[othello]

Here is Einstein's certificate for the year 1879 (he was 10):

http://www.scienceblogs.de/frischer-wind/einsteins-zeugnis.j...

Long story short, he obtained the best score (6) in the three mathematical topics (algebra, geometry and descriptive geometry) and in physics.

I guess one of the reasons the myth has endured so long may be that it makes for such a great story. A sort of intellectual rags-to-riches, so to speak.

Edit: corrected the physics score.

[hasenj]

I was a top student (always perfect score) up until I was 11

After that I was still a great student, but not the top and not straight As. I still liked math.

By the end of high school, I was extremely dis-interested in math and specially in calculus. It all seemed like arbitrary pointless rules. (I blame the teachers and the curriculum).

[Qz]

I was a top student up until they put me in the special classes for top students, which mostly just involved extra work which I was too lazy to do.

[cmontgomeryb]

I bet a lot of people here can relate to this.

[realitygrill]

Very much so. Poll?

[mbm]

How do we change this?

[tokenadult]

How do we change this?

Here are some suggestions for improving the mathematics education of pupils who show early advanced abilities in mathematics:

http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Resources/articles.php?pa...

http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Resources/articles.php?pa...

http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Resources/articles.php?pa...

http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Resources/articles.php?pa...

http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Resources/articles.php?pa...

(Summary of the advice linked above is make sure students learn mathematics beyond the standard school curriculum, which is not designed for the top students, and make sure the top students have a chance to meet one another and to challenge themselves with difficult problems that they can discuss afterwards. The site that provides those links provides many of the opportunities necessary, largely for free.)

Here is commentary by a Fields medalist on what successful mathematics education looks like over the long haul:

http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/math/pdf/0503/0503081v1.pdf

(Summary of Thurston's advice is emphasize connectedness of mathematics and deep understanding over racing through the standard curriculum.)

[hackinthebochs]

The problem comes from the teachers, who themselves don't really know the subject. They know it as a set of rules, and thus thats how they teach it. Get teachers who actually know the material and the problem will mostly solve itself.

A more practical solution would be to change how the books themselves are written. Math is taught as just a set of rules to be memorized. We've lost the fact that math was motivated by real problems that real people had. We need to teach it in a problem-analysis-solution manner rather than "here are some rules and now here are some contrived problems for practice".

[acqq]

Wrong: Algebra, geometry, descriptive geometry AND physics are all 6 (obviously the highest possible).

Chemistry and the history of nature are 5, as well as German and Italian, art drawing and geography are 4 and some "..drawing" I can't recognize. French 3.

Moreover as far as I see it's his final degree score of his whole secondary education (the last step before university).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gymnasium_(school)#Final_degree

[othello]

Thank you for pointing the mistake out.

However, it is not so obvious that 6 is the highest score. While it was the case in Switzerland (where Einstein was studying at that age), it was the exact contrary in Germany at that time - 1 being the best score and 6 the lowest.

As pointed out in the Stack Exchange's answers, this discrepancy in scoring systems may also have contributed to the myth of Einstein's poor performance at school.

[acqq]

othello: (in http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2339956) "Here is Einstein's certificate for the year 1879 (he was 10)"

Wrong, in the certificate it's clearly written that he's born in 1879 and that the exams happened in 1896, as he was obviously 17. As I already claimed it is a "final degree" score before the university.

[thret]

This poster was prominently displayed in one of my math lectures at university.

http://www.allaboutmovies.com.au/images/pictures/store/E/ein...

He is of course not implying that he is bad at math as many students believe, but rather that the math he had to cope with was much harder.

[frobozz]

Possibly Technischen Zeichen - That would go well as a contrast to Kunstzeichen.

[bgurupra]

Einstien was born on 14 March 1879 - so the date there must be his birth date

Edit: the second date there is 1896 which makes him 17 years but that marks sheet seems to indicate 3 or 4th grade - so not sure exactly which grade the marks sheet was for?