Mathematics standards at age 18, then and now

[Peter_Smith]

I've just posted on my blog Logic Matters something about standards
for Cambridge university entrance forty years ago (I've put some
sample questions there). I'd be very intrigued to learn from those
with their finger on the pulse how they think contemporary 17/18 year
olds would cope with questions like those.

See http://bit.ly/FG1nE

[Paul Springer]

I graduated from high school 40 years ago, here in the U.S., and it was
very uncommon for calculus to be offered in high school, and in general
you were expected to take it in college. Of course now things have
changed, and calculus in high school is routine. The standards you
posted require a background in calculus--were incoming students to the
university expected to have taken calculus back then? I can't imagine
they took in many students from the U.S., if that's the case.

In article
<6cfcac95-8743-4a6b...@g19g2000yqo.googlegroups.com>,

[1>3<1]

Musatov wrote:

I went to the school of Fort Knox if you know what I mean the kind of
school locked up with the real riches where math idiots like you
didn't say I was born to 'pagan' parents because of the spelling of my
name bitch. Signed, Martin de Porres

[tonysin]

If those questions really are typical of what was expected of high
school students in England 40 years ago, I find it very difficult to
understand why England hasn't developed time travel, anti-gravity, and
FTL spaceflight.