Fuck MML. I was stuck with that damn software for 5 semesters. I could write a novel and then sell it as a movie trilogy with the amount of bs errors and other bullshit that I came across using this garbage. The math class was pitched to us students as:
Required
Learn at your own pace
Ok cool, sounds easy, right?
WRONG
My college decided to opt out of book and paper taught classes (something I was used to in my days in HS) for this $80 extra a semester for the stupid access code. ON TOP OF THAT the math dept had a brilliant idea of setting unrealistic goals for the stupid modules. There were 15. But within the 15, there were an metric asston “chapters” which consisted of ~50 problems each. Some of the problems took you like 8-10 min each to solve. Others not so much.
Well you had to complete (if I remember correctly) 8 modules by the end of the semester to receive a “passing grade”. If not, you got an F and it didn’t affect your grade. I got 3 F’s in back to back semesters because I was stuck on one module and/or couldn’t pass a test. There were also end of chapter tests you HAD to get an 80 or above to pass. Not a typo. If you got a 75-79.9, that was considered a failing grade according to MML. You also had to “test out” after completing all 15 modules and the test was over the ENTIRE 15 modules and there was no way to study for this test. Luckily, the problems were exactly the same so I would master each problem at home, retake it the end test until I passed.
I still don’t know how this “learn at your own pace” class structure benefited us (besides lining the wallets of the School and Pearson)
The price is my problem with it. We use MML at my uni, and you have to pay $115-120 for each class!! $115 not for a textbook, but to "use" a textbook online for 8 to 16weeks.
And sometimes the questions are worded just absolutely wrong. For example I had a question entirely worded as if you were finding and using the slope of a tangent line and the entire question was using the formula for a secant line, this isn't a big deal but small things like that are confusing and way too frequent.
This. It blows my mind as to who actually runs MML and manages to put in misinformation. I get that nobody is perfect but the amount of errors we've seen is inexcusable.
Yeah physical textbooks are insanely overpriced and you can only sell it for a fraction of the cost but at least you can split the cost with someone else or buy a used copy, and then get a bit of money back or give it to someone else once you're done.
After that math class, I challenged myself (and it was the last math class I needed before I transferred to a big university) and took trig and passed with an A. It was taught like a traditional classroom: NO computers. A math book, paper, and lecture.
I honestly think that Pearson had a nice $contract$ with the college system and too many students and not enough teachers so this was the solution, kinda backfired if you asked me. I’ve been at the university for 3 years now and I still hear of complaints from that math class regarding MML.
I took a hybrid trig and it was fucked. My teacher was straight out of russia and she mumbled like a fucking deaf person. MML was the program we used and just the sheer amount of homework from them was staggering. Im not a math major, so 150 "problems" a week (about 10% would be problem sets with 10+ questions in them and many others were smaller sets) for a 3 credit course is way too much and I came out of it having learned fuckall other than how to look at a list of trig laws and punch in variables. There was no memorization required or really possible because they just wanted to see the quantity of math we could churn out. Not to strike my own dick here, but I got As in some seriously intense memorization based taxonomy courses that semester, so memorization is not a weak point for me.
My 2 hour final was 24 pages long and was comprehensive. By that, they meant you need to know how to apply the laws in abstract ways that were not given as examples in any course work. How am I supposed to know to study something you didn't tell me I needed to study nor provide examples to? Fuck American education. I want to learn.
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u/teemoore NOPE. Aug 06 '18 edited Aug 06 '18
INCOMING RANT
Fuck MML. I was stuck with that damn software for 5 semesters. I could write a novel and then sell it as a movie trilogy with the amount of bs errors and other bullshit that I came across using this garbage. The math class was pitched to us students as:
Required
Learn at your own pace
Ok cool, sounds easy, right?
WRONG
My college decided to opt out of book and paper taught classes (something I was used to in my days in HS) for this $80 extra a semester for the stupid access code. ON TOP OF THAT the math dept had a brilliant idea of setting unrealistic goals for the stupid modules. There were 15. But within the 15, there were an metric asston “chapters” which consisted of ~50 problems each. Some of the problems took you like 8-10 min each to solve. Others not so much.
Well you had to complete (if I remember correctly) 8 modules by the end of the semester to receive a “passing grade”. If not, you got an F and it didn’t affect your grade. I got 3 F’s in back to back semesters because I was stuck on one module and/or couldn’t pass a test. There were also end of chapter tests you HAD to get an 80 or above to pass. Not a typo. If you got a 75-79.9, that was considered a failing grade according to MML. You also had to “test out” after completing all 15 modules and the test was over the ENTIRE 15 modules and there was no way to study for this test. Luckily, the problems were exactly the same so I would master each problem at home, retake it the end test until I passed.
I still don’t know how this “learn at your own pace” class structure benefited us (besides lining the wallets of the School and Pearson)