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WELCOME TO HOW I Spend My Money, a series on The Journal that looks at how people in Ireland really handle their finances.
We’re asking readers to keep a record of how much they earn, what they save if anything, and what they’re spending their money on over the course of one week.
Are you a spender, a saver or a splurger? We’re looking for readers who will keep a money diary for a week. If you’re interested send a mail to money@thejournal.ie. We would love to hear from you.
Each money diary is submitted by readers just like you. When reading and commenting, bear in mind that their situation will not be relatable for everyone, it is simply an account of a week in their shoes, so let’s be kind.
Last time around, we heard from a 29-year-old quality control analyst on €54K living in Dublin. This week, an insurance consultant on €35K living in Munster.
I am a 27-year-old insurance consultant living in Munster. I live about a 15-minute drive from my work office, so I drive to and from work Monday to Friday. We were home-based for most of the year, some are still at home but I am one of the minorities that struggled working from home and for my own mental health, jumped at the opportunity to get back into the office. For some, working from home was great. For others like myself, it did not suit my personality and the confinement to my house, in the middle of a house purchase and move was just stress I did not need or like.
After a couple of years of hard saving, my partner and I decided around October last year that the time was right for us to start looking to buy. We found our dream home in March of this year, went sale agreed in April, and after a long and exhausting few months (anyone who has bought a property in Covid times will know our struggles) we got our keys and moved into our forever home in August.
I would have always been an OK saver, but nothing heavy until I got my first “adult” job after college. Since my partner and I have lived together we have used a joint account for all household related expenses. In doing this, it keeps everything fair and equal and the money we have left in our own accounts is ours to do what we wish with, guilt free. We share all household bills, but individually both still have our own independent savings account. From my weekly paycheck every Friday, €170 goes into my own savings account, €150 goes into the joint account and €50.00 goes into my EBS savings account. I could cancel my EBS account and just add all my savings to the one account, but that EBS account was opened way back when as a home for the millions I got for my communion, so for nostalgia reasons, I cannot let it go!
Naturally, both my own and the joint account took a huge hit following the purchase of our home. A bitter pill to swallow, watching the money you have saved for years literally go in the space of one transaction but I think like everyone who has bought, we were happy in the decision to buy and not have to drown under crippling rents anymore. Our mortgage works out at around €880 a month, so once a month I transfer €440 into the joint account and from there the mortgage gets paid from direct debit.
Occupation: Insurance consultant
Age: 27
Location: Munster
Salary: €35,899
Monthly pay (net): €2,406.93
Transport: Approx. €120 diesel
Mortgage: €440
Joint savings: €600
Personal savings: €680
Household bills: Approx. €50
Phone bill: €20
Health insurance: €96.80 (€24.20 via weekly salary deduction)
Groceries: Paid via our joint account
Subscriptions: €13.99 Spotify Premium Duo, €30.00 (€15.00 each) to two local animal shelters.
7.30 am: My partner has a training course up the country, so I took advantage of this and went back to my parents’ house Sunday night. Waking up in my old bed in my old bedroom for work this morning was a small bit disorienting. Being at my parent’s house makes me closer to work so took my time getting ready. I normally do the food shop for the week on a Sunday evening, but because I have come to my parents, that job has been pushed down to later in the week.
8.45 am: I arrive at work, turn my PC on and go to the canteen to make myself a coffee.
11.00 am: Usual time for me to eat my breakfast, generally not an early morning eater. I have a porridge pot that you just add water to on my desk from last week, so I have that and continue with clearing emails from the weekend.
12.00 pm: I have to sit in on a few interviews. Preparation for these roles has been ongoing for weeks and lining up possible candidates has taken time, so I am looking forward to getting the ball rolling on this.
1.00 pm: Lunch time here in the office and as I have no food shop done, I nip to Tesco and pick up a six pack of water, a banana, a yogurt, and some rice cakes. (€5.35)
1.45 pm: For Christmas every year, I volunteer to make a care pack for a local nursing home resident so they have something to open on Christmas Day. I head to Penneys for a nosey to see if there is anything I can pick up. This year I have gotten a male resident, so I pick up a packet of socks with the days of the week on each one for €7.00. It’s normally the letter people include in the care pack that the residents enjoy the most, but I still like to pick up a few small bits.
2.00 pm: Lunch ends, so I head back to work.
3.00 pm: With some staff still at home, I schedule a Zoom with my team to check in on them and air out any issues dragging from last week or potential issues for this week.
5.00 pm: Works finished for the day. Pre-Covid, I was a terror for lingering on in the evenings until maybe 7pm catching overtime and clocking more hours, but since the house purchase and Covid, I’ve re-aligned my work-to-life balance and now try my best to clock off at 5 and pick up where I left off in the morning (granted it’s nothing important).
