I'am a freshman student. I thought this site is for any grade and what is important is that questions should be about Maths. But when I ask a question I don't get a lot of answers and sometimes none and most questions here I don't get them because I never studied those lessons before . I'm just asking you if it is available for students in my grade ?
$\begingroup$
$\endgroup$
15
-
3$\begingroup$ well it seems that your questions until now were not badly received, isn't it? $\endgroup$– SurbFeb 8, 2016 at 20:52
-
$\begingroup$ yes they weren't but I feel like my questions are maybe too low for this site as I see some professional questions $\endgroup$– Manuela NIEVESFeb 8, 2016 at 20:55
-
4$\begingroup$ Of course it is... I'm a high school student too... And it helps me a lot... $\endgroup$– MathIsNice1729Feb 9, 2016 at 16:31
-
2$\begingroup$ I'm in high school, 17, and answer and ask questions on the site. I mean, this is a general math site, that gets a lot of questions. If you're a "newbie" there really is a lot of low hanging fruit, easy questions, that you'll certainly be able to answer. Although, I'm currently bored with the site, I find that answering questions is a good way to review subject material in a holistic way. My two cents is this: Use the site as a tool to personalize and increase the quality of your studies. $\endgroup$– Zach466920Feb 9, 2016 at 16:48
-
29$\begingroup$ Is this website useful for high school students ? - Unfortunately, yes. $\endgroup$– LucianFeb 9, 2016 at 19:17
-
1$\begingroup$ "...but when I ask a question I don't get lot of answers and sometimes none...", exactly the same thing happens to me even when my questions are undergraduate level and I've done everything to answer myself before asking here. I guess the only solution is to get smarter so that we don't have to ask on random websites :D $\endgroup$– StupidGuyFeb 9, 2016 at 19:39
-
$\begingroup$ StupidGuy I'm glad I'm not the only one :) $\endgroup$– Manuela NIEVESFeb 10, 2016 at 20:08
-
39$\begingroup$ @Lucian: That is not very welcoming. $\endgroup$– copper.hatFeb 11, 2016 at 5:56
-
18$\begingroup$ @copper.hat: For those who abuse this site by making others do their homework for them, it's not supposed to. $\endgroup$– LucianFeb 11, 2016 at 6:36
-
19$\begingroup$ @Lucian I don't see how that has anything to do with high school students. Plenty of undergraduates just want us to solve their homework. And there have been some excellent questions asked by (or on behalf of) even elementary school students. $\endgroup$– Mathmo123Feb 12, 2016 at 11:03
-
7$\begingroup$ @ManalBouabdallaoui - Just a side point. All of you questions and answers seem to come with an apology - "I don't even know if it's right" or "Sorry for any faults". You have nothing to apologise for. You're here for the same reason we all are - to help/get helped to learn mathematics. So long as you use this site as a learning tool (i.e. not as a tool to get other people to do the work for you), and ask good questions that demonstrate that you've thought about them already, you'll be fine. Good questions can be of any level. $\endgroup$– Mathmo123Feb 12, 2016 at 11:09
-
1$\begingroup$ @Mathmo123: I don't recall saying that “only” or “all” high school pupils behave in this manner. $\endgroup$– LucianFeb 12, 2016 at 17:52
-
10$\begingroup$ @Lucian You said that it was 'unfortunate' that this site was useful to high school students. Is that any more unfortunate than it being useful to anyone else? Should this site not be useful? $\endgroup$– Steven StadnickiFeb 13, 2016 at 2:04
-
2$\begingroup$ @StevenStadnicki: I was making a humorous or sarcastic pun on the two possible meanings of the word “useful”: one noble (i.e., providing actual help to young people with a genuine interest in mathematics), and the other cynical (i.e., having someone else do your homework, which is then copied mechanically, with little or no actual interest OR understanding from the recipient). $\endgroup$– LucianFeb 13, 2016 at 2:37
-
$\begingroup$ We never claim that this site is perfect. We claim, it is "best". I do it at least. $\endgroup$– Sufyan NaeemFeb 22, 2016 at 20:26
Add a comment
|
5 Answers
$\begingroup$
$\endgroup$
1
High-school questions are not "too low" for this site.
