Test 2: Math errors abound

I meant to write about Test 2 quite a while back, but relentless assignments, tests, and event planning (for SLUGS!) kept me away from this SLOG.

While I was the epitome of a well-prepared student for Test 1 (even having spare time at the end of the test to enjoy coffee), I was slightly in shambles for Test 2. Not that I didn't prepare for Test 2 -- I did! And actually, I completely knew what I was doing. It was just my lack of familiarity with logarithms and geometric series that came back to haunt me.

I know, I know -- I should be ashamed of myself for being unable to work with logarithms in my sleep. I did logs in high school! I'm a CS student! Logarithms == 42 for us! I know. The great thing about getting something wrong on a test is that it motivates you to do whatever you need so that you won't do that again next time...like on an exam. Resolve: Practice logarithms during commute instead of playing Sudoku. More mathy, more fun!

I'm not as worried about the geometric series, as Prof. Heap stated that should it ever be used on the exam, a formula should be given. I'll still practice using it a bit though -- familiarity never hurts during an exam. (It's odd that we were assumed to know the geometric series formula in this course though -- it wasn't stated in the prerequisites, and I personally never encountered it in high school math. Yet, the textbook just used it, and kind of just noted, "Oh, and here's the geometric series!" That should've been a warning to know the formula...)

Thankfully, the 3.5-mark bonus for everyone made up for my docked marks. Learning without losing any marks! I like it.

For posterity's sake, I'd like to concur with a few (all?) of the points brought up in lecture when the tests were handed back. I'll restate two points:

• I spent more time studying correctness proofs than what we were tested on. Based on Test 1, it seemed highly likely that we'd be tested on something we covered in only one or two lectures. I'm happy that Test 2 only covered material we spent a lot of time on, but a push in the right direction would've been nice.
• The second part of question 1 relied on my answer for the first part. I lost marks on the second part because I couldn't find the right closed-form. If the test is just looking at whether I can prove a closed-form or not, then the two parts of question 1 should be independent.

Today: Fort Collins, Colorado
Let's talk about math learning today. Richard Suinn and colleagues introduced MARS, the Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale, in 1972. MARS has been found to be a good predictor of math anxiety, and can be used to determine whether students should seek treatment for their anxiety. As UofT students, you can access the original paper where they present the data from students who filled out the MARS.