My Advice to a New Math 175 Student:
Speaking as a student with a lot of experience taking Math 175, I would have
to say that Dr. Hoar is the best instructor to take, and believe me, I know
the math instructors. When you're a marketing major and math majors
ask you for advice on who to take, you tend to wonder about yourself. I
try and look on it now as a positive thing, because I now feel like I'm
quite familiar with the inner workings of Math 175. In Dr.
Hoar's class, there are weekly quizzes which may seem like a bad thing,
but really it is good because it allows you to keep up with the material
and prepare for the tests better. Dr. Hoar also has a great website that
I have found very useful in this course. The best activities on the website
are the ones that let you work problems and then they work through the solutions
after you have tried it. On another level, Dr. Hoar's style
of teaching is very easy to understand, and he even interjects some humor every
now and then, even though it's math humor.
I'm not a math guy by any means, and I just want to get through this one
course, but it hasn't been easy. For those of you who, like me, are taking
this with less-than-stellar math skills (you know who you are), please do yourself
a favor and at least find a way to sit through a college algebra course. I
wasted a lot of time by jumping right into Math 175 without the proper algebra
background and I got burned right away. I was a junior who had just selected
Marketing as a major and I needed to take 175 to complete Gen. Eds. I
thought the idea of taking college algebra just to take 175 was crazy because,
after all, it's just one lousy class and I don't have time to re-live the
horrors of middle school and high school math just to take this class. I
was wrong. Even after having taken college algebra, I've had a tough time
with 175. It is extremely important to stay on top of homework and to stay
prepared for quizzes. As you might suspect, the quizzes are a great
indicator of what is to come on the tests. Also, when you are in class,
pay close attention especially when Dr. Hoar is working problems that he wants
to work. These will likely end up on tests. All of this may sound
a little intimidating, and it is to a certain extent. The only real way
this class can be scary is if you don't keep up and you don't treat it with respect.
If you are one of those students who can do well in math and easily comprehend
the subject, then please disregard all of the previous advice because you are
a friggin genius and I don't know how to relate to you. For those who just
want to get through, don't think of it that way. If you want to get a D
and you give a D effort, then you will get a resounding F. This doesn't
mean that you have to be as smart as the kid next to you or even within the top
50 percent (or in my case 90%) of the class in math skills. Hell, I don't
even know if that whole 50-90% thing just made any sense at all! The point
is, show up, work hard, be dedicated, and don't ever give up.
The tutor lab is probably the best way to get help with 175. The tutors
are very good and the lab is an atmosphere where you can concentrate on math
and not be distracted by other things. The weekly review sessions are also
helpful because even if you don't have any questions prepared, someone else will surely
bring up an issue that you could use some help with. Don't be
afraid to at least try these things even if you don't feel prepared. The
more you're surrounded by math, the more comfortable you will become with it,
and I feel that with this advice, none of you will be surrounded be
math as much as I have been.
Sincerely,
Eric, Marketing Major