AT math105 week 4

Please respond to my classmate’s discussion post. Write as if he/she is your classmate.

Part 1

Identify the types of errors listed above that you make most often and what strategy you will use to minimize making this type of error in the future.

I certainly make two of the errors listed more than any others, conceptual and interpretation. I tend to think that I can figure out a problem by reduction or reasoning and I have quickly learned that that does not always work and half of the time, I probably get lucky. ALEKS has certainly been helpful in identifying these flaws because even though I do read the explanation fairly well, I still tend to think after seeing the end resulting problem prior to the answer that I can figure it out. I have noticed that ALEKS likes to change up the problem frequently by adjusting some words like increase or decrease and I will miss it when I start simply looking for the numbers and not fully read the question.

What you have learned by analyzing your mistakes?

I have learned that I really need to slow down on every question and ensure not only that I understand how to get to the right answer but also make sure it is the right answer for the right question. I rush when I think I have it figured out and quickly annoyed when I find out that I really did not know what I was doing. It takes much longer to try to rush and have to re-read everything than it does to slow down and get it right the first time; slow is smooth and smooth is fast.

Part 2

Is your confidence level at being able to do math rising from when you signed up for the course?

I would not say that my confidence level is rising any more than it was when I started and that is because I can learn the material fairly quickly but as soon as I get the hang of something we move on to another topic and I know for a fact that I can’t remember everything from last week already. I’ve never had good retain ability so I will have to re-learn again and again until about 50% of it sticks and the rest will be short term memorization.

I don’t think I need any additional help but I don’t feel any more confident. This is not unusual for me and I think that I will be able to get through this course pretty well as long as I continue to work at it every other day or so at a minimum.