MTH 201 students advice to themselves

--- title: MTH 201 students advice to themselves tags: mth201 --- # MTH 201 students' advice on how to succeed *compiled by [Robert Talbert](http://rtalbert.org), Grand Valley State University* :::success Students in my MTH 201 (Calculus) sections from Fall 2020 at [Grand Valley State University](http://www.gvsu.edu) were asked on their final exam: > **If you could go back in time to August and give your past self three pieces of advice on how to succeed in MTH 201 this semester, what would you tell yourself, and why?** Here are some of their answers. ::: ## Approach to the class **Read over the syllabus very carefully**...truly everything you need to know about this course is there, in words, on the syllabus --- **Go to the lessons during the week and take notes**. I went to every class over the semester and they helped me so much in understanding the things that were taught. Even though I never purposely skipped a class during school, it still shows how helpful going to class is in order to further my understanding of the material that we are given. Also, while in class, be sure to take notes during the lesson. It helps so much when you take notes during class and not on your own time. It allows you to understand the material so much better when someone is actually teaching it to you. --- **Plan more and really look over the syllabus** for what exactly is expected of me. --- **Listen to the instructor.** [...] Instructors offer tons of valuable tips and feedback so listening to that, in general, is a good idea. I just felt like I came into things a little cocky and arrogant and should have realized these are not the same people as high school teachers. They are a wholly more passionate breed that wants [you] to succeed. --- **Check Campuswire and blackboard calendar daily**. Early into thesemester, I was very good at this, and but by the end, I was only checking them 3-4 times a week (sorry professor Talbert). I felt I was much more on top of things and more prepared for the course when I was more active in checking things, but as life got more complicated for me this semester, I became less disciplined in my checking’s. --- **Not only pay attention but try to actively learn what you are being taught on a deeper level**. If you ever get stuck the professors are always there to help you and very often do their best to make sure that you understand completely what you are hung up on. --- **Look for connections between topics** rather than just memorizing. *[paraphrased]* --- **Just get ahead of the curve**. I could only really say that with this class because of how everything is laid out, but if I could go back in time I would have done the requirements for the grade I wanted as soon as possible. It would have just saved me a lot more time and energy near the end of the semester. --- **Work ahead as much as you possibly can**. Being atop of things would have helped me a lot at certain points in this semester and I’ve had many days of just sitting down for hours to get multiple assignments done, and if I would have just did one or two every day rather than packing them all in on one day, I might have saved myself some stress and probably would have performed better one certain things. --- **Really pace yourself**. I have had a really busy semester; my class load has been really heavy and things have been busy and hard in my personal life. So, take advantage more of having assignments so in advance. To work on stuff as soon as you can. A lot of this stuff is time consuming. It was so hard to make time to begin with but just trying to get a head start can only help you. --- I would tell myself to **double or triple check my work**. There have been too many points lost due to my carelessness --- **Do all of the practice, all of the webworks, and study often**. The practice through daily prep and follow up help a lot. They are needed in order to be successful in the course and get the grade you receive. The webworks also help a lot. This is very good practice for checkpoints [...] There is a mix of challenging problems but also review problems from previous chapters that are important to remember and will also help with success in the course. --- **MTH 201 is not to be underestimated**. If you have taken Pre-Calculus, as some schools do teach it, then some skills will translate over. However, those skills will need to take a backseat and quick, as more important skills will quickly show their face. --- **Pay attention to wording and instructions**. When you are taking the checkpoints or assignments you need to read carefully. Because there have been times where I do not read carefully enough and then I do not get the credit on the checkpoint or the assignment. So, read very carefully to what is being asked and if you need to state the units in your answer. --- Detailed notes are good, but **finding my own examples to understand concepts** much better would be much more useful than only using what the teacher gives us. --- **Working on a daily prep or followup activity for 2 or more hours is not worth it**. I was always aware that we should only spend about an hour on these assignments, but I always became frustrated with myself if I could not figure out an equation. Sometimes I would keep on working on the problem until I got an answer, no matter how long it took. It was not until close to the end of the semester that I would hold myself accountable to the one hour limit. I would make sure that my past self learned this lesson quicker. --- **Take a shot when you are unsure**. Because this class does not penalize you in your work, give it a shot. What I mean by this is on things such as Checkpoints where I felt like I was not ready for a specific learning target I would skip it. I think what I should have done is just taken a shot at the learning target. You can’t get a bad grade for it and you will have some instructor feedback on how you tackled the problem and that will help you get it right the next time. So