![[dr. bob]](/dr-bob-sm.gif)
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 25 of 495. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by alexandra_k on January 13, 2014, at 17:04:41
i'm starting this thread to help keep me accountable (haha).
i got behind in maths... forever ago. then i thought i sucked at it because i couldn't figure things out... or because it was very hard for me, but it seemed very easy to others.
anyway, i've just come to start to properly appreciate how incremental math and perhaps even science is... the same and a little bit more, the same and a little bit more, the same and a little bit more... really consolidating the previous and only adding a little more on top and along you go...
i get that the reason why people think it is usual / better to go from science / math to arts (rather than the other way around) is because of this linear incremental progress thing. you can jump on into philosophy (or whatever) from wherever you are... not so with physics or math or chemistry. hum.
that will be why i didn't get a place in med at otago. i told them in the interview that i was not good at math and wondered if i might have dyscalculia or something... she said i interviewed well... i... i can believe her now that i have come to appreciate a little more of what lack of ability in math rules out...
if they had have given me a place i probably would have bombed out (not made the grades) for the pre-med year that they would have made me do... and having a place in med... without having this background knowledge... would have been suicide, anyway. so... i guess i should thank them.
anyway... i'm going to do what... has anyone done this before??? i guess it is the computer technology making it possible... or easier... not that it is easy... but i can sit in my room and make my way through the curriculum. i don't actually need to rock up to primary school haha. and i have immediate feedback on the problems... and it up or downgrades difficulty depending on how accurate my responses are...
it can't hurt. i don't know if it will get me where i need to be (all by itself) with respect to being properly prepared for uni math. but it can't hurt. so...
i need to make executive decisions: first up: when is it okay for me to start using pen and paper to keep track?
i'm in year three... and the bastards are giving me balancing equations with 3 digits like this:
? + 530 = 534 + 187
that one is kinda easy because to get from 530 to 534 is + 4 so 187 + 4 should balance for the answer. but still... some of them i actually need to add to get the sum on the right. then take that as the... uh... minuand? and subtract 530 and... I CAN"T HOLD ALL THAT IN MY HEAD. particularly well... hur. so i've started using pen and paper. i still have a little trouble with basic errors even then... i guess the idea is to check again - unless it truly is easy for me. is using pen and paper cheating?
later i guess i'll need to decide when to use a calculator...
Posted by rjlockhart37 on January 13, 2014, at 22:42:35
In reply to maths, posted by alexandra_k on January 13, 2014, at 17:04:41
KEEP going...i hate complicated math....sit down and force concentration......applied mathematics is pretty intense, but still its all a spider web design on how your solve it....diffrent routes to go by...not just one way
if you want to post progress....i think that would be great. It's a spider web design for progress, there's tons of ways to go and achive math and applied math
r
Posted by alexandra_k on January 14, 2014, at 3:26:22
In reply to Re: maths, posted by rjlockhart37 on January 13, 2014, at 22:42:35
groan. year three is kicking my *ss. i think it's because i pooped out on trying to hold the numbers all in my head this morning...
i reckon i'll have finished year three by the end of tomorrow. i think i'll aim just for that, actually. then take a little time out before getting into year four the following day...
it is mostly subtraction that is hard for me. i think i need to spend some time with little sums... get the hang of them for addition and subtraction. just up to around 20. i think that would help me a lot. otherwise i'm doing an awful lot with my fingers, still, and i'd rather properly have a visual of it.
does anyone remember those little cubes. ours were colored. 10 was orange. one was white. i think 9 was brown. maybe 4 was green. they were different lengths so you could see how different ones added up to 10... the site does that with ten as a line. then 5 ones. then... up to 4 ones... to make 10. that doesn't really describe it very well... but it would be helpful to shuffle those around mentally, i think. then 10 lots of 10 is of course 100... for a cube...
getting there, i am.
this is kinda like learning oly lifting ha.
i don't see how seeing numbers as colors would help anyone or anything, particularly. i suspect that would be a red herring (ha) that would return to bite...
