Adding It Up

After failing to set my alarm clock it was a later than expected start this morning. I still arrived with time to spare for my first lesson of the day... Mathematics.

I've always loved Maths. I seem to have an instinctual understanding for most of it and over the years I've derived a great deal of satisfaction from displaying my affinity for the subject.

I recall being made to memorise my 'Times Tables' by my Dad long before they were ever mentioned at school, standing while I recited the whole series up to "twelve times twelve is one hundred and forty four". Now the rote memorisation of multiplications seems a forgotten art, replaced by constant access to calculators throughout school life. My youngest sister, aged 14, was never required to learn them and the effect this has on her mathematical abilities is beginning to show as she begins her first GCSE year.

I'm thankful for my prowess with numbers and formulae. With it I acquired two maths GCSEs at grade A, completing the standard course in the first year before undertaking another in Statistics during the second.

The mathematics on our course is of GCSE level so I wasn't expecting to find it too challenging this morning. I was looking on it as a chance to refresh a skill set that had been allowed to atrophy through a decade of disuse.

The first half of the class was a recap of some basics but after we returned from a short break an old nemesis from my childhood confronted me once more..

Long division, I managed to get through my life so far without learning it but it's finally caught up with me. I've always disliked it's singular inelegance when compared to other mathematical techniques. It lacks the beauty and grace which maths so often possesses, instead displaying it's clunky and unwieldy working across huge swathes of paper. I'll now be practicing this 'basic' technique in the coming weeks as the lessons become more advanced and in a perverse way easier.

When lunchtime rolled around it was more than welcome and I dared to hope that our afternoon class in 'Study Skills' would prove easier  provender. My wish was fulfilled as the first portion of the course is devoted to our imminent UCAS applications. Whilst there are some tough decisions to be made there will be nothing as fearsome as long division to face.

As a parting note, I submit for your consideration a (in)famous piece of maths: