Need help/ guidance

[TomC17]

Hello lovely people, this year I'm doing carpentry Level 2 and I believe I'm not going to be able to pass maths as im retaking it and my mental health has gone down hill because of Corona virus situation..

Have any of you guys been successful or found it really hard to find a carpenter job without passing maths?? I have a level 3 which is only a level off a pass(+ a level 3 in English which I don't think I can change)

 

[Steliz]

I don't mean to sound harsh but if you have failed maths once and you believe you will fail again then you are not putting in enough effort and you know it. Your future is your responsibility, if you want to be a carpenter then make a commitment, study as hard as you can for it now and you will be rewarded later.

 

[Droogs]

Believe it or not but geometry plays a pretty important role in woodworking. Being bad at maths is not is not the barrier you think but you do need a good understanding of it in order to use the plethora of formulae that you can find yourself using in trying to work out complex pieces. To help you understand how useful maths can be have a look at the Chad Stanton video below on Youtube for a basic overview.



There are also some great books (most now out of print unfortunately, I think) that can be found second hand. A couple of starting points below

https://www.abebooks.co.uk/book-search/title/practical-workshop-mathematics/
https://www.alibris.com/search/books/subject/Carpentry-Mathematics
hth

 

[AJB Temple]

Your first issue is to stop telling yourself that you are bad at something - it sets you up for failure and sure enough you will deliver it. Change your attitude and become determined to work hard and pass. Everyone has been affected by Covid so stop using that as an excuse.

The level of maths you are doing is very basic. Simple arithmetic and geometry are essential to any practical woodwork and absolutely essential if you are, for example, laying out a roof.

The key to all maths is to remember that it is very logical and absolutely everything can be broken down into a sequence of individually simple steps. My advice: change your attitude and work harder. Programme yourself to expect success not failure, and stop making excuses.

 

[Droogs]

The most important thing to know/remember in maths is a simple mnemonic BODMAS - Brackets - orders - divide - multiply - add - subtract. The fundemental glue of the math universe and it tells you the order you always have to grapple a maths problem in order to solve it. IE you always work out the things in brackets before anything else and you solve the things in the brackets in the same bodmas order.

hth

edit typos

 

[sunnybob]

Way back in the 60's when I was taught BODMAS, the "0" was for "OF" which I always considered to mean fractions. Is "ORDER" the same thing?

I never passed maths at school, and to be honest, I never passed any exams at school because I had to leave and earn money before they were set.

I still struggle with maths (as anybody here can attest to), Life can be pursued without maths, but, and its a BIG BUT!, if you need an exam then you need to do the work. I found that things taught in exams rarely got used afterwards in my 50 years working life.

 

[marcros]

I was also taught "of" as in "power of" which is the same as the order.

 

[Terry - Somerset]

I'm not sure that Tom will benefit from a debate about the acronym!

I am unclear what standard he needs to attain - but a few observations:

1. Be positive - attitude is at least 50% of the answer to most of lifes problems​
2. Think about why you need to know - order the right materials, cut to the right length, measure an angle, will it carry the weight etc. Working with numbers in isolation of the "why" can be very sterile.​
3. See if someone you know (family, friends, school, pub etc) can spend a little time with you. They do not need a knowledge of carpentry, just a familiarity with numbers and willingness to help/​

 

[doctor Bob]

As an employer, it's the only exam I look at on a CV. Basic Maths is important in woodwork. Get things wrong and it can prove very expensive.
I suggest you really try hard to pass the exam. However if you really find it impossible and don't enjoy maths then maybe woodwork is not for you. A cutting list is just numbers, if you don't like numbers you will be in trouble from day one.

 

[Doug71]

The good thing about maths is the answer is the answer, no opinions, views or explanations needed, work at it and I'm sure it will suddenly click when you realise the logic behind it.

I enjoyed maths and was always miffed that people could get some marks for the wrong answer as long as they had shown the working out correctly, just not fair when the answer was wrong

 

[topchippyles]

Hello lovely people, this year I'm doing carpentry Level 2 and I believe I'm not going to be able to pass maths as im retaking it and my mental health has gone down hill because of Corona virus situation..

Have any of you guys been successful or found it really hard to find a carpenter job without passing maths?? I have a level 3 which is only a level off a pass(+ a level 3 in English which I don't think I can change)

Can i ask how old you are tom ?

 

[billw]

I would agree that trying to do woodworking without a grasp of basic maths is going to be a tough call. Measurements and angles are basics in maths but essential to get right.

You're not far off a pass as you said so I would keep trying, but especially make sure you're comfortable with the stuff that you'll need in your potential career rather than trying to fluke a passing grade.

Good luck!

 

[MikeK]

Tom, as Terry suggested, find a tutor or ask the school for help. I tutored high school and university students in the U.S. from basic arithmetic to differential equations. In my experience, I've discovered sometimes the difficulty is not with the student as much as it is the instructor, especially when the classes are large and time is limited to get as many students through the mill as possible.

I have yet to tutor a student who failed to secure a passing grade. Some require a lot of assistance, while others need only a nudge to get past a mental block and realize that "aha" moment.

 

[Nigel Burden]

What others have said is true about setting yourself up to fail and you will fail.

It's a long time ago when I was at school. We had a maths teacher who was not able to come down to the level of most of the pupils he was teaching. He was ok if you could follow what he was trying to convey. Hard luck if you couldn't, he would turn red with frustration. Consequently I was absolutely useless at algebra, something that my children tell me is simple.

You need to find a tutor to help you. I know there may be financial constraints here, but it would be worth it.

Nigel.

 

[Lons]

What the others said Tom though you have my sympathy if you are suffering from mental issues. Please heed advice though and try to find a way forward, ask for help and try to focus your mind and you might find you can do it.
Maths isn't needed just for woodwork, it's important in many areas of general life and most employment that's worth having. I had a small building business and you would be surprised how important it was for that.

 

[Trevanion]

Tom, It wasn't so long ago I did my C&G Joinery course so I know pretty much exactly what you're going through (Although I had already just scraped my math at the GSCE exams at 16, I for some reason did about 90% of the math essential skills before realising I didn't actually have to do it )

I have no idea what they're trying to teach you now but I would assume it's not even carpentry related and it's just general rubbish math but you'd know better than anyone here what you'd need to learn. I'd say, try fitting in 20 minutes of learning math for a few nights maybe three or so, give yourself a nights rest off it, another three nights but this time 30 minutes each night, night off, three nights at 40 minutes each and so on until you're doing an hour a night. The worst thing you can do is burn out your brain by trying to do too much and you'll just be mindlessly flicking pages and none of it will actually sink in, if you find that happening just stop and do something else for a bit and try again later.

Take it from me, I'm absolutely rubbish at math, possibly the absolute worst of all time, but I get by with calculator, sheer grit, and determination!

If you ever wanna have a chat about anything, shoot me a PM, got all the time in the world.

 

[lurker]

Tom,
Are you just finishing school and progressing to college?
My son finished school with mediocre results and poor maths results but once he got to college he did well. And went on to university getting a honours degree in engineering. You need very good maths in that subject
With hindsight, it was down to teaching style, he did not respond well to school teachers but college lecturers were good for him.
What I am saying is you may do well at maths in the right environment.