Posted by alexandra_k on January 14, 2014, at 9:16:18
In reply to Re: maths, posted by alexandra_k on January 14, 2014, at 3:26:22
so the foundations program is meant to be a year long program that takes kids who perhaps didn't do well in school and / or who have had a bit of time away from school, and it aims to prepare them to do well at uni. priority to disadvantaged kids etc. they standardize test you for math and english and you have to do an interview so they can assess motivation etc etc.
they say they select the strongest maths people to do 'science math'. or basically... they run 4 math courses - but the first two are meant to be foundations for the later two... so worst case... it would take me 2 years to be prepared to do uni math.
on the one hand... it is just another year. what does it matter? on the other hand... it still feels bad enough to me that i need to take an extra year before i'm ready for uni. i knew it would be harder for me, doing the science pathway... but i didn't quite realise that it would be hard in this way...
even if i pick the health science pathway - i still have epidemiology (some stats) and chemistry (with balancing equations) etc. i'd be left with my lifelong fear of numbers. what if i do get a place in med? pretty sure we need to learn a lot of numbers around drug dosages and bodyweights and drug dosages per bodyweights and the effects of temperature etc etc etc...
if i don't get to the end of high school math... i'm pretty much screwed. can forget med. can forget engineering... can forget physics. even areas of physiology etc... and the whole math thing will be still hanging over me...
i've logged 34 hours over the last few days... of actual problem solving. staring at my progress charts not counted. i'm dreaming about numbers... subtraction is getting me down, rather a lot. i think i need to check my sums... otherwise my error rate is getting far too high. still enjoying other things... getting a lot better at geometry (would be good to be good at that). starting with basic unit of measurement conversions. haven't even gotten to times tables yet lol.
on the upside... my errors are mostly around misremembering number facts or forgetting units i've carried / taken away... no transcription errors.
i wonder how far through i'll get in... another 30 days... maybe... to the start of high school. sigh. god dammit i want this done in one year.
Posted by alexandra_k on January 14, 2014, at 19:34:48
In reply to Re: maths, posted by alexandra_k on January 14, 2014, at 9:16:18
completed year three woop! to the gym!
phew. what a mission. omfg. still... i am getting better at this. i wonder how many days it will take me to complete year 4...
Posted by alexandra_k on January 16, 2014, at 8:48:41
In reply to Re: maths, posted by alexandra_k on January 14, 2014, at 19:34:48
next Thursday. math and english. meant to be last year high school equivalency tests, apparently. i hope they don't make me write about a novel i've read, because i think the last one was probably something involving harry potter... i occasionally take a look at what the year 12 math is all about and it is... incomprehensible to me. seems that the procedural knowledge gets underway a few years further down the track than i am still... or maybe it is just that i dropped out a few years further down the track than i am still and that is why the later stuff seems so alien to me. i'm sort of tempted to try and skip ahead to prepare. learn pythagoras theorum... practice some of that...
but i'm making great progress doing what i'm doing. i mean, really. and i don't want to jump ahead and risk upsetting the stuff that i'm still working on consolidating... i'm getting quite good at addition and even subtraction, now. a lot more accurate at grids of numbers - keeping track of borrowings and the like (can't write that stuff down on the computer and i try not to use paper). i'm actually learning my times tables... now i've got my finger situation properly sorted out and i can skip count in 3's and 4's and 5's easy peasy (from zero, anyway). i know my 10's - easy. and 5 is going to be half that. so there are my landmarks. then to figure out the ones i don't know yet (e.g., 8x7) i can navigate forwards or backwards on my fingers from my landmarks... i'm starting to 'see' answers... because the numbers actually mean something to me (those objects i did so much shuffling around of back in year 1).
this is awesome!!!
started on division and it is almost fun ha! i just know the answer. those times tables are actually starting to sink in!
i do worry a bit that things will qualitatively jump up significantly somewhere down the line... i don't see how you can get from where i am now, by a series of small increments, to where things end up... but still... i remind myself... most people are not heaps heaps heaps smarter than me and most people manage it. so it can't be that hard, really. get there, i will. it is just a matter of when.
i'm glad they gave me a test date. i was worried they would overlook me since i have a degree already...
i am a little concerned that they will tell me that my math isn't good enough for their remedial math for science program :(
maybe it will help if i can give them some evidence i managed to knock out the primary curriculum in a couple weeks?
