re-learned most of these concepts by self teaching from textbooks, all of these concepts are natural reflexes as I had the maturity to internalize the lessons.

[@ItzAsh]

Honestly, looking back this is the video that made me "get" math. Super thankful and now I'm in computer science and love math :)

[@Ruprime]

“12/?=6” so many of these mistakes could be erased if we could tell/remind each other what the underlying question is! I’m still using many of these tips to both solve and tutor my fellow students

[@kalebomb5018]

Gonna show this to my students :)

[@compphysgeek]

I was just thinking, if your calculator gives you a negative number when you square a negative number, well, I was thinking 'Get a new calculator!' .. then I checked what my calculator does and now I'm getting a new calculator

[@thomremo3978]

I love the title when it says '' Dear high school (and college) students''

[@Forever._.curious..]

Thanks to my math teachers and my awareness ☺️ I almost never did these mistakes

[@ZoidVERSE]

same

[@PimpMatt0]

The way I remember 2:51 is that if x (or interger) can't be factored out by both expressions, then there's nothing you can cancel out. I remember this mistake was huge in trig for a lot of my classmates. I guess the introduction of trig functions made it confusing to look at.

[@NMBSEAL]

I make some of these mistakes. I dropped out of high school when I was 17 and didn't go farther then algebra, got my GED when I was 26 and started college for Engineering when I was 31. Theres nothing wrong with making the mistakes. However, there is something wrong if your not noticing your making these mistakes and continue to do so. I'm now in cal 2 and proud of how far I've come.

[@Blox117]

good on you

[@brandonmanuel2842]

Good for you. Keep going. My mom finished her RN degree in her 40s. She was the head boss of 2 nursing homes in my parish (Louisiana).

[@Jukka70]

I'm now teaching students who struggle in math, and fractions are the most frustrating, in fact my master thesis is on it. I'm actually learning things about fractions that I never knew, like why we flip the second fraction in dividing. So am always happy to see any of your videos, what may sound the simplest is sometimes the key to everything

[@eirdonne_]

WHY? why do we flip the frac while /?

[@GRBtutorials]

8:15 Remember, though, that’s only using the regular division key. If you use the fraction key, it will be separated into numerator and denominator. It can be confusing though in linear calculators, so I’d recommend only doing it in calculators which have a “natural” display (CASIO calls it “Natural VPAM”), which are probably most of them (including all graphing calculators I know of).

[@angelmendez-rivera351]

That's not true of all calculators, though. Most calculators do not have a separate fraction key.

[@ian1352]

Give me RPN any day.

[@verylostdoommarauder]

I feel like the moment I started to really hone in on correcting these mistakes, my grades for math went up.

[@otpzed31415]

I'm in the french equivalent of HIgh School (I think (equivalent to year 13 for british)) and if someone were to do any of those mistakes you pointed out he would be the worst at math in the entire school. I really hope that americans have better students because I don't know a single french in my family or school that would do these mistakes and US always claims that they are better than any other country where it seems to me that they are really bad at math. I enjoy your video, keep up the good work it is really entertaining. Have a nice day.

[@king1446]

Wtf is the box method for factoring

[@zachstar]

A method I hate but I have worked with students who only learned it that way.

[@TheCodeOfArt]

MajorPrep Shoutout to Kumon.

[@factsverse9957]

@@shaunakkulkarni4679 I knew the quadratic formula before I know how to factor 😂. And even worse, I am in a Secondary Maths Olympiad team.

[@smalllairon6214]

r/iamverysmart

[@ishikani]

I didn't know that that even exist, I only cross-multiplications and quadratic formula for binomials lol

[@randomusername.5605]

What are these comments. r/Iamverysmart material everywhere

[@TheArnoldification]

This happens in pretty much every youtube video related to math, just need to accept it lol

[@stefanoolivotto2391]

To be honest I've never seen people doing this mistakes in high school. And it wasn't even a scientific high school.

[@sistemsylar]

r/iuseredditlookatme

[@death_parade]

@@stefanoolivotto2391 Same. I came here thinking I'll learn something since I am terrible at math. What I saw here was what I would recommend people in classes 6-8 not to do. If a 9th grader did this, I would be plain pissed.