5.35 pm: Partner’s course will continue until tomorrow, so I take this as another green light to retreat home to my parents’ house again. My mom has dinner ready on my arrival and knowing dinner was being cooked for me, I stopped in the shop on the way home and picked up an apple pie and some cream. (€3.70)
6.30 pm: I normally call over to my parents maybe a few times a week to say hi, but since I moved out at around 22, I generally only stay for Christmas etc., so I am relishing this unexpected stopover. I clean up from dinner and I decide to take my two dogs for a walk. I try my best to sneak getting ready for the walk but one of them sees me putting on the Hi-VIS. Game over. Ball burst. The excitement and knowledge of the walk cannot be hidden any longer, so I battle with two squirmy excited dogs to get their harnesses on, and off we go.
8.00 pm: Took a longer walk than expected around the town, but it was a glorious night and the two dogs seemed happy to stay out. Back at home now and I make some tea and head into the sitting room to wind down for the evening.
10.30 pm: After catching up on a bit of The Great British Bake Off with my mom, I head to bed. Haunted by the urge to scroll Tik Tok, I give in and finally switch off for bed at around 11.30 pm.
Today’s total: €16.05
7.00 am: I wake up before my alarm. I definitely think sleeping in my old room is playing tricks on me. My boyfriend’s back today so this will be the last of my “holiday mode” until Christmas. I have a habit of checking my accounts at the start of the week to see did my savings go to where they’re supposed to, did my pay come in and did my standing orders all go off ok. Everything seems good, so I get up, shower, and make a coffee.
12.15 pm: An absolute hell of a morning. System issues all morning and card payments not receipting. Any financial workers’ worst nightmare. The system finally comes back, so it is an afternoon of catching up.
1.00 pm: Never got a moment to get some breakfast today so I head over to a café and get soup and brown bread to go (€5.00) and have bottled water from yesterday’s purchase.
1.25 pm: I get a call from our floorer. The hallway and sitting room is done so the green light can now be passed on to the painters to get going on downstairs. It has been so hard to get labourers for the renovations of the house we are doing. Thankfully things are tipping along nicely now. We are living in the house; it is by no means “done” but it is ours and we are both delira enough with that.
3.30 pm: Invoice comes in for my fuel card. I got a fuel card paired with my current account a few months back as it was offering a few cents off a litre, and I thought it could not hurt. It has worked out quite well for me. I now tend to get my diesel on a rotation basis more or less every Monday morning now. This invoice was for €63.90, and when I check my account, I see it has been taken by direct debit this afternoon.
4.00 pm: Waiting for a Zoom call to begin, so I take this chance to order my sister’s birthday present and one of my secret santa presents. I spend €68.99 on two gifts online. Nice to get a few presents out of the way!
5.10 pm: My partner’s home this evening from his course so my little holiday at my parents’ is over. I’d great intentions to do a shop and have a dinner cooking but when I arrive home, I’m met with a building site. With dust and materials all over the house, I quickly decide a dinner won’t be cooked today.
7.00 pm: En-route home, my partner picked up our bath that was ready for collection, so when he arrives we (he) carries in the bath and all the bits and bobs that he collected for the bathroom (tiles, grout, etc). Once that was all carried in, a joint decision was made that a McDonalds was deserved. He treated us, so nothing spent on my side.
8.30 pm: There was a bit of a road diversion due to a tree falling, so a longer than anticipated trip for food, but it was nice to have the chats and a little spin together. Since getting the keys and committing to doing the house up, whilst living there, I think sometimes we forget to make a little “us” time. I head for a shower when we get home.
10.30 pm: We watched the final of The Great British Bake Off (much to his despair) but I’m delighted with the winner.
Today’s total: €137.89
6.15 am: Woken by my partner’s phone ringing. It was our painters who advised they will be calling today. Exciting! They were waiting to start the job until all the flooring and skirting was done, so up out of bed with a pep in my step this morning. Long awaited the painters to start as some of the colour choices and paint application in the house haunts me.
8.00 am: Painters arrive bang on 8am. I have a little chat with them, double-check that they know paint choices and where to paint and I head off to work.
8.30 am: When I arrive at the work carpark, I realise the fridge and cupboards are literally bare for the painters, so I Revolut my partner who is working from home this morning €20.00 to nip to the shop to pick a few bits up for them (milk, teabags, biscuits, etc). They’re a great bunch of lads so I couldn’t have nothing in the house – my inner Irish mammy wouldn’t allow it!