?
i expect progress will slow considerably when it comes to procedures etc to be learned. for now... i'm not really learning procedures. just solving a bunch of problems. some of them are... just priming, really. showing you how to look at things. training you to do it their way, i guess. i'm not sure that i can keep this up, though, or whether some point down the track i'll need to spend a lot of time looking at websites to state procedures then i'll need to learn the procedures... time will tell, i guess. if you get one wrong... they have a good explanation on what you need to do, sometimes. e.g., i didn't know 'congruent' means 'same size and same shape' and 'similar' meant 'same shape not same size'. till you mess it up. then it tells you. maybe this will be enough... i don't think those allegedly 4 sided shapes with their sides crossed over are legit. they upset me. i don't think they should get to have 4 sides :(
Posted by alexandra_k on January 16, 2014, at 15:36:52
In reply to Re: got test date, posted by alexandra_k on January 16, 2014, at 8:48:41
http://www.mathsisfun.com/long_division.html
you have got to be f*ck*ng kidding me
Posted by alexandra_k on January 16, 2014, at 15:46:51
In reply to Re: got test date, posted by alexandra_k on January 16, 2014, at 15:36:52
oops. i think i jumped ahead. haven't got to remainders yet.
Posted by rjlockhart37 on January 16, 2014, at 15:53:02
In reply to Re: got test date, posted by alexandra_k on January 16, 2014, at 15:36:52
thats crazy! super long dividing, who would want to make that more complicated?
Posted by rjlockhart37 on January 16, 2014, at 16:08:52
In reply to Re: got test date, posted by alexandra_k on January 16, 2014, at 8:48:41
so your next test is thursday? simple math is my favorite too....i don't like intense calculus but still if i knew it that would be good....
i googled some of thwe stuff your talking about....
http://www.purplemath.com/modules/solvelin.htm
http://www.analyzemath.com/high_school_math/grade_12/problems.html
http://www.nbclearn.com/nfl/cuecard/51220
^^tell how they use pythangorean thereom in football plays...vary intresting!and here's just a quick tip on it, not really practice problems
http://www.regentsprep.org/Regents/math/algtrig/ATT9/pythagoreanid.htmim not in math right now, but i don't like textbooks when i am in math, i love using the web, google, or bing, and google the keywords and either put solve or learn or practice....
math is not the thing for me....but why don't you post what exactly yourr learning that way can work on it through google and learn it through posts here.....
r
Posted by alexandra_k on January 16, 2014, at 18:18:18
In reply to Re: got test date, posted by rjlockhart37 on January 16, 2014, at 16:08:52
> why don't you post what exactly yourr learning that way can work on it through google and learn it through posts here.....
I started with the Kindy skills... And now I reckon... I'll be done with year four by the end of today... Or, tomorrow lunch time, at the latest.
I'm basically trusting them to introduce problems in an incremental way which means I need no formal instruction. We will see whether that is true or not.
I picked the NZ curriculum... But I think the only difference is the money. 'Yard stick' is still coming up as a unit of measurement, and it talks about how much Jerky people take to walk the Oregon trail...
Posted by rjlockhart37 on January 17, 2014, at 12:50:21
In reply to Re: got test date, posted by alexandra_k on January 16, 2014, at 18:18:18
i checked the website out....i looked at grade 12 the one you said your doing, i would try to give your pointers, its been so long since i did that kinda of math, i did take in grade 12 in high school but i have forgotten alot of it....it would take me weeks to learn it to help you, i am willing to help your solve problems that you can post, why don't you post the problems your practicing here on the next post and ill see if i can help you with them....
r
Posted by alexandra_k on January 20, 2014, at 20:31:05
In reply to Re: got test date, posted by alexandra_k on January 16, 2014, at 15:36:52
around 3/4 of the way through... took a day longer to finish year 4 than I thought... things are going much slower now.
