Mathochism: Life in the B-Zone

One woman’s attempt to revisit the math that plagued her in school. But can determination make up for 25 years of math neglect?

My dread increased as the afternoon wore on. By the time I was driving to class, I had that icky feeling I get when I wake up too early in the morning, best described as a mixture of exhaustion and nausea. About five blocks from school, a black cat ran in front of my car. Luckily, I was at a stop sign at the time.

I got my usual seat in class, and pulled out my notebook and pencil. The Youthful Professor was right on time, and I watched him pull a wad of paper out of his battered backpack (that is one of those little touches that make him look like a high school senior; then again, a briefcase would make him look like he was playing dress-up).

Mathochism: Avoiding the yips

One woman’s attempt to revisit the math that plagued her in school. But can determination make up for 25 years of math neglect?
We had our first test in pre-calculus yesterday. I spent a week studying. I did all the homework. And I was terrified the whole time.

You see, the last time I took a pre-calculus test, I failed it. And this was not a test I took 20-plus years ago. It was a test I took less than three months ago. That failure is still giving me the yips.

True, that test was not taken under the best of conditions. It was at 7:15 a.m., and I am NOT a morning person. It had a lot of new material. I barely had time to study (about a day). But I had expected to maybe get a C. Certainly not an F! Fs belonged to my former math-phobic self.

Mathochism: Setting limits

One woman’s attempt to revisit the math that plagued her in school. But can determination make up for 25 years of math neglect?

Things got uncomfortable in class this week, and it had nothing to do with polynomials.

As I’ve mentioned before, my college has been coping with the fiscal crisis in California by cutting back sections, making it not uncommon for more than 40 students to try and join an already full 45-member class. The Youthful Professor dealt with the 37 aspirants to this section, known more colorfully as “class crashers” by making a random short list, then telling those on it to come to class for the first two weeks. At that point, the deadline for dropping or adding would be over, and he would hopefully be able to accommodate a fraction of the short list.

Mathochism: Homework ennui

One woman’s attempt to revisit the math that plagued her in school. But can determination make up for 25 years of math neglect?

I’m having a real problem getting through homework for this new class. Part of it may have to do with the weather. We’ve been having high humidity and temperature, and that tends to send me into lizard mode, where all I want to do is crawl under a rock, careful to draw in my long tail lest it be seen by a predator flying overhead.

Part of it is also that this is all review, and I’m bored with it. I wasn’t bored when we did this again in Algebra II, because I welcomed the review, but it’s boring the third time around. Slope intercept form? Yawn. Rationalizing radical denominators? Arrgh. Multiplying long strings of polynomials? Where’s my coffee? Oh, wait, I can’t do this now, because my socks need alphabetizing!

Mathochism: Filling in the blanks

One woman’s attempt to revisit the math that plagued her in school. But can determination make up for 25 years of math neglect?

So far, we haven’t gotten into any new material. This is a relief, considering that, in the concentrated summer class I dropped, we were on unit circles by the third day.

We have been focusing mostly on algebra and intermediate algebra, and as I’ve been plowing through the homework, I’ve been a bit disappointed with myself. There are a few blanks. I’ve tried repeatedly to master the language of set notation, but it still doesn’t come naturally. I think I get it, then I get it wrong, mostly on what numbers require brackets and which require parentheses. Granted, I should be more conscientious about drawing up number lines.

Mathochism: The trouble with blurters

One woman’s attempt to revisit the math that plagued her in school. But can determination make up for 25 years of math neglect?

The Youthful Professor continues to impress me with his ability to get through material and avoid digressions. He is also quite good at ignoring diversions, which is a skill I wish I had.

As it turns out, there is more than one loudmouth in the class, who likes to talk along/over the professor, and blurt the answers out loud. And of course he sat right next to me! I had to restrain myself from hissing “Dude, it’s not a game show. You don’t win cash and prizes for yelling out that that equation factors to (x + 1)(x – 6)” at him. Sigh.