If I had a twitter account you could follow me.

So if, for example, you became a CEO on $250k plus bonus, how would you expect to be able to look at your company's financial reports and spreadsheets and know if anything is amiss with them?

That's the point, you say you don't think you'll ever need maths and can't be bothered to learn the basics, but then say you want to earn $250k a year - the two things are mutually exclusive imo. Even to be accepted on to a MBA course you'd have to show maths skills and a grasp of basic finance. My husband is starting a MBA in March, a big chunk of it will be finance related.

Okay then,

If mental maths is so important to future jobs then why is the (Ontarian) school system actively phasing it out in favour of allowing children to use calculators?

many a new qualified immigrant coming to Canada these days from the UK with high expectations of jobs & salary, end up doing something different just to house, feed & cloth themselves.

Ride the tide while its good on the backs of your parents - because one day it will all end.

Education, hard work, sustainability, ready to adapt to change.

I hope you actually take on board what people say... What's the point of being a 15yr old on a website meant for adults if you don't listen and absorb. It's just not meant to be your take on the world. People are giving you life experience, and all you're saying is I don't need this, I don't need that. The fact is you do ESPECIALLY if you want to be someone who earns 250k (the fact that it doesn't make you happy is a whole different subject). Maybe stop thinking you know it all, and use your ears a bit more than your mouth and get off expat and figure out what you need to do to get there.

OK, so using a calculator, answer Greenhill's puzzle.

I have a grasp of "basic" finance... Stocks, interest, spreadsheets (i'm really good at Excel actually, but, it does the maths for me)

If I were to look at spreadsheets that i have at this moment, i'd double click the "formulas" and see what calculations its doing, then double check those calculations with multiple calculators. Hasn't failed so far.

Isn't the maths system under review as children are failing so badly? We do have a good example it appears...

OK, so use a spreadsheet too.

We're waiting.....

Was that not very laborious having to program in machine code? How much more time efficient is a modern programming language is it to code a similar calculation?

Right... That's because Canada and the UK are both first world countries and as such have equal job opportunities, depending on the field you're in, one country may be better than the other. Some fields they are exactly equal. So someone coming from UK with a normal salary shouldn't expect a drastically improved one here, especially with the whole Canadian experience bollocks, and all the necessary certification they may not be able to get a job immediately. (Tirytory is a good example of that)

I take everything with a grain of salt... But that's just me. I take what my parents say with a grain of salt too. Sometimes opinions are very drastic compared to what I've heard from my parents and the other people around me. But you're correct in that that's the reason I originally came on here, is to get a different perspective than what my parents/teachers are telling me. But in this case, I've been told, by mum and dad, teachers, etc that I don't need to do multiplication and division in my head if I cannot process that. I can just use a calculator. Hence my question above, if its so important why is the Ontario school system phasing it out?

But that wouldn't be my fault then would it. That would be the school system's fault, which is a great example disproving the whole "The Canadian school system is oh so perfect" attitude all Canadians seem to have. Although at least it isn't as bad as the US.

My point is are they? Maths as a whole is under review because pupils are doing so badly.

Just to point out....when I get through registration, I can expect to earn more in Canada than in the UK. My husbands job a lot more.

I don't know... Like I said I take everything with a grain of salt, so I don't take everything my teachers say as gospel, although in this case using a calculator works in my favour, at least for the moment, because it seems that it may work to my disadvantage in future, because its less work for me to do.

Oh yes in your fields for sure you'll earn more here. But there are some fields that are more lucrative in UK. I have an example from here on BE in mind but can't quite recall what the occupation was

They have more important things to teach than times tables which should have been learned by fourth grade. Do you really not know them? It's not like multiplying and dividing up to 12 is difficult. What next, you don't need to know the order of the alphabet because you'll just use Google voice recognition if you want to look up a word?

BTW, no one is suggesting you do mental maths instead of using a calculator. What's being suggested is that you are able do mental maths (i.e. learned it) but feel free to use a calculator where available.