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One of these is a test sat by Chinese students. The other is the British version. (No prizes for guessing which)
Last updated at 10:22am on 25.04.07
Many British undergraduates have not covered any maths since GCSE, according to the Royal Society of Chemistry
Most universities are now forced to send science students on remedial maths courses because their grasp of the subject is so poor, leading scientists warned yesterday.
Many undergraduates have not covered any maths since GCSE, according to the Royal Society of Chemistry.
And Chinese teenagers are way ahead of their UK counterparts in maths because so many British sixth-formers drop the subject in favour of easier ones.
Undergraduates in the Far East have to pass tough tests in advanced trigonometry and algebra before they can study science at most universities.
The society gave the warning as it launched a £500 prize draw for those who can answer a sample maths question from a Chinese university entrance examination.
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Chief executive Dr Richard Pike blamed Government league tables for the British trend to drop maths at the earliest opportunity, even among budding scientists.
He said teachers steer 16-year-olds away from maths and encourage them to take "easier" A-levels purely to boost their school's ranking in annual performance tables.
Dr Pike said the trend threatened to undermine Britain's future economic prosperity and force firms to relocate overseas in search of highly-skilled workers.
"Most universities run remedial mathematics courses for new chemistry students, as many have not opened a textbook on the subject for over two years," he said.
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"This contrasts sharply with other leading economies competing globally with the UK, such as in China, India and Japan where all high school students take a wide range of subjects including mathematics up to the age of 18."
Dr Pike is calling for the scrapping of school league tables and a requirement for sixth-formers to study maths if they want to take science at university.
The Department for Education and Skills countered that the number of young people choosing to study science, maths and further maths is increasing.
The £500 draw can be entered via the society's website (www.rsc.org) until Friday.
Reader views (12)
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The Chinese test is much harder mostly because of fierce competition, which in my opinion leads to some unnecessarily difficult questions. I completed college in china and got my doctorate in the states, and I can appreciate the advantages of both eastern asian and western education system. For the chinese part, the students who advanced through the entrance exams obviously have better academic foundation on average. However, lots of subjects that were taught extensively were simply useless. The western education, besides encouraging active thinking, also provides wider range of knowledge, even though never really deep. But again, if you are really interested, you can pursue advanced study. Overall, I don't think it is really necessary for the majority of the pupils to learn that much math, in any country, as required by the chinese exam.
The British test, however, does seem to be way too simple. Shouldn't chemistry students be ready for some geometry. In fact, I think if the two tests were switched, it would make much more sense.
- Lary, USA
I am a senior in high school over here in america and it is safe to say that both China and Great Britain's standards for education are higher than here in the states.
- Wil, Loganville, GA USA
The article completely missed the reason why it's this way in China.
Since it's a communist system, people are not judged by their income (since incomes are fairly flatly distributed), but by their education level. Combine that with the fact that only 2% of the population gets to go to college (simply because there aren't enough colleges), it stands to reason that the entrance exams would be much tougher than those in countries with more available seats.
- David Tribble, Plano, TX
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