11.20 am: Work flies this morning. Didn’t make my normal coffee this morning and I can definitely feel the lack of caffeine. I must call to the bank and withdraw monies for my half of the mortgage – payment is due Friday. I head out and get that done before I forget.
11.45 am: Lodge mortgage payment into joint account (€440.00) and while I was out, I get a notification that my Zara package is ready to collect in the post office, so I head over and get that.
1.10 pm: Few colleagues and I decided to go for lunch. I get a toastie with a side of chips with a water. (€8.95)
3.55 pm: I’m in the process of training in a new staff member at the moment, so most of my work days are consumed with that for now. I take some time to clear my own emails and check off some boring admin stuff before we have a group meeting at 4.15 pm.
4.20 pm: Thank god for text reminders. Forgot I booked in a nail appointment for myself today at 5pm in preparation for a trip we have to Belgium at the start of December (not sure how likely this is with current Covid situation now, but we live and hope). Haven’t had my nails done in over a year with the house works, so looking forward to this.
5.45 pm: Nails done, and I feel like a new woman. €30.00 well spent
6.15 pm: Home from work and my partner has meatballs cooking for dinner. I wouldn’t be blessed with great cooking skills, but I’m blessed that he is!
7.00 pm: Finish up dinner. As he cooked, I do the wash up. We then have a look around the house and take a look at the painters’ work so far. I make the decision to paint the stairs black, get my partner on board by showing Pinterest pictures, so the undercoat went on today and even that has changed the whole hallway look. Nervous wait now to see if the black stairs will actually be nice!
9.30 pm: Most nights now, my partner and I normally talk through interior ideas and paint options. We’re taking the renovation room by room, so we have nearly completed the sitting room and our sofa is due to be delivered in the next few weeks. We’ll start budgeting and looking into bathroom ideas now. How my evenings have changed!
10.30 pm: I’m in the middle of completing my Masters in insurance, so I take my laptop to the spare room where the desk is and begin looking at my latest assignment. Since the Leaving Cert, I’ve always worked my best in the evenings. Studying and assignments always get done best in the dead of night for me when I’ve no distractions.
12.10 pm: After a couple of hours researching and planning the layout of my assignment, I end it there for the night and head to bed.
Today’s total: €498.95
7.00 am: Up early again this morning as the painters are coming again.
7.50 am: I leave a little bit earlier this morning because I was ready earlier than normal. I arrive in town and while passing McDonald’s, I succumb to the urge to get a drive-thru latte (€2.00). I don’t normally get takeaway coffees, but with no queue in the drive-thru this morning, how could I resist?
10.58 am: I take a break for breakfast and have my Weetabix and banana I brought from home. Not doing a food shop for this week has really limited my breakfast choices, so note to self – don’t skip a Sunday food shop again.
11.35 am: Work’s been the usual. Our new staff member seems to be grasping things really well so I think I’ll be letting them spread their wings solo for the rest of the evening and tomorrow to see how they get on.
12.53 pm: Radio is normally on in the background at work, but today a call with a night nurse who works with the Irish Cancer Society got my attention. It was a beautiful chat that described the work they do and I just thought what amazing people they are, so I pop onto the website and donate €20.00 and buy the Christmas ornament for €15.00. My parents always instilled in us to give what we can, when we can and I’m fortunate enough that I can offer something, and I hope it makes a small difference somewhere.
1.10 pm: I break for lunch and I have the classic ham sandwich with soup for my lunch today that I brought from home.
5.00 pm: I log off for the day and head home.
5.30 pm: I arrive home and the painters have made a huge dent in the hallway and landing – delighted! My partner’s still working so I grab a few bags and head to Aldi to do a shop. I pick up a few things for lunch tomorrow and for dinner for the weekend. We use our joint card for all food shops so that covered this bill.
7.00 pm: Cooked chicken in a tomato sauce with some cauliflower rice and veg. Still not sure if I actually like cauliflower rice, but it’s not the worst so I’ll eat it over normal rice to be “good”. He’s still on and off calls for the evening so I take one for the team and do the wash up as well.
8.30 pm: My dad calls around as he will be the one fitting the kitchen, so we chat about that over a cup of tea and he measures a few bits.
10.30 pm: I now know for sure I get my chat from my dad. When he calls he stays for hours chatting, I love it. I wave him off, lock up and I head to bed to watch some Netflix (I still sign in to the family Netflix).
Today’s total: €37.00
7.45 am: I snooze my alarm a bit this morning, but I finally get up and get ready for work.
8.10 am: I head off with a wrap with some cheese, lettuce, chicken and some rice cakes with me to have for lunch, along with two Weetabix for breakfast.
10.15 am: I remember the Lotto money is due for the syndicate in work. I’ve €20.00 in my purse so I add that to the envelope on my floor for the Lotto and that will cover me for November and December.
