I’m pretty good at math. That is to say, I was really good at math back in the day, but haven’t taken a math class in years. I’ve gone back to school to become a teacher, preferably in math, so I thought it would make sense to take a math class. In high school I went as far as AP calculus, getting a 4 on the exam (that’s on a scale of 1-5, in case you didn’t know), and failed the next calculus class I took at PCC. The F was mostly due to lack of homework and studying. This was not unique to my math class. Now that I’ve grown up a bit, and back in school, I understand how easy it is to get an A. I’m determined to do so.
When deciding what class to take for math, I thought that since I hadn’t taken a class in a while, it would be good to take a refresher. Since I couldn’t remember absolutely everything in calculus, and my trig/pre cal was rusty, I decided to take Precalculus. This has proven to be a blessing and a curse. The classes are somewhat boring. The homework is tedious. I can’t use my TI-82, nor any other graphing calculator. On the plus side, I’m going to get an easy A. This will also likely be the case next semester with Calculus. This became blatantly apparent this morning.
I arrived to class late by 5 minutes. Everybody else was deep in their tests. I turned in my homework folder (I’m actually doing homework now), took a test, and sat down. I whipped straight through the test, and looked around the room. Most of the class was no further than the 2nd page of 5. I double and triple checked my work, which I rarely ever did back in the day. I was confident that everything was in order, and turned it in. The teacher looked a tad bit shocked that I finished as quickly as I did. I didn’t get a look at any of my classmate’s faces, but I’m thinking I shouldn’t raise my hand as much in the coming weeks to avoid being on their bad sides. Granted, I could give a shit what they think of me, but I might as well try to be nice, and let some of them get their learning expreriences like I once did. Just because I know all the answers doesn’t mean I have to let them know that.