[@rain2001]

@@sistemsylar r/ihateredditlookatme

[@gonzalezm244]

Well this was a lot more specific than I thought it was going to be haha. Not very applicable to engineering, physics or math students but I’d say it’s very common everywhere else. Great video that I think could help a lot of people struggling with math

[@powerpuff4ever]

I was definitely guilty of a lot of these mistakes when I was in high school 😅 something like this could have saved me a lot of frustration

[@Luck-i7h]

These are absolutely useful and yeah, everything on this video is explained very clearly even though some topics covered here are already teached on my school. Great video for refreshing your mind to avoid making mistakes like these ever again. Keep it up. You're a lifesaver man. 👍

[@photelegy]

3:08 In german we say "Aus Summen kürzen nur die dummen." -> Only the silly ones reduce out of sums And because in german it rhymes the students (mostly) remember it ✌️

[@zoheil]

Kürzen in Summen tun nur die Dummen meinte unser Klassenlehrer immer lol

[@Nylspider]

I'm two years late but I love this

[@SMNAviation]

For all the Einsteins down here...if you are already subscribed to major prep its because Science/Maths videos are in your interest thus this will obviously be basic, but I can assure you other hypothetical millions who could get a video like this in their recommended find this very useful.

[@Artaxerxes.]

Heard of the pareto principle. His fanbase also works something like that

[@ItsAllEnzynes]

Tangent of circle. In America they teach most of it by grade 5. Foiling, algebra and quadratics come at grade 6-8. Any high school level student in America that doesn’t know everything in this video isn’t prepared for high school. To be fair I don’t think it’s the fault of the student. Mathematics is taught pitifully bad in America.

[@ExarchiasGhost]

All those concepts are known to me, but I am happy to have seen this video and I have it to my favourites to see it again. I am watching regularly advanced math tutorial, but sometimes it is necessary to return to the very basics to not lose the focus from the basic logic.

[@cabbagebutterfly800]

i didn't know these were mistakes you could make

[@augijyotbali2131]

His tone shows frustration from his student's mistakes

[@Jukka70]

I loved math my whole life, and did very well in it, and I can tell you the most points I lost was from not slowing down and looking at what I was doing. So even a math major can get a lot out of this

[@cdemr]

Are you retired? If so what was your job?

[@sahilpreet537]

"keep, change, flip" yea, we call that *ReCipROcAl* here in my country!

[@hugbug2224]

I'm top of my year in maths (British year 10) and even I got caught out with some of these without looking hard enough, thanks!

[@lislimani3157]

A common mistake I see is canceling out numbers or variables inside trigonometric functions with the denominator : sin(2x)/2 they cancel out the 2, or if it is sin(2x)/x they cancel out the x. You are only allowed to cancel a number or variable if it is inside the trigonometric function: sin(x*2/x) you can cancel out the x and you are left with sin(2). This rule also applies to other trigonometric functions.

[@6754bettkitty]

Back in high school, i had a rational function quiz. I accidentally did the cancellation of terms that did not actually cancel and got a D on it...

[@abc36196]

Please make a Part 2, or another video for common errors in higher-level mathematics! I used to be in a rut with algebra, until I realised I was too focused on the notation/rules, rather than understanding and getting an intuition of the processes underpinning them. Great video!

[@yellowbanannaras1946]

I have never felt so exposed, torn apart and rebuilt in my life💀

[@Niki1A_]

The way you explained the first mistake, has me wondering whether you don't learn binomial formulas in the US. In Germany, I learned the following 3 formulas for that (The first two are kind of the same if you consider negative numbers.): (a+b)^2 = a^2 + 2ab + b^2 (a-b)^2 = a^2 - 2ab + b^2 (a+b)(a-b) = a^2 - b^2 They are drilled into the heads of students here the same way the Pythagorean Theorem is, with a lot of repetition.

[@omnispectre]

Same in India

[@stevenogbuehi3846]

We don't explicitly teach that. We teach the rules of how to expand those expressions and point out those 3 as patterns that you can quickly recognize if you want to help save some time doing a calculation.

[@aBradApple]

I love this message. These mistakes are the reason why I go back through math from Geometry every year.

