Care Rumer Portfolio
Intellectual Challenge: MATH 251 an MATH 252
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MATH 251
Math 251, Calculus with Analytic Geometry I, was the most significant intellectual challenge I have faced so far. I was unable to understand and apply what the professor was teaching regarding Calculus. Even though I thought I understood the concept and did the homework when I approached the quizzes and tests it took me too long to try and work out the problems during the time I had in class. Before this class, math was always easy and just stuck in my head. For me, it was always here is a concept, an here are the steps you use to apply it to a problem. On the first pre-test, I got 100%. But then we started the proper concepts. Calculus felt like here are some words and some greek letters, all right go home and cry now. I took notes and paid attention in class. Initially, I just persevered through this challenge in part by sucking it up and doing the best I could, but the best I could was earning me 60% on the tests. I had support from my dad through this process, I had sought help from my dad, who had always been able to help me with math classes, but Calculus was too complicated, and he took it too long ago to be helpful, resulting in many tears and continued frustration. Nonetheless, would do his best to comfort me and work through problems when I cried and felt like a failure. The first step I took was going to the MRC when I did homework so I could ask questions of my classmates and the math tutors, but they could only help me get through a few problems, but not the whole concepts.
My insecurities really held me back. Not only was this class a blow to my self-esteem, but it threatened my identity as "the smart kid" who always got straight A's and helped other people in the class, never the other way around. Because of this, I was so ashamed to go get outside help. I felt like I couldn't be one of those kids whose parents paid for a tutor to get them through a class that was too advanced for them (I realize this was coming from a super judgemental place and a reaction to the blow to my identity). It took a lot for me to shove down my shame about needing to pay someone to help me with math and to get passed how incompetent I felt. But with my tutor, Rachel's, help, I began to improve in the class. She was able to go through concepts rather than just doing examples of problems like the professor did in class. I was able to break things down and start to understand the material. With this support and the fact that homework was 50% of our grade, I was able to earn a B in the course.
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MATH 252
Going into MATH 252 I started out feeling barely any confidence and still not really understanding the fundamentals I needed to solve problems and the class started out very poorly. What changed between the first and second quizzes however was I learned to ask questions and write out concepts fully in my notes. At this point, I wasn't working with my tutor, but I did find the courage to talk to my professor. One of the things that helped me the most with Calculus 2 was that the problems began requiring explanations of why you could solve problems the way you did and that allowed me to really work through the problems in a following the steps in an order that made sense to me. I ended the semester with an A and a renewed confidence in myself as a student and my ability to ask for help in the future.
