Being Re-taught

In order to get into grad school, I have to get an acceptable score on the GRE. It isn't the easiest test in the world. 30 verbal questions and 28 quantitative questions determine my fate, so in order to increase my score I am taking a GRE prep class at BYU.

I have never been the best at math problems and I'll show you why. I don't think it is because I am unintelligent or can't learn. I have an amazing (long-term) memory and have always excelled when I apply myself. I think that the problem has been my math teachers.

In Freshman Algebra I was in a regular class, i.e. not Advanced/Pre-AP/AP because there wasn't an advanced Algebra I. My teacher should have been teaching kindergartners; she used counting bears and candy to explain mathematical terms. It was a breeze and I had a 99 average for the year. That's how easy it was. Sophomore year I had a better teacher, but I was annoyed with having to show my work in PreAP Geometry, and with having to back-up my answer with the applicable theorem. I was lucky to get a B in that class. Pre-AP Algebra II was taught by a Nazi who had been at my high school since my father was a student there; She liked me, but I didn't like her. Then I went to AP Statistics and finally loved math, but the teacher had come out of retirement and really didn't care alot.

I guess that's a really long way of saying that my teachers were old and incompatible with my learning style. They were concerned with teaching the old way and never taught any shortcuts to answers. I LIKE SHORTCUTS. Not only that, but they also taught somethings wrong.

Enter GRE Prep, in just 4 hours of Math I have exceeded everything that I ever learned about math thus far. In fact, my mind can hardly process it all in just a short amount of time.

Here's an example of how many people have been taught inadequately or incorrectly. Our GRE teacher asked our class to answer this question: What is 12 divided by 2 times 3? (12/2*3)

Our class was split 50/50. Half said the answer is 2, the other half said the answer is 18.

Why? It's called the Order of Operations. Everyone was taught some mnemonic device like Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally to remember PEMDAS: Parenthesis, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction. It's what you do first in an equation to get the right answer.

According to PEMDAS you would multiply first, then divide. Only that's wrong. There aren't 6 operations, there are only 4. FOUR! Multiplications and Division are in the same step, as are Addition and Subtraction; for these two steps you always move left to right.

So the answer is 18, not 2.

That's just one example of how my mind is being boggled by this class. I just hope that I can remember everything for the test. I have a bajillion flashcards that I have to memorize, and that's not even for the verbal. Zoinks!

Dead Face

I went to the dentist today to have three cavities filled. Except for a routine exam last month this is the first time I've been to the dentist since I was 16 or 17. I thought three cavities wasn't all that bad for not going to the dentist for 6 years. I've never been a consistent flosser and that's what led to the cavities on the ends of my teeth.

I forgot how horrifying the dentist's can be and why so many people are afraid of going, including Randi. I had to close my eyes when the doctor stuck a giant needle in my right cheek. I was able to drown out the sounds of drills and other miscellaneous oral tools thanks to headphones cranking the sound from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade that played on a flat screen above my head.

The whole thing took about an hour and then I was left with dead face. I could barely talk coherently. I couldn't really drink anything because the right side of my lips couldn't feel a bottle or a glass. I didn't want to eat anything because I was afraid that I would bite my cheek and bleed unknowingly.

The dead face lasted for a few hours and once the numbness wore off my cheek and teeth hurt. I took some Tylenol and fell asleep when I should have been looking for a job.

I guess the moral of the story is that I should make sure I floss so that I don't have to do this again.

West Wing 101

Now that I am done with this semester I can do all of the things that I have wanted to do, at least until Thursday when class starts all over again.

I joked with a friend that we should start a blog called Things I Learned From The West Wing. We are nerds who love to watch that show over and over again. Well, I did it and here it is westwing101.blogspot.com

It's pretty nerdy, but interesting, so check it out.