just in general not just checkpoints, even AEPs. As long as you give it your best try, give it a shot. --- I would tell myself to **keep calm and allow myself to feel comfortable and not over think the semester**. This class is only as hard as you make it and it allows for you to have plenty of time to get everything done that you need done. --- ## Time management If I could go back to my past self, I would tell her to **manage her time well**. I feel like there are a lot of things I allow myself to be involved in and sometimes it affects my classwork. I think it got worse when I started my new job. With lots of orientation classes and working evening shifts, that was a change I had a hard time adapting to. --- This one is probably the biggest, **START DOING THINGS EARLY**. I paid the price bad when I decided to put a lot of things off to focus on other classes or because I was super intimidated by the concept of taking on, but if I had known how down to the wire I was going to end up being, then I probably would have done things much sooner or done them when more time for questions was available. --- I learned that **doing a little work each week is WAY better than doing 18 checkpoints until 5 am** because I had to work that day and I was too far behind. --- **Not save all the work until the last month**. The obvious reason for this is that by saving all the work until the last month I will be overcome with the heavy workload and have a lot of ground to make up. While this was an issue that I faced that didn’t cause any harm to my grade, it did cause harm to my understanding of the content throughout the semester which made new topics that much more difficult. By not doing all the work available I wasn’t doing all the work available for me to do which would turn out to help me in the understanding of the topic. --- **Don't procrastinate**. At the end of the semester I caused a lot of unnecessary stress by procrastinating. For example, I waited until the end of the semester to finish my assignments if I would have just done one every now and then it would not have been a problem. However, I waited until the end and the pressure I felt because I had to get a good grade on them was a lot to handle --- I would likely **yell at myself for procrastinating** then tell myself to **find a schedule and stick to it** and finally ask myself to take care of myself more. --- The first thing I would tell myself is that **you cannot procrastinate. Procrastination will kill you in this class.** You cannot wait until the last second to do everything. You will never fully be able to comprehend everything you go over everything in such a short amount of time. You will be unable to retain so much information in such a short amount of time. If you procrastinate you will stress yourself out near the end of class because there will be so much you need to complete. Procrastination will be your downfall so DO NOT DO IT! --- **Get a planner** at the beginning of the semester and go through now to write down every assignment so you know when to get them done on time. --- **Use a planner religiously**. I got caught a few times mixing up dates on assignments or forgetting about a daily prep or follow up activity. This all could have been avoided by a simple solution of planning out my days. --- I would tell myself to **make a calendar** and follow it religiously. --- There was a mindset I had in the middle of the semester where I wouldn't do work on checkpoints or do any [other] work because I just thought I could push it off until later, but that made things a lot harder than they needed to be. If I would have just **done my work at a reasonable pace over the semester it would have led to a better experience overall and less stress** towards the end of the semester. --- **DON’T LOSE TRACK OF TIME**. Being blasted by the larger workload of college, on top of being forced to stay mostly online, it will be much harder to keep track of time and the assignments you need to complete in each class, but especially in MTH 201. There is going to be at least about three assignments due each week, and you are expected to learn most if not all of the materials by yourself at times. This can either work for you or against you, depending on how on-task you stay, so please stay on track ## Connecting with others and getting help **Reach out to more of my classmates and meet with the professor more.** This was something that I need to do in all of my classes as it’s an easy way to get help on things that I’m confused with. I think with the restrictions it makes it even more hard to reach out to people because you’re not actually sitting beside someone and you’re supposed to keep 6 feet, so sometimes going up and saying hi can be very intimidating. With that being said, the restrictions made it easier to meet with the teachers because everything was virtually, and I didn’t have to go anywhere to see them. I definitely could have taken advantage of that this semester and it would have helped me --- **Ask more questions when I am struggling** and to not just push through and hope for the best. --- **Ask more questions throughout the class**. Asking questions forms a bond between teacher and student and becomes intimidating to get help if you don't ask. *[paraphrased]* --- **Ask for help when necessary**. There are too many instances throughout this semester where I ran into a roadblock and would try to either force an answer without figuring out how to actually solve it or solve it by doing what is told of me without actually understanding what I am doing. These give a temporary solution to my problem but in the future it would come back to bite me. --- **Interact and collaborate with my classmates more**. I feel like I would have understood the material quicker if I did not feel so awkward speaking to my classmates during our breakaway groups. They would have been more productive if someone took charge and created a more open environment. --- **Get help from [the Math