11.10 am: The system at work is still so slow. I’m not sure if it’s just my PC or not but it’s really dragging, so opening any emails or Excels is taking forever. I reboot my PC and go for my breakfast in the canteen.
12.30 pm: I ring my mom for a chat. Since The Late Late Toy Show is on this evening, she invites me and my partner to come around for a takeaway and watch it there. She knows well we have no sofa to sit and relax on, so I take this invite and run with it! I will provide the takeaway though. My parents have helped us so much with the move so me getting a takeaway of a Friday is a no brainer.
1.15 pm: The wrap I made myself for lunch was actually very nice. I used some garlic mayo I found in the fridge and that made it I think.
3.05 pm: I’ve downloaded the projections and policy list for January this afternoon so for the rest of the evening, I’ll be dividing up the Excels and getting them ready for my team to crack on with the start of next week.
5.00 pm: I log off bang on the button as it’s Friday and it’s been a long week. Head out of work and home.
6.00 pm: I have a quick shower and get into my comfies. I ring for the takeaway and gather a few sweet treats to bring over with me to my parents for the Toy Show.
6.30 pm: My partner drives and I nip in to collect the takeaway. (€46.00)
9.25 pm: Full belly and ready and waiting for the Toy Show. Not sure why we even watch it anymore, there’s no children in the house. Maybe it’s just an Irish thing. Fire on, dogs on my lap, that’s me set for the night now.
12.30 am: We head home and straight to bed.
Today’s total: €66.00
10.00 am: I have an unexpected lie-in. Normally rise with no alarm around nine-ish so that was nice. My partner is still sleeping so I get up and get the breakfast going. We have a few frozen pain au chocolats and croissants in the freezer, so I bang those in the oven and boil a few eggs. Nigella Lawson who??
11.00 am: Ready for the day of cleaning ahead. With the house under renovation, I tend not to clean too much throughout the week as I’ve learnt the hard way: if I clean an area some evening, be sure it will be dusty and dirty the following eve. I do a blitz clean of the bathrooms and kitchen and hoover and sweep the hallway.
2.00 pm: Didn’t think I was cleaning for that long, but at least the house looks a little bit more homey! My partner’s told me we’re heading into town this eve for 6pm, so I do a bit of laundry and clean the bedroom of my disregarded clothes from the week.
3.30 pm: I’m ready to leave and so is my partner so we head to town and look around the shops. I’ve had my eye on a garland for the fireplace for a while, so I pick that up for €47.99. My partner doesn’t understand the price of Christmas decorations. Lucky I’m here to steer us right!
5.30 pm: Strolling around and I realise he’s brought me to town because it’s the Christmas parade and turning on of the Christmas lights. What a gem he is. We get a bag of chips (his treat) and stand and watch the parade pass by.
6.20 pm: The parade was just lovely and seeing and hearing the children scream with delight when Santa drove past was just so nice. It’s a stark reminder of how much “children” things they have lost out on over the past year and a bit, so I’m delighted they had tonight to have fun. If my boyfriend and I at age 27 had a fun evening, I can only imagine how the children felt!
7.00 pm: I’d planned on meeting my girls at one of their houses this eve for a catch up. Wine will be on the cards, so I grab two bottles from the shop (€28.00) and my partner en-route to his own friends drops me up.
1.00 am: Time flies when you’re having fun. I buzz my partner to come and collect me. Home again to bed after a lovely evening of Christmas and fun with friends. How I’ve missed it!
Today’s total: €75.99
11.30 am: Definitely a wine-induced lie-in, but I won’t complain. It was worth it. My partner has some sausages going and a pot of tea ready, so I join him in the kitchen and we have breakfast and the chats.
1.00 pm: We got a few paint pot testers for one of the bedrooms. We’re not getting any of the bedrooms professionally painted as it would just cost too much, and also we’ve no idea what colours or what the bedrooms will be used for. We get out the big bucket of brilliant white and the rollers and we white wash the room.
4.00 pm: It’s a small single room, so we get the walls all white and I start the cutting in along the coving and skirting.
4.50 pm: My dad calls over as he’s fitting the kitchen, so we stop for a cup of tea. My partner helps him in the kitchen and I continue the cutting in.
6.00 pm: It’s dark out now, but most of the room is now all white and ready to be painted when we pick a colour. I take the roller tray and brushes outside and wash them.
7.30 pm: A shower and another cup of tea later, I’m in the kitchen thinking what we’ll have for dinner. There’s two frozen pizzas, so I throw those in for us with some chips and garlic bread.
8.15 pm: I clean up the kitchen after dinner and I think after our productive day, an early night is on the cards.
