Non-Permissible Values

Today, we learned about non-permissible values. It was a litle confusing, as usual. But I probably will get the hang of it. I had accelerated math to do, which I didn't do, so that is going to put me behind a little bit. I am still pretty much ahead of the game there. And then there are those cumulative exercises. I do not like doing them because when we are done, There is no card to scan. I will have to keep going because I will get behind, and these new things will be harder to learn. When I am not ready to work on what we learned, I have trouble remembering them.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A Note About Mental Math

Normally, I do not write about mental math on my blog, but we had a really good mental math assignment today. I agree that mental math is helping us to think outside the box. The symmetry question really got me thinking. Oftentimes I know that stuff works, but understanding how they work is what makes math exciting. I also learned about greatest common multiples. When dealing with 2,3,and 4, the greatest common multiple is 12. I treated it as a greatest common factor question, and wrote 1. Now I know better. Today, I will continue work on the cosine law.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Triangle Laws and AM

I finally finished my outstanding accelerated math practice. It actually went really well. I got 100%. Now, I am working through the law of cosines on a small exercise assignment. I will do the outstanding cumulative exercises sometime, but i don't enjoy those as much. There is no card to scan at the end of all that work. I might also do all of the joke sheets, but i don't have time at the moment.

Complicated Stuff

While my title may make some people scoff, we learned how to do some tricky things, and I'm glad that we don't have to know how the formulas work, just that they do. The sine law is actually not too bad. I can recall working with similar triangles from last year having steps similar to the sine law. The cosie law, however is a different story. There are 6 ways to choose from, and they all have many variables. It is still interesting, and I enjoy how we set up a list of all of the values for the triangle. I find "filling in the blanks" to be quite (well, I won't say fun), but it helps keep my interst in the problem. And it is quite satisfying when the triangle is solved. I guess that is what I enjoy most about trig.
As for the math homework holiday, it is now over. I now know how to finish my AM practice assignmet, and I have a test. Also there are 12 questions on the cumulative exercises for us to do, and it will take a while.

More Test Corrections

We did some test corrections today, and now I really know where I messed up. I did not know that we have to treat the denominators as a difference of squares. I also was on the right track with the bonus question, but I didn't go through with it, because I thought it was a trick. I am excited to do the retest now. There is not much happening with AM right now, so I have been enjoying a little break.

No Homework This Weekend!!!

I am caught right up with my accelerated math. We corrected the math test today. After seeing it, I realized that I did more things right than I thought. Even so, my mark is going to be very disappointing. OK, maybe I should try to be optimistic. I for sure passed the test!

Work Class

Today, I hope to find out how to rationalize denominators. Tutoring helped, but I still get the questions wrong in my Accelerated Math. I will also try and finish the accelerated math test. I am about to master 6 objectives, so I feel that I am keeping up. I am now working on all assigned objectives, except for 59. In the near future I will also retest if my mark was below 90% (and I know it was).

The Test

I had a really busy evening yesterday, and did not get a chance to study. And it showed... I totally went blank for one part of the test. I really hope that I can go back and correct it, because I am not completely satisfied with the work that I handed in. I finally remembered what to do with the questions (involving square roots), but it was too late, and I had to hand my test in early. I am going to tutoring tonight, so I will be able to finish my accelerated math exercise on objectives 50 through 54. Also, I need to get help with rationalizing denominators soon. I'm surprised that I don't have a red bar yet in AM. I think its around objective 47.

Helpful Ideas for Math

Well, as you know, I am doing better in math lately, and its because of a few changes that I had to make to my study habits:

1. Do ALL of the Accelerated Math for homework that you printed out that day It is more motivating when you have a card to scan at the beginning of every class.

2. Print smaller AM assignments. I do only three brand-new objectives at a time, so it does not get too confusing. Bigger tests are still OK.

3. Close the laptop during notes. It is just too distracting.

4. Study for tests. It's simple and necessary.

5. Go to tutoring. Especially when you are getting behind. If you never get help, how do you ever expect to get it done?

These are the things that I have been doing lately.

Today we reviewed trig ratios. I didn't get it all at the start of class, but it came back, and I'm still moving forward with Accelerated Math.

Understanding Right Triangles

I really enjoyed what we did today, although i did not get all of it. The use of greek capitals like theta and beta confuses me, but i will probably get used to it later. I also learned the relationship between sin and cos. if I were to write a formula it would be something like sinX = cos(90-X). I also knew what pythagorean triples were, just not that they were called that. I remember that I had sub-consciously memorized some of them from last year. My favorite part of todays class was making the spreadsheet. Excel is a really coo program, and it can do alot more than I thought. In a way, you use it to write your own computer programs. I am looking forward to doing more work with it. As for AM, I still need to go back and work on a few objectives before I start on trig.

Math is going GREAT!

I had a really good math class today. I was very pleased to have my homework done for me. This was really the ideal math class! I have all of ths skills I need to finish all of my accelerated math homework this weekend. Then, I will be working on trig at the same time we are learning it. I plan to be testable on objectives 44 through 48 on monday.

When it All Goes Right

YOU had a great idea to have a work period today, Mr. Maks! My progress is Accelerated Math has been really exciting. I'm keeping up with all of the assigned objectives! Last night, I did a test on 7 objectives, and I UNDERSTOOD IT ALL!!!!!!!! If only math were always like this. Now that I am caught up, I will probably be able to be more focussed on the next unit.

Rationalizing Denominators Part II

Iunderstand what we are doing right now. It ties in nicely to my previous knowledge of reducing fractions. This stuff actually gets me excited, ecause we start with big ugly fractions and end up with nice, neat, smaller numbers. I will probably have no problems with the rationalization of denominators. The trouble is, I am nowhere near that with acclerated math. There are objectives in between that are slowing me down. That is my biggest problem in this class right now. For example, I do not know how to graph inequalities on a number line. These objectives slow me down considerably.

Solving Exponential Equations, Rationalizing Denominators, etc.

The title suggests what we learned in class today, I'm not writing it out again. It all looked so scary when the questions popped up on the screen, but it did not take me long to realize what was going on. A suggestion to myself: I learn more during the notes when my laptop is CLOSED!!! It actually looks pretty simple. I am feeling more comfortable with solving normal equations now. I really do not like linear equations though. Rationalizing denominators looks simple. I don't think it should be too difficult.

Working Through Objective 40

AM objective 40 is graphing inequalities on a number line. It seems really easy when you are working with one number, but it gets confusing when I try to put a whole equation onto a line. I think I just got the worst mark I've ever had on a math test. I thought I'd be ready to test tomorrow, but now I'm glad we are waiting.

Exponents & Radicals

I am really starting to feel comfortable with the stuff we have been learning, and it's a good thing with the test coming up. I am also in a good place with regards to AM. I will have a bit of work to do tonight, but I am all caught up with the cumulative exercises, and I'm not busy tonight. So, I will do 36 AM questions tonight!