Karen Fombona

MAT 143

Journal 1
I believe this class will be different from the other math classes I have taken
because I think this class will involve problem solving in multiple ways. I also think
this math class will involve more of the students solving the problems on their own
and not having the teacher show the solution. I believe this math class will be
different but in a good way because I think a traditional math class doesnt push the
students to solve problems on their own or with their own methods and in this
class, students are able to push themselves and try to figure out the problem in their
own way.
I think what might be difficult about being a student in this class is having
patience with myself. Patience is what Im going to need when I get frustrated or
discourage about a problem I cannot solve and I believe that is going to have a big
factor in this class. I can manage this difficulty by staying focused and have patience
with myself I believe this will help me get through a problem and solve it.

Journal 9
The problems in this assignment were very confusing at first. The problems
really had me thinking hard and trying to figure out the answer. For the first few
problems I knew I had seen them before and I knew there was a formula for the
problem that would help solve the answer is a very simple way but I couldnt
remember the formula so it took me a while to figure out how to solve the problem.
I noticed I started getting frustrated because I would overthink the problem and just
confuse myself even more but when I took a moment to look at the problem in a
different day with a fresh mindset I understood it better.
I noticed there were problems that shared common strategies. For example
question #3 and question #5 they both required you to find the sum of a sequence of
numbers. Even though you could find different ways to solve the problems each
problem, you will notice that both problems are asking the same question. What I
noticed that distinguished these problems from others that might seem similar was
how in the first problems such as #3 and #5, you are just asked to find the sum of a
sequence and in the other problems that seemed similar, you have to not only find
the sum of the sequence but in some problems you had to double some numbers
which made it different from the first problems.