9.00 pm: We tuck in for bed and we throw on some Peaky Blinders. I kind of watched this in college but I can’t remember any of it so we started it again this week.
Today’s total: €0.00
***
What I learned -
It’s well known that male intelligence makes up a broader bell curve than the female one but the average is the same. Simply put men have more geniuses and idiots whereas there are more women of average intelligence.
That’s exactly right. Boys tend to get higher grades in maths, always have. That’s why there will always be more boys attracted to STEM subjects. It’s nothing to do with sexism no matter how loud the feminists shout. It’s to do with how the male brain is wired. You also have more boy “slow learners” at the other end of the bell curve. More makes tend to be inventors, innovators, explorers, Nobel prize winners. There are women too obviously just not as many but that reflects their numbers on that side of the bell curve.
What if I changed sex or gender along the way in living cert? Would it be male or female intelligence?
@Marg
“It’s nothing to do with sexism no matter how loud the feminists shout. It’s to do with how the male brain is wired. ”
There are subtle differences in how M/F brains are constructed, mostly to do with evolutionary development (hunting vs gathering and the skills inherent in each) but there is also a lot to do with how boys and girls engage in play from an early age and how they are perceived by the adults around them.
From an early age, girls are routinely conditioned to believe that looks are more important than their physical/mental capabilities e.g. “Isn’t Lisa so pretty in her pink dress?” vs “Freddie climbed a tree all the way to the top and didn’t fall!” This drip drip drip of conditioning means that generally speaking, girls begin to believe that they are not as capable at climbing trees as boys are.
There is also the inherent belief (like the one you display, Marg) that maths is a heavily-gendered subject and that only boys can understand it, leading girls to think that no matter what their interest or capability, there is something ‘wrong’ with the wiring in their brain and they cannot be as good at maths as boys are.
We also have to remember that despite notable exceptions, girls were not allowed to study mathematics and the sciences at major colleges until comparatively recently which means that yes, men have been the leaders in research and discovery. Because generally, there were no women studying alongside them, using the resources available to them.
It’s too complex a subject to go into here but suffice it to say that social conditioning plays a major part in why girls don’t choose STEM careers as much as boys and why boys are ridiculed if they select what are seen as inherently feminine careers such as nursing or childcare.
@linda. I don’t believe that maths is a heavily gendered subject. But the subject suits the male brain better if that boy has an interest in it. Boys will zoom in on and be very committed to what grabs them,girls tend to be methodical and more disciplined in their approach. Boys tend to be very good at maths or very bad, girls straddle,the middle ground. The reason being girls will do as expected (we are of course generalising) boys will do what interests them. Girls can be very, very good at maths of course, but at genius level it tends to be hugely male.
As for boy babies and girl,babies being different , of course they are. Gender differences are not social constructs. It’s amazing to see the difference at early ages. A baby boy won’t be seduced by pink and sparkly, a baby girl will. Baby girls are not interested in wheeling dinky cars around the floor, boys do it for hours. That behaviour is inherent and is common in every society and culture around the world. It can’t be a social construct in every society and every culture and in every time. It’s only ever became a “social construct” in the western world post 1960′s.
What about the ambitions of boys and girls in 6th year? A lot of students who do honours maths do it because its a requirement for the course they want to do in college. Usually these are STEM subjects. So if you really want to go into STEM then you will work harder at honours maths. Where as if you don’t need honours maths quite often you will be advised to drop it as its believed to take up more study time than other honours subjects.
So its a bit of chicken and egg situation and these results can be twisted to suit either side of the argument.
@Lydia Anecdotal evidence doesn’t really prove anything in a nature vs. nuture debate. Women haven’t been discriminated against in education in decades. Girls now outperform men in 50 out of 58 leaving cert subjects (they study more than boys). The exceptions are generally the mathematical ones. The numbers going to third level education are about 50:50 but more women go to universities than ITs. Globally men outperform women in maths so it’s not just an Irish thing. Women were historically discouraged from becoming authors too but that hasn’t stopped them outperforming men in English class. Simply saying girls are marginally not as good as boys at maths because they lack confidence is a bit of a cop out unless you have data to back it up.
OUTRAGE!
This is clearly another machination of the patriarchy. The female students clearly feel threatened by the greater numbers of young men now doing higher maths and its affecting their performance. Separate syllabi for each sex, wait no gender, wait no biological sex…separate things for every type of sex until everyone gets exactly the same results with the exact same frequency. More funding for female maths in our schools is also what’s needed. Ring fence it now!
OUTRAGE!