But what we do not want is people (high school or not) coming here and expecting us to do their homework for them.
-
4$\begingroup$ Most of my questions are not homework :) Before we do exams I do lot of exercises from different math books and If I do not understand a question I just ask it here $\endgroup$ Feb 10, 2016 at 20:01
$\begingroup$
$\endgroup$
5
We certainly accept questions from high school students.
You will pretty much always receive an answer to high-school level questions if you write a genuinely good question. This means that you need to try to solve it on your own. If that doesn't work, you need to read your textbook and try again. If that doesn't work, you should search the site/internet and see if others have already had this problem. [This can be hard as searching for math is currently very poor].
And then, if you are still stuck, you should write a clear question with clear indication of exactly what you're trying to do, what you have tried, and where you are stuck. You should choose a good, descriptive title, appropriate tags, and clearly indicate your exact, actual question. For more, see How to ask a good question?
answered Feb 8, 2016 at 22:43
-
19$\begingroup$ "[Y]ou should write a clear question with clear indication of exactly what you're trying to do, what you have tried, and where you are stuck. You should choose a good, descriptive title, appropriate tags, and clearly indicate your exact, actual question." To be honest, for a freshman in high school, that's a pretty high bar. $\endgroup$ Feb 8, 2016 at 22:53
-
11$\begingroup$ Indeed. I think this is the largest bar in front of all new users, and in particular for younger/more inexperienced users. $\endgroup$– davidlowryduda ModFeb 8, 2016 at 23:31
-
2$\begingroup$ I'm definitely an inexperienced user so it's hard to ask a good question especially in my first attempts $\endgroup$ Feb 10, 2016 at 20:07
-
3$\begingroup$ @ManalBouabdallaoui: It is hard. But try anyway. You may get negative feedback at first, but if you listen to what people say to make improvements to your questions, you will get a very positive response and the help you seek. $\endgroup$ Feb 10, 2016 at 23:02
-
1$\begingroup$ Thank you I'll remember that the next time I ask a question $\endgroup$ Feb 11, 2016 at 20:06
$\begingroup$
$\endgroup$
As you use the site, and inspect other folks' questions, you'll get a better sense for what makes a good question. Things that at least make me more likely to give time to a question are if it's been formatted well, so getting a feel for MathJax/LATEX is a good idea (not just here, but in general, as it is kinda the standard for writing and sending math).
Also, the more prior effort you demonstrate, the more people will be inclined to help you. As has been said, people here don't like doing others' homework assignments. But they do want to help folks with trouble understanding topics by themselves. Also, if somebody can type into the site search engine about five keywords from your question and find five other folks who asked the same thing in the last six months, it reflects poor research efforts, and leaves people less inclined to devote time to answering the question. I did not dig through your previous questions, so I do not mean to say these were your particular mistakes, but the rule of thumb is that the more we can tell you thought about the problem and tried to use other resources which don't require someone to sit down and reply to your question, the better. Use Google, use the MathSE search engine, sit down and think about it, and if you're still stuck, then post a question.
As to the level of many of the questions, the site is meant to help folks of all levels. This happens to include graduate levels, so many questions here are from those in higher-level mathematics (perhaps largely because there are often fewer immediately available resources for such topics); but I think you'll find there are also plenty of questions on the undergrad or high school levels. There is not a prerequisite knowledge level for this site, but there is an art to using it, which includes a handful of conventions. And as you ask questions, you'll likely find they are gradually better received and better answered.
$\begingroup$
$\endgroup$
1
I encourage my HS Computer Science students to join and to participate in stackoverflow and on the math.stackexchange site. I think they are sophisticated enough to gain from it and contribute to it.
-
1$\begingroup$ As a former hs cs student, I second this. Now, I'm uni cs student :) and SE has provided some truy insightful literature during otherwise uninspiring times. $\endgroup$– NickAug 5, 2018 at 14:47
$\begingroup$
$\endgroup$
1
Considering the kind of questions asked here, I would say High school questions would be far better. People ask random questions without any work from their side.(Well, not all. I am referring to the new user questions mostly.) Show me a question which is high school level and is unanswered, I will try to answer it. (I am a graduate :)