FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

This Is Your About Teaser Subtitle

Throughout my years of teaching I have been asked many generic questions about the classes that I teach and I feel it is necessary to share my responses with you.  This is an ever growing list of questions so please check back frequently! 

1.  Is this going to be on the test? 

Let us understand the basic rules of the game.  It is my job to convince you to study all the material I think is important.  If I do not consider a topic important then I do not waste our limited and precious time together teaching the topic.  Therefore anything I spend time on I consider to be important.  It is also my task to determine whether you have learned the material.  I do this by giving exams in which I ask a representative set of questions.  We do not have the time to ask every possible question.  If you have learned all the important material then you should be able to answer a the representative questions.  

2.  Do I have to take notes? 

Consider the three possibilities:

• You have a photographic memory and have total recall of anything you see.  If this is the case then there is no need for you to take notes. 

• What I do in class is done to dazzle and impress you and is not designed in any way to contribute to your understanding of the material.  If this is the case the feel free to sit back, relax, be dazzled and impressed, and by all means do not take notes. 

• The premises of A and B are false.  If this is the case then take careful and detailed notes that allow you to reconstruct and study what you have do in the class. 

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3.  Are you going to take up homework? 

Maybe I will and then again maybe I will not.  Overall who cares whether or not I take up homework?!  The purpose of homework is to practice and master the the course material.  You would not expect to master tennis by simply watching Wimbledon or master kung-fu solely by channel 39 and therefore you will not master mathematics simply by watching me do problems for you.  I may take a look at your practice work but really just to make sure you are on the right track.  It will be obvious from your performance on the assessments (quizzes and tests) whether or not have practiced. If you have some difficulty with the practice I am always happy to provide you with assistance.  

4.  Are you awesome? 

Yes....yes I am. 

5.  Why do I have to learn this?  I'm never going to have a math related job. 

Let us take a look at the words of Sakini, the interpreter in the play "Tea House of the August Moon."  

              "Pain make man think

               Thought make man wise

               And wisdom make life endurable"

I am trying to help prepare you for an endurable life! 

6.  Why is it that we had a question on the test that was different from any question we did on the homework? 

The purpose of the test is not to see whether or not you did and can redo a given problem from a previous assignment.  The point of the test is to determine whether or not you have mastered certain conceptual ideas and can use them in a (possibly new) context. 

7.  Are there any applications of this stuff in REAL LIFE?  If so, why do we not do many? 

You are kidding right?   Mathematics is probably the most widely applicable subject in the history of the world.  Every physician, chemist, economist, engineer, anyone studying something which has quantities which are related to each other in some tangible way uses mathematics.  The reason we do not focus on applications every day is that in order to understand the applications you must first fully understand the mathematics.  Also, most interesting applications are complex and doing them without an understanding of the mathematics would be a waste of time.  We will investigate real life applications when they appropriately fit into the mathematics we are learning. 

8.  Do you fail anyone? 

Never in my career as an educator have I failed anyone.  However there have been people who have taken my class and failed to do their job and as a result they have failed my class.  I do not take credit for the good grades you earn through your hard work and study nor do I take responsibility for your failure to do so.  Where grades are concerned, I am the bookkeeper in the course and monitoring your progress.  The choice to study or not to study is yours and yours alone.  You must live with the consequences of your choices.  

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9.  Is this class hard? 

Well this depends on who you are asking?  If you are asking me for my personal opinion on the course then I am going to say "NO" because I have passed the course and several courses of more advanced mathematics thorughout my educational career.  However if you were to ask one of your peers they may say that the class is hard and others may say it is easy.  It is all based on the amount of work you put into the course, how well you apply the methods and strategies that I am teaching you in the class.  

10.  "I was absent yesterday...did we do anything?"

Nothing, we did nothing.  Actually the fact that you were not here with us we were so distraught that all we did is sit here at mourn your absence.  If you do not want to get this answer DO NOT ask this question upon returning from an absence.  If something was handed out in class then it will be anxiously waiting for you in a folder.  All you need to do is ask for the work from when you were absent.