B.O.B. Week 2

When I was working on the review for this test, I thought I was going to fail. Like, completely, horribly fail it. The review was incredibly hard for some reason. When I started, I thought it was good. Then I looked at the answer key, and my answers totally did not match up. I went into the test thinking it was going to be awful, and was pleasantly surprised to find that it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. For some reason I got there and things sort of made sense. On the review, I'd had problems with domain. I could get the right numbers, but was unsure of when there were 2 or 3 "parts" to the domain. On the test, it just sorta clicked. I don't know why, but something happened after I started. I actually remembered things we'd talked about in class--the opposite of what normally happens to me during a test.

The one big problem for me, however, was (I think) number 14, where we had to find the function that would create the domain (-infinity, 5)U(5, 7)U(7, infinity). I was doing all these things, and nothing worked. I'd have an idea, try it, have it fail. Over and over. I knew I needed -5 and -7 on the bottom of a rational, but for some odd reason I couldn't actually get the right function. For over half an hour. Eventually, I decided I'd give myself one more try. If I still couldn't get it, then I'd just be done and give up. And then it worked. It was so weird--why did my brain finally decide to come up with the right answer at that moment?!? And why couldn't it have done it earlier??? I have no idea why it took so long to get the right answer for that problem, but at least I finally managed to get it. 

And I now have one piece of advice for the tests. Don't stress. If you don't know it, just try. Over and over. If you still can't get it, it's ok to give up on one problem. Just try your hardest, and keep working at it. If you still can't get it, that's ok. Just try harder next time. That one problem may seem really important at the time, but in the grand scheme of things it's gonna be ok to miss that one problem. What is important is not giving yourself a heart attack by stressing out over it too much. As I have now learned.