Content Skill
A skill I learned this semester was how to do optimization problems. When we first started doing these, they were difficult for me because there were a lot of different components to doing the problems correctly (like writing equations, getting their derivatives right, and determining whether a value was a maximum or a minimum). A lot of the time, when I got one of these problems wrong, it was because I did the derivative wrong, which messed up the subsequent steps. To improve at this skill, I practiced derivatives a lot, until I was consistently getting them right. Once derivatives weren't so confusing for me, it was a lot easier for me to do the problems because I could focus more on my organization and algebra rather than getting worried that I was doing the derivative wrong.
An example of my mastery of this skill is my Problem Of the Week, which is shown below.
An example of my mastery of this skill is my Problem Of the Week, which is shown below.
Problem-Solving Skill
I think the skill I need to work on is recognizing and resolving errors. I think a lot of my struggle with this skill comes from poor organization of the problems I work on. When I'm focused on a problem, I don't really pay attention to where I'm keeping track of my work or how legibly I write, which makes it near impossible to go back and correct any mistakes I made. Another part of the problem is that with a lot of problems, like optimization problems, the correct answer rests on a series of interdependent steps, so by messing one up, I mess them all up. This is really frustrating to me, and rather than retracing my steps and finding my error, I erase everything and completely start over, and thereby never learn from my mistakes. I can improve at this skill by writing out my problems more neatly. I will try not to get frustrated if I mess up a step, and will instead use my mistake as a learning opportunity to prevent future mistakes.