taking a lot more mental effort to do the calculations accurately. if i don't pay careful enough attention i make too many mistakes and can take... more than an hour to master some of them.
elapsed time got me for ages. you know... it is twenty minutes to three in the afternoon now and so and so does such and such for twenty two hours and thirty two minutes. what time is it now??? In digital format. With a colon. Or it is WRONG WRONG WRONG.
aaaargh!!!!!
i mean... i can do it. but that sh*t is HARD. wah!
i'm going through paper like nobodies business... but only using a calculator for figuring the mean in statistics (there can be, like, 28 three digit numbers).
i am learning my times tables! still make stupid little errors... but guess the thing to do is to check everything twice. and there is more than one way to do things... which means you can mix things up when you check... so that is good.
i am fairly amazed at what i can do now! i can do stuff with fractions! and decimals! and i can multiply with crazy numbers of zeros! and identify nonogons and convert into decilitres and i'm even starting to enjoy division! and i can remember 8x8 and 7x7 and most recently 8x7 - so that is pretty good for me, too... getting there, i am... even though i still think 2x8 is 18 half the time... because of the 8... for some reason...
i am feeling pretty drained with it. but, lets see...
Jan 9 - 2 hours 28 minutes.
Jan 10 - 4 hours 41 minutes.
Jan 11 - 5 hours 12 minutes.
Jan 12 - 7 hours.
Jan 13 - 5 hours 47 minutes.
Jan 14 - 7 hours 42 minutes.
Jan 15 - 7 hours 45 minutes.
Jan 16 - 7 hours 51 minutes.
Jan 17 - 2 hours 25 minutes.
Jan 18 - 8 hours 59 minutes.
Jan 19 - 9 hours 33 minutes.
Jan 20 - 7 hours 33 minutes.
Jan 21 - 3 hours 44 minutes. Thus far.Which makes 80 hours and 41 minutes of practice. 25,525 problems attempted.
so... i guess i'm allowed to be feeling a little drained with it. i really want to jump ahead to next year for the fun stuff... like geometry... but i won't let myself until i've finished all the grindy f*ck*ng multiplication and division calculations... and stuff does build and presuppose stuff that went before... and what is great about now is that everything i try... i KNOW i can do it. figure it out on the basis of what went before / their explanation of how i f*ck*d it up.
one day and a half before my test... they better let me do math for science. they f*ck*ng well better.
Posted by Partlycloudy on January 21, 2014, at 15:47:32
In reply to Re: year 5...., posted by alexandra_k on January 20, 2014, at 20:31:05
You have already surpassed me, and I passed college accounting. You go, girl!
Posted by alexandra_k on January 22, 2014, at 18:50:33
In reply to Re: year 5...., posted by Partlycloudy on January 21, 2014, at 15:47:32
it was okay. it could have been a whole heap worse. the first question was easy. listing how many thousands and tens and ones and you had to put them together for a whole number. then a fairly straightforward multiplication. some stuff i could do, i guess... only... i was a bit flustered and frantic and... something took me back to my school days, i guess... started counting on my fingers all funny again, so getting stuck in the middle... and not being cool and calm, really.
i think i might have got the simplest algebra question. there is something coming up now (that i'm a bit stuck on mastering because i get the odd question and i can't for the life of me see how to answer it...) involving 'guess and check'. so... stuff like... there are 88 hotel rooms and there are 3 more rooms on each floor than there are floors. how many rooms are there? anyway... i think i figured out how much x was worth. but i don't know.
a couple of co-ordinate questions. only percentage ones were really easy. like - a number out of 20. asked which fractions were equivalent to 30% and I think i was cool... because 30% is 30/100 - right? not 3/10 or whatever... there was a train schedule one, too... wellington trains even lmfao...
i think i f*ck*d up a luggage question... lets see... i think the dude had to pay $200 for his 70kg case. because he had to pay $5 for every kg over the limit. and so some chick has a case that is... 45kg. i think it was. or maybe 35. how much does she have to pay??
so... 200/5 = ah. i thnk i f*ck*d it up there. but that is how many units over he was, yeah? maybe i'll scrape some marks for my working scratchings. sigh.
then there were triangles... and i had no f*ck*ng idea. google... i think that the numbers in the corners would have multiplied themselves into the number in the middle. i didn't know that / didn't see that.
i was panicked a bit. and my brain stopped working. people were rustly. my knowledge of times tables etc is fragile... and the test seemed to like 4's and 6's which i'm not particularly good at. and i got embarrassed about counting on my fingers... and then i ended up doing that all wrong, anyway. sigh.
still... i'm hoping... that i did enough to show that i have some of the right ideas of how to go about doing things... and... well, i don't quite know.
i think... i think all of the questions could have been figured out by someone with... a good grip on their times tables. if i had more time... i think i could have done a better job of it. i... i don't know.
i'm pissed off that i didn't manage to solve the luggage question - because i could do that one. if only i wasn't flustered. there was a shape one, too. figure out the value of the shapes and the rows of shapes summed to various numbers... i think i f*ck*d that up and i think i could have done it (though i was assuming they were positive integers).
i don't know how negative numbers play, either. i don't know what happens when you times them or whatever. there was one expression about a slope of a graph... maybe i figured it out. looking at the relationship between x and y... maybe i figured it out. by ruling out the ones that weren't true... being left with the one i didn't quite understand :-/
english... multi guess was alright. do you think 'common people' could be an answer or is that a bit un-pc? there was something about watches... being too expensive for the 'common person' or the 'average person'? i'm not entirely sure... the tone seemed to be to be sort of a little bit colloquial... there was something else that depended on whether x or y country was in the carribean (final destination therefore 'Finally') or not (therefore next).
Then they wanted essays on why we wanted a place. and I... Went spew spew spew the way that I do. Ahaha. They said they cared about spelling etc etc. But I wasn't about to say I wanted to be a bone doctor just in case I spelt Orthopedic wrong though I said I wanted to improve my visual spatial skills because I wasn't sure what was up with visuo spatial. Ahhahaha. Ugh.
Apparently they call people over the next couple days for interviews. No interview: No place. Fingers crossed...
Posted by alexandra_k on January 22, 2014, at 18:59:54
In reply to Re: got tested..., posted by alexandra_k on January 22, 2014, at 18:50:33
oh. and there was a object sequence completion task at the end and it was not a f*ck*ng sequence. i f*ck*ng swear. there was no relationship between any of them at all.
but i've seen the likes of them on the medical admissions exam they make them do for graduate entry in australia... sigh... three shapes floating aimlessly about an octogon...
Posted by alexandra_k on January 23, 2014, at 16:40:05
In reply to Re: got tested..., posted by alexandra_k on January 22, 2014, at 18:59:54
I think the issue is that I'm just learning the vocabulary. And the meanings are... Abstract. So a little bit tricky to grasp.
I do have some math knowledge that is rote memorization learned, without any meaning attached. I can just fire off that 3x7 is 21, 3x8 is 24 and 3x9 is 27. Not sure how or when I managed to get those sunk in there... But I got it into my head that that was what it was all about. Having a bunch of math facts memorized in there that could be instantly recalled.
But that strategy is error prone. At least, it seems to me to be. And... It is fragile. In the sense that there are an infinite number of facts... So it will only get you so far...
I can do some kind of visualisation or... recombination or... something like that. Instead of wracking my brain for what 4x6 might be and seeing what occurs to me... Trying to ram it in there via repetition... The way I thought it was supposed to be learned... Thinking that one lot = 6... and I already know that 2 lots = 12. And so two lots of 12 is equal to... Ta da. Then, just to make sure, I know that the answer should be equal to 4x5 which I"m pretty sure I remember well... And another four. So yeah, fairly sure I got that right.
Maybe that is the idea. The more different ways you have of checking... The more likely your ways converge on truth. And it is better to see than to memorise... Then over time you see faster / what is seen becomes more automatic.
It is like the meanings fell out for the test. And all I had was a bunch of fragile rules to try and apply. Like moving the decimal place to the right how many zeroes there were instead of thinking about little cubes making rectangles making cubes making rectangles...
I like math. I don't know that I'll be at the level that I need to be in the time that I have. But, well, I suppose I have all the time there is, really. Yay for disability benefits. I guess.
I think I need to split my time between working skills I need to work (like my tables, obviously). And progressing my way through the grades. It is getting pretty painful now -- because my times tables aren't really good enough, I'm starting to see. I am really tempted to jump ahead with stuff... I would like to do more stats and some of the other stuff I find easy... But I guess it is more important to get some of this right... I don't feel very confident at reducing fractions, either. Because of finding the greatest... Uh... Number that can divide both. Divisor?? And I need to learn the rules for when things are divisible by 9 and so on... Because some of those numbers are getting pretty large...
Posted by alexandra_k on January 23, 2014, at 22:45:07
In reply to Re: slowing down, posted by alexandra_k on January 23, 2014, at 16:40:05
yay.
yay hurray.
at least i now know (or will hold onto it anyways) that: i interview well. oh yes i do. oh yes, indeed i do. the ONLY thing holding me back is math. and i'm going to fix that. oh yes i am.
fingers crossed.
:)
4x is easy. it is just 2x all over again. and 6x is just 2x 3. which is why a number is divisible by six only if it is divisible by three AND divisible by two. ahahaha. but adding up the digits and that number being divisible by three is just weird. WEIRD. WEIRD NUMBERS. three is a weird number. hurr.
Posted by Partlycloudy on January 24, 2014, at 5:50:35
In reply to Re: i got an interview, posted by alexandra_k on January 23, 2014, at 22:45:07
Congratulations on securing an interview! I am sure they will be happy to see you have been working on your maths skills.
PC
Posted by Poet on January 24, 2014, at 13:20:58
In reply to Re: i got an interview, posted by alexandra_k on January 23, 2014, at 22:45:07
Hooray for you. I was called stupid as a child by my teachers because I can't do math. These days I would have been properly diagnosed with a math learning disability. You will triumph over those numbers and ace that interview.
Poet
Posted by alexandra_k on January 25, 2014, at 19:13:22
In reply to Re: i got an interview » alexandra_k, posted by Poet on January 24, 2014, at 13:20:58
thanks, guys :)
looks like things are going well for us all so far this year...
my math progress has slowed considerably. or... perhaps that isn't quite fair... it is more that i'm progressing through the problem sets much more slowly now. because they are more demanding. involving more calculations. more concentration.
they are also starting to rely on stuff that i don't feel is being sufficiently explained. starting to think maybe i'm missing stuff...
- getting fractions down to simplest form. mostly i'm fine, but every now and then they throw a doozy where the divisor (need to check that term) is 13. or something silly like that. am i really expected to check every number between 1 and the one in the fraction before concluding it already IS in its simplest form? perhaps so... i guess i can make a few jumps... some numbers i have tests for divisibility... but i don't think they have given us one for 7 yet... and wiki suggests.. that this gets complicated... and we haven't been introduced to primes yet, either... but perhaps we are just supposed to have figured that out from our times tables??
- multiplying fractions. i'm expected to be able to do that all of a sudden (it feels like) and i don't see why or how i'm supposed to know how to do that... unless... i'm supposed to convert them to decimels, do the multiplication, and then convert them back to fractions. perhaps that is how they want me to do that... there must be a simpler way??? converting fractions to decimels is still pretty new... and all that just to calculate the area of a square / rectangle with fractions in the f*ck*ng sides? for reals?
i think i'm getting a much better handle on... how everything pretty much is built up out of times tables. or, well, that's probably not fair... a LOT of math, i mean, really, quite a lot of it, IS built up out of times tables. they are really important for number sense... and for counting generally... starting to see... i never was shown / never managed to grasp that times tables were built up out of skip counting. i never really got that before.
