Pre-Calculus Research Paper

I think it is safe to say math has always been a passion of mine. I remember learning to count to 1000 in first grade. When I was finally able to do it without any help, it was like swimming for the first time, eating the ripe tomatoes I grew myself, or putting together a new song on the guitar. The feeling of accomplishment cannot be recreated. As we get older, this feeling becomes more difficult to achieve. This only increases my motivation and determination to learn something new. AP calculus has been a roller coaster of learning. Despite the struggle and rigor, I learned valuable skills that will help me in my future aspirations. Taking the AP Calculus exam gave me a rush of accomplishment. I have built a knowledge base because I am constantly

For the past three years of my high school career, and now my fourth, I have made it an obligation to continually expand my horizons in regards to math; when I cannot fully grasp an idea or concept, rather than giving up, I relentlessly pursue the idea until it is understood. During freshman year, math did not come easily to me. I was forced to go in early some days because, simply, I did not comprehend the concepts. However, taking initiative with my school work, and constantly working through problems that were difficult can be deemed one of the best decisions I have made. Although my final grade may not have been an

In the other hand, I was failing math because unlike all the other students, I am not the fastest learner. I would always get confused with the structure and format of the question. For instance, fractions, decimals, and word problems would confuse me . I wasn’t very good with solving any of that so I knew I had to start attending tutoring. I had very good help from the students at Loma Linda University. They taught me an easier way to solve any problem, and that caused my test scores to increase. I can pass that class with no problem now. That

My educational past has had its good and bad days. In early grades school was easy and school was enjoyable. Somewhere along the line I lost my talent and things went south quickly. For some reason I kept telling myself studying wasn’t necessary because of how well I did in the past. In the sixth grade we had our first math test. I figured why study, I’m smart, all the answers will come right to me. I start the test and immediately start struggling. I couldn’t remember anything and of course when I got it back, it was an F. After receiving that F, I realized things have changed and I must put forth much more effort. Math for me was never the same after that moment. I started struggling with memorizing the equations and my grade suffered. One thing I needed to realize was I didn’t have all the knowledge. In the past, my education has been a little rocky.

Coming into your Pre-Calculus class, I was under the impression that I had all the skills necessary to succeed. Having taken (regular) pre-calculus my junior year of high school and College Algebra the first semester of my senior year, I had studied the various functions, graphing concepts, and polynomials/factoring. I also studied an ample amount of angle properties, the trigonometry functions (and applications associated with them), and trigonometric graphs. Even with this background in algebra and trigonometry, dual credit pre-calculus has proved a formidable foe as I did not anticipate learning so many new concepts, such as conditional trigonometric functions or verifying identities. Most other concepts, like inverse trig functions and the various identities, had slipped my mind since my experience in regular pre-cal from the previous school year (this was probably due to the fact that I did not

After all, math was one of my best subjects. I had never really had an experience where I just couldn't understand the concept of a math problem, of how it was solved and why. Our teachers has warned us back in elementary school, that one day we would hit an invisible wall and not ease through classes. That one day we would struggle with understanding a problem, a concept or even a subject. I had never believed them, thinking this would never happen to me, that I could somehow avoid this wall of confusion and just walk right through. But there I was, utterly confused and frustrated at a simple problem that everyone else could solve. Why was I not seeing it? Why couldn't I understand the solution? I asked myself. For the first time in my life I really struggled to get an A in a class. I had my sister tutor me almost every day, preparing for a quiz and then the next, and the next. I came in to my teacher for lunch and he helped me step by step. I studied for tests, and worked hard. And my work payed off. I got a high A in the course, and a lot of experience from it. It taught me how to work hard for something, to earn a good grade when you deserve it, and it gave me the skills I needed to get As in the high school classes I am taking this

In my last two years of highschool I duel enrolled St. Petersburg Community College, my local community college. In my senior year I decided to take online classes due to the very long drive to the nearest campus. I ended up taking Calculus with Analytic Geometry and two other classes online. My Calculus proffessor did not teach or provide any materiel to learn from other than the text book and homework questions. For the first quarter of the class I did well and completed all the assignments easily; however, the class got harder and the textbook no longer provided me with enough information to complete the assignments. I struggled through this part of the class and had a hard time mainting my grade which I wanted to keep as high as possible. After several trips to the campus for tutoring and spending hours trying to find other external resources I began to learn how to solve the problems and brought my grade back up and finally passed the class with an A.

