In middle school I struggled in math. I was put into the slower classes and mocked for it. In eighth grade I had a different teacher for math. I walked into her classroom confused and nervous. I was surprised to see that she taught in a way that didn’t degrade me. I went from fearing to ask questions to asking them every time I was the slightest confused. I started getting all A’s. Something had finally clicked in my brain. I was learning faster and easier. My freshman year I was in Math Foundations. I was still in the slower classes, but I didn’t mind because I was not too confident I was smart enough to change courses. I had all A’s on my assignments and quizzes. I talked to my parents, my math teacher and my guidance counselor
Now I am not referring to all of you, we are all smart in different ways, however it is very possible that some of you will never find out. Not all of my classes are like that though. There has been one teacher that has really pushed me to become a much better student, and that is Mr. DeMarco. Over these past two years, I have taken a College Anatomy & Physiology, as well as AP Biology. For 75% of my time taking those classes, I have maintained a barely passing average. Contrary to what was expected of me in that class, in this last semester, my grades have been showing consistent A’s. This improvement makes me thing two things. 1. It disappoints me to know that, if I only received that miracle towards my grades earlier, I could’ve been doing so much better than before, and 2. It makes me wonder how far I can get in this world now with my bolstered confidence in outperforming others in
As the dull scent of chalk dust mixes imperceptably with the drone of the teacher's monotone, I doodle in my tablet to stay awake. I notice vaguely that, despite my best efforts in the shower this morning after practice, I still smell like chlorine. I sigh and wonder why the school's administration requires the students to take a class that, if it were on the Internet, would delight Mirsky (creator of Mirsky's Worst of the Web), as yet another addition to his list of worthless sites. Still, there was hope that I would learn something that would make today's first class more than just forty-five wasted minutes... It wouldn't be the first time I learned something new from the least likely place.
I think I am good at math because when it's something new we are learning about I memorize the steps in solving the problems and then try it on my own and I am able to do it with not trouble. what I do to learn how a new app or a video game work is I test it out without actually trying and then I see how the game works and then I keep practicing the game to get better at it. What was different for me last semester that I really wasn't practicing as much at home like I do in class so the only time I would practice the problems was in class
When I was in the sixth grade I started failing classes and I didn’t know how to fix it. I was to afraid to ask the teacher for help because I was far enough behind already. I didn’t have a lot of friends either, which decreased my chances farther from getting help. My mother was never good in school either, and my step-dad was always at work. So I realized I would have to get better on my own. At that moment I started paying a lot more attention to what was going on around me. I also had the privilege of a tutor in class, and math was her specialty.
For some reason, you want to know about my math life. It's about as interesting as my social life, which is pretty non-existent (this is my attempt at humor. I’m trying, I really am). I took Algebra 1 Honors at Frost in 7th grade. My teacher was Ms. Healy. I liked her as a teacher because she taught efficiently and she was funny. I took Geometry Honors at Frost in 8th grade; my teacher was Mrs. Beach. I hated Geometry mostly because I had an awful teacher. I ended up teaching myself from the textbook. I took Algebra 2 honors because I didn't feel like taking a regular course because I have some sort of dignity I feel I have the need to maintain. I've always liked math to some extent, so I chose honors. In Algebra 2 Honors, I hope to get at
This deep dive into self-knowledge occurred when I received my first progress report for second semester Ninth Grade Algebra. To say that I was put into a space of shock and awe is an understatement; I was outraged. I was completing all my assignments and turning in homework, but my poor test grades were obliterating my grade.
Summer vacation, and school ends for about three months, and then you have as much fun as you can, then back to school… right? Well I had to go to summer school, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Everything was going fine, I had a job after summer school, and that was going fine as well. They say that summer is supposed to be fun and exciting, and it usually is for me and my family. However in July my father started coughing up blood. My father usually doesn’t make it his top priority to go to the doctors, so he waited about four weeks until he really didn’t feel good.
Resilience is something that I had learned through my hardship in senior year. It was something that was discovered during my most stressful time and saved me from further making myself sick and poisoning my own brain with thoughts of doubt.
I believe that my confidence in mathematics is my weakest Quantitative Literacy elements. I struggle a great deal with being confident in my abilities to remember and perform everyday math problems. I feel a lot of math anxiety when I am around other people because I feel like I am not fast at doing simple or complex math problems that other people can do relatively quickly. Math has been the only subject that I have ever scored below average in but I was always able to cover my lacking ability in the subject because I scored way above average in my other subjects. I struggle with remembering the exact methods to use and the different formulas as the course proceeds and remembering them long-term. Math is not an "ordinary language" to me, it is quite the opposite.
I'm terrible at math. Trigonometry. Algebra. Geometry. Unlike in other subjects, discrete inequalities and irrational functions just don't process in my brain without some form of flaw standing in their way. For as long as I can remember, it was something that hindered my ability to academically accept myself as an equal to my peers, whom I had always been equivalent with throughout our days of pubescent arithmetic. The transition into high school was really when I was met with the discovery that my struggles were greater than many of my classmates. Although I was still taking the highest levels of math possible for my grade, I was set apart in the classroom. I had to work twice as hard to meet the same expectations as my classmates. This is
I struggle with math a lot and that class was really difficult for me. Anway, we had three exams in the class and my teacher had told us that the second one is usually the one that most students have difficulty with. In hearing that, I really wanted to prove to myself that I could study hard enough to get an A on that test. I studied on my own, went to study sessions and met up with my teacher multiple times to make sure that I understood the concepts completely. I took the test and a week later I got it back with a 96%.
Prior to enrolling in your class, I completed College Algebra at Alvin Community College as well as a Precalculus course under you instruction. I also completed math courses up to Algebra II at Clear Creek High School. I have struggled with math courses (and all of school for that matter) a great deal in the past because I have been unwilling to invest the time necessary studying in order to succeed instead of spending that time leisurely. I feel confident that I can learn and understand material presented to me provided I am willing to make that sacrifice. Now more than ever, I feel as though I particularly enjoy math.
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 success. I failed that exam. I added instead of multiplying. I got a grade of 74 in math so I missed my shot at becoming one of the Top Ten. I finished 14th in my class.
I was thrust into a new world with very little English. I soon learned the language to an extent where I now consider it my primary tongue. But, even with my rapid learning, I still had a learning gap which was prevalent in math. Many I know think I was always adept at math, that it was just something I was naturally good at, but at this time they would not say so. I struggled with the most basic concepts of math, the four basic operations, for years while my brother was accepted into an advanced math course, and I admired him for that, aspired to do the same. And so I did with motivation and help from both of my parents. I was able to graduate from the below-grade level and on-grade level classes and moved on to the advanced courses available at my school. When I moved to Canada, where they did not have advanced math or science courses, my learning was challenged again. But I refused to slow down my learning, so I learned on my own and then with a
Fractions were the first challenge from math that I had to fight through, in which eventually I was placed in a Special Education class and I was diagnosed with a learning disability. From 4th grade to 7th grade, I had extra help in Math in the Special Education class. I kept struggling with fractions and decimals, such as dividing and multiplying them. After some time, I was told that I have advanced in my skills in Math and I was put out of the class, but they gave me the option to go to the class whenever I thought I needed help in Math and in anything I needed extra time or help in. As I entered my freshman year of high school at Carver Military Academy, I took Algebra l class and Math Navigator class. I had my ups and downs in those classes. Even though I had those two mathematical classes in my first year of high school, I really didn’t struggle through them because it was just learning about the distance formula, absolute volume, factoring numbers, finding the greatest common factor, converting fractions and decimals since it was pretty neutral to