i'm pretty good with them now... but still have a lot of work to do to get better. some of it is... undoing past habits. i remembered the rule with 9's about taking one away then summing to 9... which is a handy check, to be sure, but isn't so helpful as an initial or primary way of coming to an answer. starting to be more conscientious about building 9's out of 6's out of 3's... visualising...
if i think about how far i've come in such a short space of time, i'm fairly amazed. i think i'm going to be okay. i mean... i have a lot of work to do, to be sure, but i think i'm going to be okay.
i see why wittgenstein (the behaviourist who was skeptical about images in the head / visualisation) was regarded as a sh*tty maths teacher. haha. thinking back... i don't think we were really taught much math in primary school... i mean... i remember doing addition sums and multiplication sums on paper... and they would drill us on our times tables (and i learned how to cheat because i simply didn't remember them). but all this other stuff.. puzzles about distances traveled or displacement or whatever... i'm pretty sure i only remember stuff like that coming up on the standardised PAT tests at the end of each year... and you would just kind of... figure it out as best you could. without any feedback on whether you did it right or not. without any instruction on how to do the ones you didn't see how to do (was there such a thing in primary school?)
- scalene triangles bisected at x 2 and reflected... what are the new co-ordinates of the corners?? get me, too. even rotating some of those... i guess... this is how you develop your visuo-spatial skills (however you spell that). is it cheating to draw them on paper?? i don't suppose it is... i suspect such things get easier / faster / more automatic in time...
- elapsed time. i still have issues with clocks... circles, even. degrees etc. partly because... i think this stuff is a bit harder. partly because... it is a lot less familar to me, i guess.
still have around 5 skills from year 5 to finish up. you need to get a block of about 7 in a row correct to get from 90% mastery to 100%. one mistake... and you get shoved back to 80% or 85%... with a bunch more still... I just can't seem to reliably get them...
I figured... Sometimes it is better to go do something else (like make line graphs) for a while... Or go practice my 4x table for speed... Getting there, I am.
Maybe I'll be a theoretical physicist, yet.
Posted by alexandra_k on January 28, 2014, at 17:44:11
In reply to Re: i got an interview, posted by alexandra_k on January 25, 2014, at 19:13:22
well, the interview was fairly horrible, i thought.
it is possible that they just want to make me sweat. make sure that i approach the program with the (appropriate) attitude of gratitude and humility. which would be... fair enough, actually. but i don't like being made to sweat :(
i got interviewed by one... then got to meet another. they were both pretty cool actually. seemed to be nice, reasonable people. english, though. the english department gatekeepers. sigh. and it is hard, because i was trying to get exemption from doing english, which they kept telling me was compulsory...
autism came up. i wasn't the one to suggest it. i think people have been talking about me. but when i suggested that... she was like 'no.. i've just met people before and you struck me...' but then when i said about how that was a concern for a med interview she was careful to say that the didn't think the purpose of med interview was to rule out people like me, and she thought there were a whole heap of people like me in med anyways...
i said i didn't want special accommodations... i didn't think i needed them...
but i said that if they were dubious about offering me a place in the program then i had a disability that they should consider, yeah.
:-/
i need this. probably that was they wanted. the threat of tears. they got them.
ugh.
she said that the program was really about giving people a chance who didn't have a chance... but i had a chance... since i did have entry to uni. i said that if it came down to a choice between me and someone who didn't have a chance who would get the chance because of the program (and not someone who wouldn't even attend the program when offered a place / someone who needed to take their rehab year) then... well... that would be a hard decision.
yeah.
i... said i didn't know. because i hadn't met the other applicants. so... i couldn't say who would better use the place.
i think all that was good. i hope they just wanted to make me sweat. probably they did. but one never can tell. i'm scared.
i... really don't have a chance without this.
we'll see. i guess.
Posted by alexandra_k on January 28, 2014, at 17:59:03
In reply to Re: horrible interview, posted by alexandra_k on January 28, 2014, at 17:44:11
i got two of those english questions wrong, too. damn them. i ALWAYS get like 2 or 4 of those little suckers wrong. :(
they have had perfect scores.
sigh. oh english. you were my best subject at school... but you never did like me particularly much.