First, the obvious one, I took calculus. Second, its a bit of a long story.

I've learned to become more attentive and conscientious of my weaknesses. I use my strength of persistence and diligence to resolve problems I find to be arduous. Two years ago, I was not meticulous, but now I've learned that every detail counts. It is not only about working hard, but it's also about working smart. It's about acknowledging my weaknesses and toiling until they are no longer my weaknesses. Math homework was never at the top of my priority list, but after identifying that as an obstacle in my success, I immediately altered the way I approached it. Math homework routinely became the first task I set out to finish when I arrived home. If there were extra assignments, I always finished them. Receiving a test that's covered with red marks, meant that I needed to understand what I did wrong. I started reaching out to my teachers and peers for their help and support. We created catchy chants for topics like Domain and Range. Overall, I would not have passed if I looked at my failure as a defeat rather than a delay and my goal as an outcome rather than a learning

How to best prepare for a Calculus/Physics test? Many college professors would recommend students to practice a variety of challenging problems. However, those problems often require students to use logical thinking and be able to apply multiple concepts to solve, and each can take from a couple minutes to an hour. Not many students can dedicate all of their time to one course, especially if they have other courses’ assignments as well. One good thing, at Everett Community College, students can get help with homework and prepare for their test in the Annex tutoring center, a center that is specifically for advanced Mathematics and Physics. If there’s one thing that prevents students from getting the maximum benefits from the center is that

Without the math skills that I learned prior to the Math 2414 course, I would not have been able to score well enough on the TSI assessment to study college algebra. Furthermore, the fundamental math skills I learned in College Algebra prepared me for the Math 2412 pre-calculus course. Once in the 2412 pre-calculus course I became familiar with the unit circle as well as trigonometric functions, which prepared me for success in the 2413 calculus course. Finally, after becoming familiar with the concepts of limits, derivatives and integration, I was prepared for the 2414 calculus

Starting in the fall of 2012 was a big change in my thinking and learning skills. This was the year that I started my Liberal Arts Education here at Bridgewater College. Before I entered college everything had come easy to me whether it was sports or school, but during my first two weeks at school I knew that had all changed. In high school I rarely had to take notes and homework was optional in my school district and so I carried that over to my new classes at Bridgewater. That did not go so well because on the first test in General Chemistry I got the lowest grade I had ever gotten on a test. This was where college changed for me. From then until now was a change in the way that I learned both inside and outside of class. In the classroom I started to take better notes and really paid attention to the lecture. Outside of class I started to read and take notes on the textbook and also used the resources of the college and got a tutor.

To accomplish my goal, I had to plan out my classes years in advance so all the prerequisites for all subsequent courses were satisfied. The college math and science courses were the most difficult to plan and schedule. It is not an easy feat to make it through to calculus 3 in a few short years or schedule

I won’t accept failure. 2% was how close I was from failing AP Calculus. Calculus class was the only class where I squandered time because I stopped caring. I was willing to accept a D because that was the easiest option. In the end I did not want to accept that because I had something to prove for myself. If I start giving up for a class then that could have an effect on other things that I deem “difficult.”

In junior High School, things started to turn around for me. Although I was still placed in lower level classes, I developed a love for learning. In the years to come from Junior High to High School, I had a strong urge to make up for lost time. One class I started to excel in was the one I used to have the most trouble with, Mathematics. It seemed as though the once boring and complex equations now seemed meaningful and simple. As I progressed into 8th grade, I was able to advance to normal classes. I felt that the hard work I put in was finally paying of. At this point, I felt that I could handle a higher level. At the end of 8th grade, I took the necessary procedures and tests to try and get into honor - level courses in 9th grade. After taking a summer course of Algebra 1 and several tests I was able to succeed and take the classes. The experience was great. I felt that I was finally going the right direction