>separate things for every type of sex until everyone gets exactly the same results with the exact same frequency
Not that that’s the point of the article, but I might as well rebut it a little. If everyone gets the same levels of education with an equal focus on each student, then yes, you would expect that people get roughly the same grades on average (as in, roughly the same numbers of guys and girls doing subjects, and getting around the same grades at the same rates). The bell curve isn’t exactly a difficult concept. If more girls were taking honours economics than boys, and were getting better grades than them, we’d assume that they were recieving some sort of preferential treatment in terms of either how their teachers were treating them, or how society tells girls all the time that they’re wonderful at economics and boys are rubbish. We wouldn’t just go all out and say it’s because boys are either too stupid for, or uninterested in, economics.
Chillax Ronan.
When you realise your long and serious comment was in reply to a blatantly sarcastic one.
Femi-nazis dont tend to get wit, sarcasm of humor. Too busy being OUTRAGED.
>Femi-nazis dont tend to get wit, sarcasm of humor. Too busy being OUTRAGED.
“Sarcasm of humour” I get, but it’s also allowed to make serious replies to “jokes”. I hate that mindset of “Only joking! Can’t get mad because I’m only joking! See! I’m not actually touching your face, I’m just waving my hand near it!”.
Veronica, why is it that you have assumed that it is the teaching making this disparity in grades occur?
We see statisticians all over the world consistently concluding that there is a broader bell curve for males – more idiots but more geniuses.
Exactly how have you ruled this out as a possibility for the cause of the difference in grades?
I think we need to introduce quotas to allow more females to reach the same grades as their male counterparts. Seems only fair.
Slightly off topic but if you compare a current text and text higher level book from the 1990s you will be astounded. The higher level then is is similar to first year university standard and the higher level now is similar to the pass level then.
*leaving cert.
everything was harder in the 90′s
Dumbing down the curriculum. Didn’t they do that in the U.K. And are suffering now because of it?
The maths curriculum was revamped to make it more practical and easier to learn while still laying foundations in all areas. However we’d want to look at the standard of teaching across secondary schools. It’s appalling for the most part.
I studied maths in university and I actually found that the way maths is thought in school helped me grasp university maths so much better. Yes it may be dumbed down but it is dumbed down for a reason
actually, I believe the older curriculum was easier. I was the last year of the older curriculum, the year that followed me were allowed to use calculators. However, its not the “correct answer” that gets you most of the marks in leaving cert maths, its the methods you used to get the answer that got you most of the most of the marks. The older curriculum was designed so you didn’t need a calculator, so all the answers worked out perfectly, if you had an answer with 5 figures after a decimal point, it usually meant you had the wrong answer!
@James Darcy
“However we’d want to look at the standard of teaching across secondary schools. It’s appalling for the most part.”
Unless you have been taught by every maths teacher in the country, then you are in no position to make a sweeping generalisation like this. You may have been taught by a maths teacher that, in your opinion, was appalling. That same teacher, in their opinion, may have taught that you were an appalling student.
“That same teacher, in their opinion, may have taught that you were an appalling student.”
thought that you were an appalling student
Yes, but the marking back then was equally astoundingly easy.
Haha Gerard relax. I work in education’
More people are doing higher level, as there are more points going for higher level maths than any other higher level subject. The stat that I think is worrying is that 10% of leaving cert students are doing foundation level.
I’d rather the 10% passed basic foundation level than failed Ordinary. Foundation is functional maths to survive in the world.
Not everybody can be a shining star. For every male maths genius there’s at least one that probably struggles with very basic maths.
Indeed Gerard, for all those at the right had side of the IQ bellcurve, threre’s all those at the far left hand side also.
Obviously this is patriarchy at work.
I’m triggered now
STATES SERIOUSLY SEXIST SUMS SYLLABUS SUPPRESSES SOFTER SEX’S STEM SECURITY!!! :)
Unfortunately Gerald, this is not the best of all possible worlds. If it were, Leibniz would’ve been a 20th century polymath instead of a 17th century one. That way he could have met Einstein and seen what utter twaddle some of his musings on uses of mathematics in space and astronomy were.
I’ll do a deal with you there Ronan, I will show you an example of what Leibniz meant and why mathematicians are lost in matters of astronomy and the current mess we inherit is basically using astronomy as a dumping ground for every half-witted notion that enters the heads of idiots.
Copernicus figured out the Earth moved through space and the Sun was at the center of the solar system by accounting for the observed motions of the outer planets as they temporarily fall behind in view as the faster Earth,in an inner circuit overtakes them -
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap011220.html
The geocentric astronomers thought the forward-backward -forward motions belonged to the planets themselves but Copernicus said it is just an illusion caused by the Earth’s faster motion around the Sun just like a car on a roundabout sees slower moving cars in an outer lane fall temporarily behind in view as it overtakes them. Common sense and made enjoyable for those who take the time to look at the time lapse footage of Jupiter and Saturn above seen from a moving Earth.
