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There’s more to Math than Letters &

Numbers

Math never fails to amuse me. I used to have the notion that math was just all

about the four fundamental operations: adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing.

 That was how it all went during grade school. Up till the first years of high school, we

still did those operations, but everything just became more complicated since they

started adding the alphabet to the numerical system. What used to be 1 + 2 + 3

evolved into x +2xy + 3xyz.

I remember I used to complain once they started to combine letters and

numbers in math. I kept thinking, "This has nothing to do with my everyday life! Math

used to be practical before it had letters in it." But after three years of algebra, I have

realized that just because I can't see people in the streets trying to solve linear

equations, doesn't mean I can't apply it to whichever course I might choose when I

get out of high school. I know that plain numbers are more practical and more

common when it comes to the bigger picture of life, but that's not just what math

thought me. I did learn things like graphing inequalities, factoring trinomials, and

even that Gauss-Jordan thing which took me two weeks to learn… but do you know

what else math taught me? I learned about determination and patience. Those days

we spent trying to learn Gauss-Jordan made me become more patient with myself. Iknew that if I tried to crack my head open so I could learn it right away wouldn't

really do me any good. I had to be patient, and also determined that I could learn,

even if it would take me days, and yes, it did take me days to learn that single, mind-

boggling topic.

Math didn't only teach me values. It also enhanced my skills which could help

me when I start working someday. Solving exponential and logarithmic functions is

serious business. With that, I was able to in a way, improve my critical thinking. Non-

routine problems also made me use my logic in a more practical way. Before we

started with the non-routine problems, I had that feeling wherein I felt that I had no

ounce of logic in me, because I thought I was only good with problems that could be

equated. After a week of these kinds of problems though, I realized that if only I tried

to think beyond equating x’s to y’s, I could actually solve some tricky problems

without having to go solve on scratch papers! This is another thing which made me

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think again how math can help me in life: the fact that it taught me to discover more

about myself too.

 Then there's Calculus. I was actually excited about Calculus during the firstdays of fourth year. I have heard from others that it's really hard, and I wanted to see

how I would do with it. Now that fourth year is almost done, I have learned that there

is more to Calculus than what we had for this school year. It is not surprising, since

we only had two days a week for Calculus lessons, an hour and 40 minutes to be

precise.

I liked Calculus a lot. It still involved solving, but also had its own differences

from basic algebra. Because I didn't think that I would have a hard time with it, I was

able to learn and didn't have much difficulty with the lessons. Sure, there were times

when I felt my head would crack with all the symbols, but as what the teacher said,

Calculus isn't hard; it’s just the symbols that make it look hard. If we only see beyond

all those signs and formulas, if we only develop that positive thinking towards these

kinds of things, we would all have aced through Calculus as if it was just another 1st

grade math lesson.

 This made me realize that the reason most of us fail in math-related subjects

is because of our strong dislike against it. Some people don't even try to learn

because they have it in their mindset that no matter what happens, they won't be

able to digest everything.

Mathematics has played a very important role in my life as a high school

student. I won’t ever forget the times I struggled with some of the lessons, because it

is during these times where I was able to learn the most important things in Math. I

may not be able to bring what I learned about logarithms to my future life, but the

values these lessons brought are endless.