Rethinking the First Test

I think i did horrible. Actually, i think i did worse than horrible because i did not want to learn the Reduced Echelon Form after trying to understand it for so long… i don’t know whether it was defeat or arrogance, but that is a problem i have noticed in myself as well as other students sometimes. If we do not understand or find it difficult to solve a problem, we either come back to it later or completely ignore it. In my case, i usually ignore it because i know my capabilities, but why?

What is the point of furthering your education if not to go beyond what you believe your capabilities are!? This is what i think hindered me when taking the test. I just left it blank like i usually do when there is something i knew would probably come but did not feel like pushing to understand it… foolish and reckless, i reap the consequences.

Our study group was phenomenal and we did more than just “Prepare for the test”. We UNDERSTOOD it, we explained how and why it would work on MATLAB in some of the problems. When it came to the Reduced Echelon Form problems, my group members tried and eventually understood how to do them and tried to explain it to me with the best of their abilities, but my stubbornness prevailed in the end and i decided that i would not do it “Even if my degree depended on it”… Now i understand two things. One, i never learn until i am put in a situation where i see i was completely wrong. Two, i will always push myself to learn even if i have a hard time with the subject, i will understand it no matter how “Hard” i think it is.

In the future, i am determined to completely understand each problem if we are given the same grace with the homework problems for Test 2.