“300, 241,..582..1, math is fun, 21, 77, 30…” November 29, monday. Ugh, math test day. I wasn’t worried though, because I knew the answers to every problem. Some people were just too slow when taking their tests. Because I didn’t want mom to yell at me, I trudged out of my bed to clean myself up. Before heading downstairs, I licked my dried lips once more, looked in the mirror to calm down my dark, frizzy hair, and recited my song of math. One more one hundred to add to my collection. My heart warmed at my name, Kathya Curiel, next to the clean 100 and the smiley face at the top of the chapter 6 test, but at the same time, a pit was rotting inside me. It’s not right, but who doesn’t want to look smart? Now, I’ll wait until the next math test …show more content…
I smiled back and replied in a teacher’s pet way. Fumbling for my phone, I sped and almost tripped to her desk. Her desk was full of heaps of “flying” papers. She always kept the answer key under a certain folder, but where was the folder? She would be here any moment from the teacher’s room, and the stupid folder just hid to nowhere! At the same time, I had to reorganize the stacks so it looked clean, but time still ticked. “Oh. No. Oh. No, OHHH here it is!!” Quickly, I snapped pictures of the answer key for chapter 7, and I dashed back to my seat, sitting on my phone. This time, though, my stomach was flipping around even more than usual, like something was beating it around. This just was not the right thing to do. Click. “Have you been enjoying yourself?” “It was okay.” Not knowing anything, she laughed, and I flashed my convincing smile, but it died down quickly. It wasn’t the right thing to do, and I could feel myself rotting inside. I was going to get caught sooner or later. Before leaving the class, I needed to tell her something important. I wouldn’t feel fresh without telling her what was on my mind. I was biting my already worn down nails as I slid slowly towards her. “Mrs. Pool, did you see the baseball game yesterday?” “YES. They won! To the playoffs 4 years in a row!” “Yeah, it was a fun game to …show more content…
Easy as pie. The next day, I whipped through the 5 sheets of paper like a bullet. At least I was born with high memory capacity. Just in case, I eyed the turn-in basket and waited for two other people to turn in their test papers, so I wouldn’t be “too fast” and “too suspicious”. As I wandered back to my seat, however, Mrs. Pool called me over. “Please see me after class.” My stomach churned. I churned. My whole world churned. Did she catch me? Did she just want to talk about another baseball game? What do I do? Maybe she just wants to tell me a funny joke after class. Yes, that’s it. “Did you want to see me?” “Yes...Yesterday after school, one of your classmates told me that they saw you in my class during lunch clubs, specifically looking through the papers on my desk. Is that true? “ Yes, yes that’s it. I did it, I’m the one who’s been cheating off all your tests this whole school year. Punish m- “ ...No. I think that person saw the wrong person, or they might even be making it up.” My mouth spoke before I could convince it. “Are you sure?” “...No.” Gulp. I stomped the toe of my shoe on the ground. Her eyebrows scrunched inwards, and she took off her glasses to look straight at
I tried to look as professional as possible, as she appeared very sophisticated. We began with small talk. We asked about each others' families and hobbies, just to break the ice a bit. I began. “My first question”, I stuttered, “What made you decide to become a professor of Christian Religion?” “It’s ok", she said, "you can relax. I’ve had man...
I finally managed to sit down and really clear my mind and re-read the chapter in What
When I walked in Ms. Shannon’s class I introduced myself and told the kids to pretend I wasn’t in the class. I sat in the back an...
At first, I was thinking what did I bring to the table, when I sat there in class, knowing my math teachers didn’t believe I was cut out for this. I won’t lie, I did give up in the end, because I fina...
The day of the tryouts for the Math Counts team came quickly; but I was ready to take the test. Quickly, I solved as many of the 30 questions that I could. I look around the room. Kids have their eyes focused on the test. All of the kids were determined to make the team. I stand up from my desk and give my test to Mrs. Janasky.
My friends and I, hand-chosen by our fourth grade teachers to work with a special math teacher for a period of four months, had been competing in an exclusive contest called Math Olympiad. The Math Olympiad contest consisted of five intensive five-problem tests, given over a period of four months. Among the participants in our school, a score of three or below on any test was considered “bad.” Throughout the four months, I had been working hard, aiming to receive perfect scores on the tests. As the pressure
In a musty and bleak portable classroom outside of Henry Clay High School, younger me sat and tried to understand the hardest foreign language of all, math. But this tutoring session was different, I was finally going to have a breakthrough and understand something in mathematics.
I walked in and my stomach made a flip-flop like riding “The Scream” at Six Flags. Everyone was staring at me! With their curios eyes and anxious to know who I was. I froze like ice and felt the heat rise through my face. My parents talked to my teacher, Ms.Piansky. Then my mom whispered “It’s ti...
She sighed on me, “Next class, try to get on time will ya? I’d already introduced myself in class but I bet you were still somewhere out of the class.” It seems like she got pissed off.
I felt a shock go through my body as I numbed up. “Wh wha what did she want?” My math teacher Mrs. Armstrong was worried about me and the fact that I do all the work in class and homework and when it comes time to take a test I fail. My teacher was willing to let me retake my test.
on the exam. However, thanks to the mediocrities earning even lower scores than myself and
My grades were average, but I scored high enough to please my parents. I lived in a wonderland of games, toys and friends until a certain examination came my way. It was my first real math exam that changed everything. My father, recently returned from New York City, did all he possibly could to train me in the ways of addition and multiplication, but to no avail. I failed that exam.
“Yep,” I responded, “I just studied for a little bit longer.” Feeling more confident that I was going to pass the test, my stress levels started to fall. Then the day of the test came. The first test I had to do was piano technique or playing the piano. The test was located at another teacher’s house, which was about half an hour away from my house. During the drive, my heart rate started beating faster and faster, until it felt like my heart was going to burst. My dad, who noticed that I was stressing out said, “Calm down Andrew, there’s nothing to be worried about.”
It was in 2010, when I was still in Vietnam, and coming up was a very hard Transitional Exam from Secondary School to High School, which included a three-part exam: Math, English, and Literature, that all ninth graders, including myself, were very frustrated about. It was the key to open the door to a student’s dream. Because the better the high school you got into, the better education you would get, and the better preparation you would have to increase your chance to get into a great college. For that reason, every student needed to study for the exam with their best efforts.
me. So I thumbed through the course book, singing a chorus of no's until I