how to calm nerves about new trig material

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sportsstar469

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so im in an algebra /trig course. it is an accelerated 6 week course so the material goes very fast. anyway we are on the last day of class this Thursday. this whole course i have worked my rear end off to achieve a 92.7 average. however the test on Thursday is 30 percent and i am so lost on all the solving triangle, cosine laws, vectors, sines, and all the word problems. it has gotten me upset because i went the full 6 weeks and have an A i really dont want to bomb this test however we learned like 2 chapters of hard material in less than one weeks time. i must achieve an 87 to keep my A. the nerves are getting to me, and i cant understand the material even after the teacher explained it to me after class.
tutors from school are busy until Friday which does my no good.
i know this isn't a math question but figured id ask it anyways. think of it mroe as an anxiety question.
 
well i just got back form my test, and let me tell you. i think all of the work i put in to keeping a 93 average was a total waste. im pretty sure i did not hit the required 86 i needed to keep my A, and thus ill get a b which will knock my gpa down from a 4.0.
there was a problem that stumped me. we were given two formulas one was the formula top find the speed limit of a straight road with a radius of 500 meters, and one was to find the speed limit of a banked road with a radius of 500 meters.

i was able to conclude that the banked road was a 43mph speed limit, and the straight was only 33.
the part that stumped me was it asked which road is safer to ride on.
i said a banked road was sagest and that is why you are allowed to go faster on it.
all in all i am very dissapointed i did not reach my goal math sucks.
 
sportsstar469 said:
well i just got back form my test, and let me tell you. i think all of the work i put in to keeping a 93 average was a total waste. im pretty sure i did not hit the required 86 i needed to keep my A, and thus ill get a b which will knock my gpa down from a 4.0.
there was a problem that stumped me. we were given two formulas one was the formula top find the speed limit of a straight road with a radius of 500 meters, and one was to find the speed limit of a banked road with a radius of 500 meters.

i was able to conclude that the banked road was a 43mph speed limit, and the straight was only 33.
the part that stumped me was it asked which road is safer to ride on.
i said a banked road was sagest and that is why you are allowed to go faster on it.
all in all i am very dissapointed i did not reach my goal math sucks.
Click to expand...
sorry to be a bother but could anyone give me some feedback on the answer i gave to the problem in the above quote? thanks very much. also i have another quickie. i had a problem on my test that was
cubed root of x times 4th root of x
i had to simplify it i came out with the answer is x^1/12 lol is that wrong.
 
sportsstar469 said:
i had a problem on my test that was cubed root of x times 4th root of x
i had to simplify it i came out with the answer is x^1/12 is that wrong.
Click to expand...
Sorry, but it is incorrect. How did you get that 1/3 + 1/4 equalled 1/12? :oops:
 
Please post the exact problem about the curves and we can see where you may have strayed.

Don't feel too bad. I have bombed my share of tests as well. Most everyone has.

This has to do with circular motion and Newton's second law. Did they give you the banking angle?. I would think that is needed.

Suppose an engineer wants to design a road so that a driver does not have to rely on friction.

If the car round the curve at v m/s and the radius of the curve is 500 m with a banking of, say, 5 degrees.

Then, the max speed of the car can be found from \(\displaystyle tan{\theta}=\frac{v^{2}}{rg}\)

where g is the gravity constant.

\(\displaystyle tan(5)=\frac{v^{2}}{(500)(9.8)}\)

\(\displaystyle v=20.7 \;\ m/s\) or about 46.3 mph.

If the driver goes slower than that, the driver will have to rely on friction to keep from sliding down the incline.

If the driver goes faster, they will depend on friction to keep from sliding up the ramp.

That is probably more than you wanted to know, but it is part of how road speeds are designed.
 
sportsstar469 said:
i had a problem on my test that was cubed root of x times 4th root of x
i had to simplify it i came out with the answer is x^1/12 lol is that wrong.
Click to expand...
You can only blame yourself for this error.
x^a times x^b = x^(a PLUS b) : you knew that but forgot?
So x^(1/3) times x^(1/4) = x^(1/3 + 1/4) = x^(4/12 + 3/12) = x^(7/12)

More carelessness: you typed x^1/12; that MUST have brackets: x^(1/12).
Without brackets, it means x^1 divided by 12, or x/12.....kapish?