Center](https://www.gvsu.edu/tutoring/math/) a lot sooner**. Early on in the semester I was stubborn and wanted to try and figure all my math problems out on my own, or maybe I just didn’t want to admit I was struggling. Regardless, once I actually sought out help later into the semester I was able to understand the things that were totally confusing to me before, and I felt more confident when it came to certain subjects. I had never gone to the math center my freshman year when I was struggling with trigonometry, but now that I actually sought out help on certain topics, I realize how helpful they can be and will be sure to reach out to them for future use. --- ## Self care **Self care** seems like a weird thing to add to calculus advice, but it is arguably one of the most important to being successful in any academic or professional environment. I personally feel more motivated and determined when I feel well, so I fully understand where that reasoning comes from. The most difficult part with that is my job is actively detracting from my self care, working full time on top of 18 credit hours isn’t a recommendation I’d give to anyone. --- **Fix my sleep schedule**. Going into school in August my sleep schedule was still terrible because my earliest class was 8:30 a couple times a week so I did not think it was a very big deal, but I did not realize that with my current schedule, I would need to wake up early some days to do homework. The last piece of advice I would tell myself is to **find time to eat**. Once I fixed my grades and sleep schedule, I did not have very much free time in the day so I would only eat twice a day which is not good for football. I did not have a lot of energy for classes and football so I ended up deciding to just get a bunch of cliff bars and eat them while I studied and did homework. --- **Take a break**. There is no reason to keep trying a problem over and over again for hours. Go take a walk, eat food, or workout, you should never spend more than an hour on a piece of homework in one sitting. It is okay to take longer but make sure you are letting yourself rest in between. You are no help to yourself when it has been hours and you are angry that you can not get the right answer on a problem. It is not the end of the world if you can not get a question right during the time you are working. Take a breather and get back at it in a few minutes. --- The last piece of information that I would tell myself is that **MTH 201 is not everything**. It may be time consuming but it is okay to have a life outside of math. Sometimes you have to put the books away for a few days and give the brain a break! It is also a good idea to not stress over homework. Just do your best and show effort, the rest will come naturally. There is no point in spending hours trying to figure something out because the stress that it will cause will only do more harm to your mental status. Take a quick break and come back later ready to work and refocus. --- ## Growth mindset **Regardless of how busy I am or how much I just want to quit, it’s mostly a mindset and that I can do anything I motivate myself to do**. So now the challenge is keeping myself in that mindset all semester long so I continually do little amounts of work each week, that way the last couple weeks aren't jam packed with work. --- **Many times I thought about changing my major because I simply did not understand the math. However, once I went to the tutoring center a couple of times and looked back on solutions put on Blackboard, I slowly started to figure things out**. Once I calmed myself down and put aside an hour or two a day to focus on math, I started to get it. I broke it up into sections and did a little bit of Webwork a day, along with a section of an AEP and a daily prep/followup and I started to understand. I also started to ask questions about things I did not understand, which was very helpful. --- **Even if I sometimes fail to understand things, I truly am smart enough to figure it out**, I just need to take a different approach. --- **Never quit**! Calculus takes time and patience, you do not have to understand everything the first time it is said or get the question right at first. It takes time and lots of practice to get it perfect. Excellence is not made in a day, it is formed over time. So will pick it up fast and that might make you anxious but just be patient and determined to take it in and understand it thoroughly. --- I would start by telling myself to **never give up, no matter how hard things get just keep moving forward**. It is okay to struggle and it is okay to not understand but giving up will not solve any issues nor will it make anything better. --- **Learn to get up from my failures**. When it comes to failing, there are two choices I have, to try harder or let it get you down. The way I handle my failure is more towards the second one this semester. I would tell my past self to brush off the failure and get up. To motivate me and tell myself to set a positive mindset. I don’t want to blame the pandemic for the way things turn out because no matter what kind of situation I'm in, it’s up to me to make positive changes. --- **Calculus is not so difficult. Calculus may sound daunting at first, but it is in fact easy if you do the work in a timely manner**. Do not get down on yourself when it gets tough. You just need to sit down and do the work and take your time. You will learn it eventually. --- **Keep my head high, and go for it**, because the feeling of victory is much sweeter than the feeling of defeat or rage over an assignment. --- **Stop and smell the roses**. What I mean by this is to stop and enjoy the little victories, even though there might still be a lot of work ahead, giving myself a breather and realizing my smaller accomplishments really went a long way and helped most my motivation and self-esteem a lot. This is also advice I would give to myself for every class, not just this one, and is also advice I will need to consider for my future classes.