Chad+Hansen

Week One: O.K. so I'm back in school after 20 years and now I'm attempting math, never a strength 20 years ago. I am in a foreign language class, or at least that is how it seems to me. I stink at math, which is ironic since one of my best friends is an AP math teacher at a High School. Since I started the class a week late I had to play a little catch-up. Wednesday and Thursday were a couple of late-nighters doing the homework. Going to bed at mid-night isn't so bad...unless you get up for work at 3:30 a.m., but I survived - thanks to my friends at the Pepsi Bottling Co., mmmmm...pepsi...aagghh. I'm pretty sure I mediocred the heck out of the test, let's hear it for passing grades! Anyway, I think I may be a little lost for a while but I'll work up to a kinda confused before you can simplify the following: (xyz)+(pdq). It helps that the "Professor" is actually good at teaching the subject and I can stay awake in class (note to self: stop being a patronizing suck-up, oh, and don't forget oatmeal cookies).It also helped that I finally found a copy of the text at the discount store, making a choice between a mortgage payment and school books is a tad distracting. Now I no longer think that Pemdas is a character from Lord of the Rings or Star Trek or something. Another thing that I discovered is that when discussing my kids' absolute value with them I can't be negative, (ha ha). sincerely Chad H.

Note from Cory: Very entertaining!

__Chapter 1 Test Aftermath__ In my dictionary under the word "aftermath" it provides the following:

aftermath (noun) - 1)the consequence or aftereffects of an event, especially when unpleasant. 2)farming new grass after mowing or harvest. origin: late 15th century, from "after" (adjective) + dialect "math" [mowing] of Germanic origin.

So...based on original concept, "math" means to subtract grass and "aftermath" means to add grass...hmmmm. Let's discuss, however, the first definition and use it (loosely) in a sentence.

"Based on the results of my first chapter test I felt a lot better aftermath the other night."

Seriously... this whole thing is going better than I thought it would and I was pretty happy with the test. I'm seeing that one big weakness I have is clerical, not grasping the verbiage in a question quite right or chiefly putting things in the wrong place, you know, like crossing your i's and dotting your t's. If I were to write the following: t ltke maih ti ts stmple, that doesn't make any sense (although there are some who would say that it doesn't make any sense even if written correctly, but that's based on personal semantics). That's how I keep messing up on some of my problems and that became an issue on the test, so I will have to be more careful.

p.s. If you do end up crossing your i's, remember, everything becomes squared.

__Week 3, Chapter 2 & 3__

The homework wasn't too bad, 3.4 was kind of tough at first that night in class, yet it just sort of clicked the next night at home and I zipped right through it. The test was kind of rough, I think I eeked by - hopefully - and at least passed. Ironically the section of the test that covered 3.4 material was somewhat easier than other parts of the test yet that other material barely phased me doing the homework. I suppose the extra brain effort used to do sect. 3.4 and the freshness of having just worked on it must be why. Basically, I pounded that part into my brain so hard the other stuff must have been pushed out. Cory: So, that suggests that you should be very selective about the stuff you cram for just before the test. Focus on the things you don't know as well, or the things that are more memorization, etc. The exercise in class on Tuesday should help some with knowing what to study right before the test.

Week 4

Test results were disappointing, yet not surprising. I still feel a little better about all of it than I did at first, I just need to slow down and pay more attention to the little details of a problem. I am still making minor errors that lead to incorrect answers. I basically grasp the math itself, it is just these little miss-steps that are costing me. There was one problem on the test that I got wrong because I forgot to finish it with one last step - reducing one more time - crap! The new chapter so far hasn't been too bad, I have usually done alright with fractions, guess we'll see on tuesday.

Week 5

Well, I did better on the test than I thought. I am very happy about this, however the same little mistakes keep sneaking in on me. It is still not really the math itself that is causing me problems, but those silly clerical errors. For instance test question #11: I wrote a 15 instead of a 5 when writing the problem out, which ultimately changed the answer, making it, of course, incorrect. One real "math" problem that plagued me was complex fractions showing denominators and numerators with variables, test question #16 and homework 4.4, #22 were the same problem, I got them both wrong but with different incorrect answers on each. In both cases I did the math wrong and came up with an incorrect denominator. In each case I can now see where I went wrong (multiply by "y" and then create a common denominator for a subtraction problem...something like that). Well, I am a work in progress, and I seem to be progressing a little better.

Cory: Complex fractions are actually division problems (division of fractions in most cases), so you shouldn't need common denominators or subtraction. Just multiply the top by the reciprocal of the bottom.

Week 6

I am not too concerned about the decimals - probably should be though, you know, people who are overconfident think themselves 99% certain yet are usually 40% wrong... something along those lines.. - anyway, think I took pretty good notes the other night, so now I just need to get the homework completed, review what I have, and then come in and see where I fall between those percentages. Decimals?...What's the point? (I know you love a good pun, but you'll just have to settle for that)

Week 7

I missed class on Tuesday so hopefully I can come in this week and take the test and manage to keep up with the rest of class that evening. Sorry I wasn't there.

Week 9? (missed the last couple)

Well I squeezed by Chapter 6, my scores were acceptable yet I struggled through this one since it involved some geometry again. This is not a strong area for me. Nonetheless, I am happy about the ultimate end on all of it. Chapter 7 homework wasn't too terrible, The problems themselves were not difficult, just learning a new way to work them out took a little extra brain effort. The overwhelming majority of this chapter is math used in every day life so I found it interesting discovering faster ways of solving these very typical problems. I am also glad to have the homework completed a couple days in advance to give myself time to study it all prior to the test. I have a good feeling about Tuesday night....guess we'll see.

Week 10

I missed class on Thursday...got involved in a project with one of my kids for school and lost track of time...seriously, I did, my wife noticed the time at around 5:15...oh well. I don't know for sure how I did on the test, but I think I survived it...of course there was that one problem, ultimately I think I may have bombed it. My brain kept turning the formula upside down and so I couldn't seem to get it straight. I suppose I will see on Tuesday. Otherwise, I think it went well. Admittedly, I haven't even looked at Chapter 8 yet, guess I better get cracking.