Posted by alexandra_k on January 28, 2014, at 19:39:32
In reply to Re: horrible interview, posted by alexandra_k on January 28, 2014, at 17:59:03
sigh.
i guess the thing is that it is designed for kids who didn't manage to get entry to university.
to give them a shot at university.
to save them from tech etc, perhaps.
to give them the opportunity to take subjects you can't so much take at tech. subjects like chemistry and geography and english etc.
and... they try and encourage / focus into peoples strengths.
whereas... i'm asking for the opportunity to focus on my weakness. which sounds like a luxury thing in comparison. some kids... well... i guess some kids got all the english questions right - but don't have entry to university. because they got high and missed their exam, or whatever. they had a kid, perhaps. who knows.
i guess i just have to hope that they don't actually have 200 candidates like that. that at least some of them are... wishy washy about whether they want to do this program or whether they want to study... radio or something... whether they want to sit on unemployment for a bit... hang out with their friends and play in a band... whether they are likely to actually commute in through the traffic for a couple hours each day... i just have to hope that there are candidates like that... for whom... it is sufficiently unclear whether they will make something of the opportunity were the opportunity to be offered to them.
i feel bad in a way...
and so... the fact that i can't really do anything else probably comes into play a bit. i mean... i can sit at home on disability... though... i'll lose this home if i don't study at uni full time...
the first person i saw was a professor from english. then i got handed over to the program co-ordinator. i think... the people who do the program... i think they might be more special ed / high school people than uni professor people. i mean... i think that professors do take certain classes etc etc but i think the program people more generally... it is more of a special ed kinda thing. because it basically is at high school level.
so the latter is trickier. because they might not understand quite about how i can't function so well outside the university. and because there can be some... insecurity. fear. stuff... inter-personal dynamic potential difficulty... there is this thing about people thinking that i've learned quite enough already (that i've had better educational opportunity than most in studying places that I have). i had a little trouble connecting with the later person... trying to convey how i didn't really have the opportunity to learn math... how primary school was not a place where i got to learn (since i could guess answers that others receiving instruction for still could not seem to get right) -- but these facts don't win me empathy votes. but i hope she got to see enough of me to give me the opportunity for a place. i said i guessed it depended on the other candidates... that i didn't know because i hadn't met them... i think she seemed to like that. i guess we will just have to wait and see, now.
Posted by alexandra_k on January 28, 2014, at 21:00:22
In reply to Re: horrible interview, posted by alexandra_k on January 28, 2014, at 19:39:32
actually, i suspect the real interview was the last person i saw and the initial part with the English Proff was just to warm me up a bit... Help me relax... Which it did.
Reassure me that I was in the right place. That the program wasn't going to be Tech all over again.
It was harder to connect with the program co-ordinator...
Part of the thing is that this program only costs, like $600 in course fees. It is heavily subsidised. Because it is meant to be helping the kids who don't have a chance...
Whereas doing an ordinary first year... I contribute, like, $6000 in fees. Well... The government does. Via student loan. Which I'll have to start paying back once I earn over the threshold ahahahahaha.
I DO hear / see where she is coming from... But I can't accept it, really. Because I don't stand a chance without the program.
I'm not entirely sure that I sufficiently impressed upon them that I'll probably just stay on disability forever without this... Of course that isn't true... I'd figure something... Sort of... Perhaps...
Let it go, Alex.
There isn't anything more I can do, now.
Relax the rest of today. Tomorrow... Back to the math. 45% of the way though year 6, I am. I got the proficency cert for year 5 - but there are still 5 skills I have yet to get 100% mastery on. Just keep making stupid little errors. I try and get one out first thing in the morning when I'm fresh.
I've just started algebra :) The input-output tables are described by functions (e.g., y=x2) and there is a graph. Ooooooh. I need more work on decimal / fraction conversion... And I think the way I do division is different from the way you are supposed to do long division and decimal division is tripping me up...
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