Along comes a mathematical idiot that is Isaac Newton invented absolute/relative space based on a dumb view of the same observed forward-backward-forward motions using a notion that we the backward motions (retrogrades) seen from Earth but not from the Sun -
“For to the earth planetary motions appear sometimes direct, sometimes
stationary, nay, and sometimes retrograde. But from the sun they are
always seen direct,…” Newton
Like Leibniz said, higher reasoning destroys the contrived nonsense of mathematicians so if readers appreciated how Copernicus actually arrived at his conclusion that the Earth and all planets move in one direction around a central Sun they can give themselves a pat on the back and see where the followers of Newton have jumped the tracks. I remind readers that this is at the major juncture of geocentric and heliocentric astronomy and if they can’t get this right then anything else that follows including the voodoo of early 20th century relativity won’t make sense.
Isaac Newton a “mathematical idiot”? Throw yourself into a black hole Gerald, please.
There is a black hole at the bottom of my garden but the other fictitious one only exists in the heads of those who know no better. I have to laugh sometimes as you have these guys running around talking about ‘black hole’ as an object with infinite density/ zero volume but infinite volume/zero density means exactly the same thing or an elaborate way to describe ‘nothing’. The theorists and their followers might get upset but everyone else can do without the academic junk passed off as astronomy.
Newton is much more interesting as he set up his absolute/relative space and motion based on his dumb view of the observed motions of the other planets. His followers through the centuries never understood what he was up to apart from the ‘scientific method’ he introduced where he tried to fit astronomy into experimental sciences.
It is one of those things that if you appreciate the time lapse footage of the Earth overtaking Jupiter and Saturn in our common motion around the Sun you can pretty much figure out everything else including the phony view that motions seen from Earth (which Newton called relative space and motion) are resolved by a hypothetical observer on the Sun (absolute space and motion).
A mathematician doesn’t make a person an astronomer and the wider population including students in the education system must learn this.
Feel free to postulate and hypothesise your own explanations and prove them using mathematics. One that, ideally, better explains our universe. Until then, you’re a rambling garden gnome.
This is not engineering science or software programming which do require an aptitude in mathematics , you need no more mathematics to appreciate astronomy than you do hopping to your car and driving across town or the countryside. I have no doubt that a few people will just look at the Earth overtaking Jupiter and Saturn and watching them temporarily falling behind in view will be delighted to discover that this is how Copernicus worked out the Earth goes around the Sun and not the Sun around the Earth.
The analogy of cars on a road doesn’t end there, as the Earth approaches the outer planets they get bigger and brighter just as a car approaching yours on the same road will appear dim and small at first until the point when the headlights are brightest and the car largest at the closest approach of both cars ,same with planets as the sequence of images show as the Earth approach Jupiter and Saturn at our closest point before leaving them behind in the distance -
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0112/jupsatloop_tezel.jpg
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap011220.html
People have an aptitude for astronomy that is being blocked by the chanting of voodoo by experimental theorists and it is creating problems for the wider community who need to exercise this part of their brain in making sense of the connection between the motions of our planet and terrestrial sciences, solar system structure and things like that.
How many understand the observations in the time lapse above I cannot say, some will take to it immediately and enjoy that they can while the mathematicians can’t appreciate what is wrong with Newton’s stupid take on the same observations -
“For to the earth planetary motions appear sometimes direct, sometimes
stationary, nay, and sometimes retrograde. But from the sun they are
always seen direct,…” Newton
Again, children need to use the full range of their brain so teaching that junk by Newton as an ‘achievement’ is contrary to the insights of the genuine astronomers who fully understood what the observed motions of the planets represented from a moving Earth and not a hypothetical observer on the Sun.
Didn’t Newton invent calculus? Why such hate?
Newton invented absolute/relative space and motion which substitute for motions seen from Earth (relative) as opposed to motions seen from the Sun (absolute) calling the first ‘apparent’ and the latter ‘true’ hence his nonsense which is outside astronomical reasoning -
“It is indeed a matter of great difficulty to discover, and
effectually to distinguish, the true motion of particular bodies from
the apparent; because the parts of that absolute space, in which those
motions are performed, do by no means come under the observation of
our senses. Yet the thing is not altogether desperate; for we have
some arguments to guide us, partly from the apparent motions, which
are the differences of the true motions” Newton
You can’t hate an astronomical dunce like Newton nor his followers but you can feel sorry for those students who never get to see how the great original heliocentric astronomers worked out the Earth travels around the Sun using the observed motions of the other planets as a gauge for that conclusion. Any reader today with the benefit of time lapse footage of Jupiter and Saturn can enjoy the original reasoning of Copernicus which uses a moving Earth and not a hypothetical observer on the Sun nor the meaningless lingo of absolute/relative space and motion .
