Prompt#1

https://stemeducationjournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40594-020-00246-z

Basically the article said that math anxiety usually arises when in people with low self-efficacy. In layman’s terms, your math skills are only as strong as the effort you put in. Personally, I never experienced math anxiety, but I have experienced math stubbornness. I would overestimate my own math skills and this would turn around and bite me. I butted heads with Calc 1 all the way through until I realized the privileged position that I’m currently in. My department chair once said, “There’s 100 waitlisted people looking for your 1 seat. So take heed and take advantage with quick haste.” To be honest, I don’t think I’ll ever fully get over the stubbornness. It’s gotten me this far (but with a grain of salt of course). But one day, I hope that my mental wars with math will one day lead us down a path of least resistance.

Prompt # 3

I tell myself I’m bad at math ALL the time. I’ve never had a natural affinity to math and I’m absolutely jealous of those with said affinity. Happened every day in Calc 1 I was absolutely horrified. Truthfully, I only made it out of that class by the grace of God and a very understanding professor. Honestly, I stare at the math until something clicks. Sometimes it takes hours. Sometimes days. It just happens to work for me. I think it’s the rigidity of math that turns people off. There’s room for some interpretation but nothing like ethics or psychology. I saw an interesting video (Outliers: Why Some People Succeed and Some Don’t) where he goes into details on why geographical upbringings affect how we view math. It changed the way I approach math completely. Basically, if you come from a geographical background where intense work is required (say the harsh rice fields of China) and compare it to the “not so intense” (say the farms of the bread belt), the intense work ethic required to run the “intense” geographical background translates to us generations later. In short terms, the effort of the physical labor translated into years of intense dedication to the maths and scienes. I know its cliche, but the way I see it, the only way to overcome any hardships in math is to simply put in more effort than you previously did. It’s a great think experiment at the least.