Final Finally Finished

My intermediate algebra class is done. We had our final yesterday afternoon.

I was a little worried going into it because as I tried to study, I couldn't believe how much I could forget in only three months.

I picked a "slope" problem at random from chapter 3. I didn't know where to start. That was a little discouraging and scary, and not because of the upcoming final. So I went back to work reviewing.

That took more discipline than I thought it would. I kept lapsing back into my old standby thought that I used all during college through three degrees: "If I haven't learned it by now, I'm not going to learn it in two hours a day before the test."

So I pushed through that (many times) and reviewed.

Prof. John couldn't have made our preparation for his final easier. That, by the way, is both good news and bad news, but I'll find about that later once I'm in the next class.

All through the class he tested us on very straightforward mechanical problems. He went through problems on the board. He used many of those same problems on his short quizzes. After returning the quizzes, he went over each of those problems on the board. Then took problems from the quizzes and turned them into exams. For the final, he took problems from the exams and quizzes. And to make things even easier, he posted most of the quizzes and exams online for students to download, print, and practice with.

Still, it was hard to focus. I feel for the kids, but not that much.

I got to class about five minutes early. I forgot to count heads, but it looked like there were about 20 students taking the final, down from 30 who had enrolled. Going into the final, it seemed as if about a third of the kids were either well below or right on the edge of making a "C", the required grade to be allowed to register for College Algebra, the next course.

My young golfing buddy was in the seat next to me. I asked him to react to my thoughts that I posted here earlier.

I said, "O.K., so you're a good golfer. You didn't just get that way without a whole lot of work. You can drive a thousand balls in a morning and then do 200 chips, then hit 300 putts just to get only slightly better or stay as good as you are. You can focus and you can concentrate. Making a 12 foot putt is a ton harder than factoring an equation. What's up?"

He said, "I love golf and I hate math."

Well, O.K., where do you go from there? But I pressed him just a little anyway.

During the course of the semester, I've pretty much convinced myself that if a person, of nearly any age and without some other problems happening, was willing to put in some time, he or she could learn math, at least at this level. So, I was really curious whether he agreed with that idea and if he thought that he could do well if he choose to.

"So," I went on, "Could you flip a mental switch and tell yourself you wanted to get an "A" in the course and just do it?" His response was, "I wouldn't flip that switch. I hate math.?"

That wasn't answering my underlying question. "O.K. Suppose someone were to offer you $300,000 to pass this course with an "A". Could you do it?"

"Sure," he said without any hesitation. "Then I'd be motivated."

Just then Prof. John walked in.

He went through a whole lot of administrative announcements including when grades would be posted and then when they would be sent to the UA so we could register for Math 112, if we got a "C" or higher.

Then he announced that he needed to ask us to fill out official evaluations of him and the class. I wish we didn't have to do that. I feel bad if even one student gives me a "good" instead of an "excellent" in some category. I am sure I was the only student in the class who marked "strongly agree" with the statement: "I was really looking forward to taking this class."

Finally he passed out the final. 20 questions. I scanned the test and was relieved to recognize all of the types of problems he put on the test. As I began, I just started working my way through the equations and radicals and factoring and addition, subtraction, and multiplication and division of polynomials and 3x3 simultaneous equations and even a graphing problem. I knew how to use my fancy HP calculator and even, on checking, found some arithmetic errors and fixed them. And, when I was done, there were still five students still working on their exams. That was a first for me.

When I turned my test in, John again joked and congratulated me on being the most improved player (MIP). He might have had a point. As I looked over the test before I gave it to him, I noticed and appreciated that I may have been able to fake my way through perhaps three of the problems at the beginning of September. When I turned it in, I felt pretty positive that I would get an "A" on that final and an "A" for the course.

I'll let you know.