A New Kind of Algebra

If you know me at all, you know how much I despise advanced math.

Honestly, I couldn’t care any less about math. I can add, subtract, multiply and divide. I can find the area of simple shapes and I use math daily in my job. I really can do it if I can remember all of the formulas and rule on when to use what. College algebra and trig scare me.

In the past 8 months I have conquered 3 huge math mountains. First, I had to re-take the ACT and I was not worried at all about the test until I remembered the math. I got a review book and I studied every minute that I could. When I got stuck, I asked for help. My friends, Jennifer and James helped me get out of that mess and I moved on. Test day came and went. I used every minute of the math section to complete it. (I am almost always a fast test taker and very rarely do I used all of the time given.) It seems liked forever before I got my results, but they were good. I got 6 points higher than needed to get into the college! My highest score was in math!

Next was a drug calculation test. I studied and completed a whole book of practice problems. I memorized conversions that no one uses anymore, like grains, and I learned how to figure out how many drops an IV drops for a given dose. I passed that test with a 97%.

Last, there was chemistry. Oh, I am so glad to be done with that class! It almost killed me. I have NEVER struggled that hard in school before in my life. I would sit in class and everything seemed to fit together and make sense. When I took the online quizzes, it was evident that I didn’t “get it” as much as I thought while still in class. My lab was fun; I enjoyed the instructor and my lab partners. The instructor was fun, outgoing, and loved to teach! My lab partners and I worked together and did fairly well. We only caught one thing on fire the whole semester and that wasn’t our fault. (An extra person joined our group for the day, he did it! I promise!) I did well in the lab because our book had each problem laid out with an example and all we had to do was plug in our numbers to get the correct answer, it the lecture quizzes that got me. I struggled for several weeks learning formulas, gas laws, and other (as I see it) useless information. I finally got to the point that I had no idea what formula to use when and I had no idea when to use grams of a substance or Moles of a substance. Needless to say, this was beginning to take at toll on my grade (a big old whopping C). I finally met with a tutor who goes to my church, Randy, and gained lots of my confidence back. As we sat and looked at the problems, I was so close and had the basic idea of solving them. It was just math that got in the way of my confidence. I told Randy that all I needed was a C in this class and that I would be perfectly happy. I was right on the line of a C and a D. I prayed and prayed and had friends pray the night of the final. I was sick to my stomach for 2 days before and I couldn’t sleep the night before. (I have NEVER been like that over a test before.) On test night, I felt anxious, but as ready as I could be. I did the questions I knew how to do first, this took about an hour and then I went back to tackle the others. After looking at a few, I sat there recognizing the questions but just not sure how to do it! I prayed and talked my self back to a calm state. After about 5 minutes of looking at one problem, it just came to me! I got it and I completed the final. I got a passing grade and completed the course with a C. I found out when I went to my car that Brandi had been raying hard for me the same time that ‘I got it.”

God is good.

Like I mentioned before, I rarely have struggled in school. I got mostly As and Bs (excluding World History- who cares?) and the thought of a C was not fun. That is when my dad told me that C=RN. That is the truth! I can do that kind of algebra!