The Glade 4.0

So this semester I am taking Finite Mathematics.

Now as I have always had a weak spot for math, I find I have been struggling a bit in this class. But I am finding that it is not as bad as I expected it to be. I attribute a lot of this to the doctor teaching the class. He genuinely enjoys math and it shows. He is giving us the proper way to do it, but he is making it seem a lot easier than a bland teacher with no personality. He is also giving us a lot of real world examples where the problems would be used in day to day life.

There is no "sailboat A leaves harbor at xxx time.. sailboat B leaves a harbor 10 miles away. Sailboat captain C decides screw it and has a martini waiting for his XO to drown." We are getting examples like "company A manufactures these 3 products, each costs xxx to make and takes y hours, here is how much they have to spend and how many hours they have to allocate. create and solve a system of inequalities that shows how to maximize profit between the three products within the constraints given."

Surprisingly enough... I am finding myself enjoying this class.

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Darksiege
Traveller, Calé, Whisperer
Lead me not into temptation; for I know a shortcut

There may be reasons for this beyond your professor. Any number of these could be the case.

Some schools teach Finite Math in their business department, rather than their math department.

Business calculus books are written almost entirely around business applications, to the exclusion of other topics, including the explanation of what the mathematical operation actually accomplishes and why it works. (Consequently, it does not meet prerequisites for any math or science class requiring calculus, and is totally useless outside of the business classes). Your Finite Math book may be similar.

Finite Math is being presented as a terminal course. While you may have to take another math course, it won't be Finite Math 2.

You actually learned something in algebra, which is the math equivalent of learning to read.

Finite math really is a college math course. (Algebra, even college algebra, isn't).

Teaching algebra is a soul-draining experience. An adjunct professor where I work equated it to rescue dogs. If they find nothing but dead bodies, they get depressed and stop doing their job. The dogs absolutely must find survivors every now and then, even if the handlers have to stage a fake rescue.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

I was one of those dead bodies. Glad you're liking it, Dark.

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This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

Haha, I'm failing college algebra right now.

The prof. said we were coving two weeks of material in one week and we meet twice a week. Last night we covered Rational Functions, Asymptotes, polynomial/rational inequalities, and variations of applications. I like math when it makes sense, but I'm not quick to catch on. I think about half the original class dropped it. He's grading on a curve, but honestly, if I'm leaning on that I suck, (which I do). I'd need to score almost 100% on the next to quizzes to pass. I wish they'd just have two algebra classes worth 1.5 credits rather than cramming it all into one.

/suicideemoticon

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"...the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

I took a lot of advanced math classes. It all gets really silly. A lot of people had way too much time on their hands.

That is not unusual.
This would not be feasible, considering how the prerequisite courses are set up. A large number of College Algebra students already put fourth a year of time essentially taking the same course twice. There is probably an 85% overlap between Elementary Algebra and Intermediate Algebra. As such, students really don't have the time to spend two more semesters taking one algebra class.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

I think I might actually be able to pass the CLEP. I tried once a while back and none of this material was really on it I think. It's really depressing.

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"...the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn