Gabriel Muñoz CVHS Class of 2016 11 November, 2016

1. The simplest answer is that I needed to, if I was going to attend the university I wanted to attend, that is. Universities want students to challenge themselves and to take advantage of what their high schools offer them, so it only made sense for me to take the most advanced math I could— that’s the simple truth, but others can tell you that. It takes more than that to enroll in AP Calculus, work 3 or 4 hours into the night on 3 or 4 problems, and participate in an annual honors mathematics contest organized by a university. For the longest time, I refused to acknowledge I liked math. Whenever asked the question “what’s your favorite subject?”, I’d say “I’m decent at math, but I don’t like it too much”, and I’d proceed to say Music or Writing were my favorite subjects. I thought them ‘cooler’ and wished I was better at them than I was at the time, I suppose. Math before calculus had its moments and I’d have fun with it, but most of the time, it seemed like it was an abstract and pointless exercise. So when I was given the chance to take Calculus, I was intrigued by the promise of a more fulfilling study that had real world applications and required more than brute memorization of formulas— it became more like puzzle-solving and demanded grasping the concepts. Yes, you probably need to have at least a tiny sliver of interest in math or be incredibly stubborn (like I am)— ehem, competitive. Given that I played football most of my life, I was used to obsessing over details and fundamentals. Constant drilling, asking questions, and seeking improvement is essential, and mathematics gave me something else to obsess over, to master, and to progress in. Time management. Time management. Time management. It’s hard— really hard, but it’s crucial to work at it and ask for help in planning your work ahead of time. Further, what helped me relate my math work with my other activities was to try to apply that knowledge to another class, like physics. Sometimes it worked, most of the time it didn’t, but talking to a different professor who knows the material you’re studying can give you a different perspective and learn how they apply it to their work.

2. Once I sat in a roomful of students applying to the school of Engineering at USC and an advisor. The advisor asked us all to write down the subjects we considered our strengths in high school, and then asked a few of us to share our responses. There was the girl who loved to dance, the guy who was good at physics, the art historian, the economist, the writer, and, predictably, the dude who listed all of the above— plus the subject EVERYONE listed: math. So yes, mathematics is THE foundation for any engineering discipline, as well as many areas of study you can find in a university’s curricula list. The advisor was clear to remind us of this and the (painful to some) fact that we needed to take math at the university, regardless of what we took in high school. So now I find myself taking Calculus II, the equivalent of Calculus BC, my math class my senior year with Mr. Clint McDonald— thank you, sir! But more importantly, the skills mathematics in high school demands in order to succeed are the same skills you’ll need in college. Some form of group studying is integral for maximum comprehension and survival. Revisiting work you did not understand the first time around is extremely helpful. Taking a break and working on something else, sleeping, or just relaxing helps in coming up with new ideas; sometimes, looking at a problem a second time is all you need to find that elusive solution. Mr. McDonald taught me these habits, and I can confirm that they are vital now that I am at the end of my first semester of college. They apply to any subject, so whoever is reading: do it.

3. There are three things I did in high school (and do to this day) that helped my math studies, and I think can help anyone. This is my advice: 1. Your classmates are your most valuable resource (short of your teachers). USE THEM. If you don’t understand your teacher and how s/he teaches the material, ask your peers for help. Seriously, go one by one, and find the person you understand the most, and feel most comfortable talking to. Seeing how others (who are on the same boat as you) think about the material can be illuminating and you’ll find that people are willing to help. 2. Speaking of your peers and using them... compete! Maybe it’s your best friend, the student who sits next to you, or someone you dislike— the only thing that matters is that they have similar, if not superior, skills/understanding as you. Then pick their brain and talk to them as much as possible. Take problems you can’t solve to them, and work at it with them, ask them to explain an idea to you, and try to surpass them. I know I constantly bugged two of my friends with problems and demanded explanations from them. They admitted it helped them, too, so it was for the best. 3. Finally, try to teach people. If anyone asks for a tutor, volunteer and give it a shot! You might find you’re a good teacher, or at least enjoy helping others (I like it, and I’ve given teaching consideration...). If you can explain how to find the zeros of a quadratic, show how to do matrix multiplication, or explain the mean value theorem to someone in your class, or a very curious student in a lower level of math, you will succeed in mathematics. Finally, too many people give up on math and/or discard it after a bad class, or simply declare outright that math has no place in their lives. To that group of people and those close to joining, I ask that you give math a chance. You might surprise yourself.