[@goldandcheese]

"Getting lost in the rules you forget what you're doing" Truer words have never been spoken

[@hamzailarzeg]

What you said abt absolute value is surely correct. But to avoid such mistakes we should get a fundamental understanding if what absolute value is, and not just apply the rules. Absolute value is just how far what is inside || from 0. So we have to solve what's inside the straight brackets, then whatever the result is, multiply it by its opposite sign (-1 or 1) because distance is always positive, hence we say absolute value is always positive.

[@daisyg509]

Hamza Rzeg I just spoke to my professor about an mistake I made on a test earlier today where I got rid of the absolute value erroneously, and i was trying to figure out what AV even means, thank you for the explanation cause it FINALLY put it into perspective for me.

[@JM-us3fr]

I think this will help my students a lot. Thanks for making this video!

[@hasinaacter4686]

3:14 I never did this, but I gotta admit in case of difficulty fractions, the urge of cancelling the 4s is very tempting

[@eirdonne_]

exactlyyyy i still do that im a dumbass

[@omerd602]

For problems involving nested fractions like the ones shown between 4:35 and 6:15, I'd take each term and assign it to either the numerator or the denominator as follows: Let's say you have (a/(b/c))/(d/e), which is unnecessarily complicated but will work for our purposes. A is on the numerator of the numerator, b is on the numerator of the denominator of the numerator, c is on the denominator of the denominator of the numerator, d is on the numerator of the denominator, and e is on the denominator of the denominator. In summary: a: NN b: NDN c: DDN d: ND e: DD Every letter with an even number of Ds goes on the numerator, and every letter with an odd number of Ds goes on the denominator. So a, c, and e are on the numerator, and b and d are on the denominator. Therefore, the result is ace/bd.

[@myrus5722]

This is an extremely good method for much more complicated fractions!

[@xXBenutzer235Xx]

Regarding the topic at 3:00 In German we have a saying: "In Differenzen und Summen kürzen nur die Dummen" It's a rhyme that roughly translates to: "Only the stupid cancel/cross out in differences and sums" Or if you want to kind of keep the rhyme and structure: "Cancelling in differences and sums is only for the dumb" So its a great mnemonic especially as you can literally call yourself stupid if you consider crossing stuff out in sums/differences.

[@tomtravis858]

Lol are you the league of legends boots?

[@xXBenutzer235Xx]

@@tomtravis858 Yup :D

[@chlo_z7566]

1:47 "You can't really simplify any if these at all" Complex numbers: "That's where you're wrong kiddo"

[@ajvarninja415]

And then what

[@gabem.5242]

Well, you could just factor out the x^2 and then work out the rest...

[@militsa7214]

2:21: Him: right? Me, who has watched a lot of Vsause videos: *WrOnG*

[@segmentsAndCurves]

Vsauce 2

[@CaptnMarioCH]

I consider myself good at math but I’m taking trig this year and I want advice so here I am, thx KZbin recommendations

[@michaelatorn8380]

The Man of Steele / CaptnMario the best advice for math is: understand it

[@CaptnMarioCH]

Michael Atorn thanks man, why didn’t they tell me that in class

[@dars861]

5:36 theres an easier way to do division. a/b divided by c/d (in this case a=2, b=3, c=4, d=7) is equal to (a times d) divided by (b times c). So 2 times 7, divided by 3 times 4. This equals 14/12

[@desune1897]

I was about to say you sounded like zach star… then realized you were zach star… lmao. I didn’t know you made these videos aside from skits! Very cool

[@lukasobi]

If you don't know these, you aren't bad at math. Your teacher is bad at teaching. This is not about being good at math. Anyone, even with below average IQ, should easily understand this if algebra has been explained well to them. Don't blame yourselves. The fact that you are watching this video proves that you are willing to learn, so keep it up, and practice, practice, practice! Good luck :)

[@carylcohen5422]

As a math tutor, I can confirm that these are common mistakes! I see students make them all the time

[@zacharymazzuca1150]

Im in college calc and I feel that I’m pretty good at math. I’ve always had a weird struggle with fractions over fractions tho

[@balansagjovelync.46]

Thank you! This is very helpful for me as a college student because my knowledge about math from elem to high school has become vague.

[@ArtificialHuman1]

Ngl, the fact that a major part of the video told about the problems I was bad in when I was bad in maths in general, and as I practiced like hell and became good at maths, these were the mistakes that were weeded out, I can confirm these are the mistakes that mess you up the most