Try Galileo instead -
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0112/JuSa2000_tezel.gif
“Now what is said here of Jupiter is to be understood of Saturn and Mars also. In Saturn these retrogressions are somewhat more frequent than in Jupiter, because its motion is slower than Jupiter’s, so that the Earth overtakes it in a shorter time. In Mars they are rarer, its motion being faster than that of Jupiter, so that the Earth spends more time in catching up with it.” Galileo
It is not a matter of hating Newton, it is a matter of admiring what Copernicus did using 21st century imaging tools.
Good answer.
****MEN RULE****
******SLIDE RULE******
I don’t usually like to comment on articles give a “breakdown” on the difference between genders. I’m in Leaving cert and I dropped Higher Level maths around the time of the mocks. I’m more suited to business/English etc so I wanted to focus more time on those. I’m not sure how many people can imagine what it’s like heading into a class, knowing you won’t fully understand everything and stressing about your maths homework before you even got home. Since I dropped to ordinary, it’s taken a huge weight off my shoulders, I understand everything, my homework is far more manageable and I do think because I did higher level right up until then, that it equipped me better for ordinary level. Males usually are better at the new project maths because there’s a big focus on shapes/measurements etc – most of these males might either do tech graphics/construction/engineering – so their minds are more wired for that kind of thing. I think as long as every student is happy with what they’re at, that is the most important thing. Not everyone is wired for everything
Any girl that’s wants to study maths can. This could hardly be more of a non-issue. Girls are actually achieving higher points in the leaving cert than boy on average and yet the fact is that when women and girls are given a free choice they choose to go into non-stem fields more often than not. And theirs nothing wrong with that. Women tend to prefer jobs that are more human centred like nursing or psycho therapy. And men tend to prefer jobs that are more object entered like engineering or construction. What’s the problem with that?
The real issue, and one that is being ignored, is that boys are dropping out if school at far higher rates than girls, scoring lower marks in the leaving cert on average and are entering third level education at a lower rate than girls. The knock on effect of all this is that women in their 20′s and 30′s are actually out earning men in the same age bracket. The educational system is failing boys.
Or are the exams getting easier???
The reason for this is two fold, firstly the higher level maths paper offers over 100 points now so theres a big incentive to achieve in it. Secondly the difficulty level of the papers has been consistently lowered over the past 10 years through both general lower difficulty and changing of the syllabus to focus heavier on the ‘easier’ areas of mathematics.
Im not saying the papers are easy at the moment, but I did my leaving certificate (Honors Maths) in 2006 and have had siblings do it in 2009/12 and last one now in 2016. As far as I can see, since 2009 the paper has become easier and easier to pass every couple of years.
Pure mathematicians make nuisances of themselves and they are likely to be the idiots although the world calls them ‘geniuses’ as they force themselves into disciplines like astronomy where they are ill-suited to deal with observations and make proper conclusions. Leibniz, himself a mathematician, commented on this tendency which has done great damage to astronomy by mathematical purveyors of voodoo and bluffing -
“These are the imaginings of incomplete- notions-philosophers who make space an absolute reality. Such notions are apt to be fudged up by devotees of pure mathematics, whose whole subject- matter is the playthings of imagination, but they are destroyed by higher reasoning” Leibniz
In things like engineering, mathematics is great but once they go into the area of astronomy all common sense is lost and while the wider world may believe that the person standing in front of a blackboard full of equations is understanding something they don’t, it is all a mathematical joke and much as Leibniz describes.
I’m doing the lc this year and I stuck higher level maths until about 2 weeks ago. My own personal experience is that my teacher, when I didn’t understand something and asked a question, would immediately get up in arms and begin to rant about how this was done in the junior cert and about how we should know this already, even though it was higher level leaving cert maths. He expected us to know it already. And yet when one of the lads in our class asked a question there was a calm discussion about where he was being caught and then Sir would give him a few more examples. This is the kind of environment I was expected to learn in and that environment is the reason why there is three girls left in the class.
https://m.reddit.com/r/AskSocialScience/comments/38ffpk/is_it_true_that_male_iq_has_a_different/
Here’s a reddit about the notion that the distribution of boys intelligence has a higher density in the tails. I wasn’t buying it at first. It seems its true.
From the tables it looks like the average grade is lower now. It’s being dragged down by the people who are enticed to take higher and alot of these end up with a D. Is that better than what was there before?
have your say