By the way, x^(1/12) would be correct IF problem was: cube root of x to the power 4th root of x;
like this: (x^(1/3))^(1/4); for these you MULTIPLY the powers, so x^((1/3) times (1/4)) = x^(1/12).
 
hey thanks for the reply. i dont remember the exact problem but they gave two formulas. one was for finding the speed limit of a banked road with a 500 mile radius one was for a straight with a 500 radius. i dont remember the formulas, but i plugged them into my calculator so that part was easy. the banked road came out with like a 40 something speed limit, and the straight was like 30 something.
i then had to interpret from these numbers which was safer to drive on.
i said the banked road was a safer road, because yo uwere allowed to drive faster on it (if that makes sense) kind of like how a free way has a 55 mph speed limit and a busy children infested school zone has a 25 mph peed limit. you have more of a chance of hurting someone in the school zone and thats why there is a slower speed limit.
i didnt know if that was right or if she wanted us to say straight was faster since the cars would be going slower.

i definately did not bomb this test, however i really wanted to get that 86, because it would be ashame to lose my A that i worked so hard for in this class, a B would be horrible. plus i think i might have forgotten to do the last page but that my be me trying to convince myself i didnt get the very 86 that i needed. i guess on monday or tuesday ill find out, im so nervous. ive been and will continue to have nightmares until mondays.

so i m assuming i was wrong and a banked road is not safer.
 
Denis said:
sportsstar469 said:
i had a problem on my test that was cubed root of x times 4th root of x
i had to simplify it i came out with the answer is x^1/12 lol is that wrong.
Click to expand...
You can only blame yourself for this error.
x^a times x^b = x^(a PLUS b) : you knew that but forgot?
So x^(1/3) times x^(1/4) = x^(1/3 + 1/4) = x^(4/12 + 3/12) = x^(7/12)

More carelessness: you typed x^1/12; that MUST have brackets: x^(1/12).
Without brackets, it means x^1 divided by 12, or x/12.....kapish?

By the way, x^(1/12) would be correct IF problem was: cube root of x to the power 4th root of x;
like this: (x^(1/3))^(1/4); for these you MULTIPLY the powers, so x^((1/3) times (1/4)) = x^(1/12).
Click to expand...
oh man i feel horrible now thanks denis lol what a stupid mistake!!!!!!!!!!
 


There's no large cash award pending, is there?

Your family is not ready to disown you, right?

The relationship with your BFF is not at stake, is it?

Earning a B+ versus an A- does not justify being a worry wart, based on the information that you've provided to date.

People who raise the bar in their life to the level of absolute perfection are often those who drop dead from massive coronaries at relatively early ages.

There is a clinical term for these people: Type-A Personalities.

If you suffer from a Type-A Personality, then pharmaceutical therapy may not be sufficient to treat your nightmares and clinical anxiety. Speak with your family physician regarding approriate counseling referrals.

 
people set goals in life. i am supposed to go up to calculus 2 for my degree. thus getting a b in an alg 2.introductory trig class is not satisfactory. if i want an A and have put the work in to maintain an A for 6 weeks, only to receive a B due to the last test (especially if i was dumb enough to forget to do the last page) That is justification enough to be a worrywart.
 
sportsstar469 said:
people set goals in life. i am supposed to go up to calculus 2 for my degree. thus getting a b in an alg 2.introductory trig class is not satisfactory. if i want an A and have put the work in to maintain an A for 6 weeks, only to receive a B due to the last test (especially if i was dumb enough to forget to do the last page) That is justification enough to be a worrywart.
Click to expand...

Yes, people DO set goals in life. But, sometimes those goals are not realistic.

Getting a "B" in algebra 2 is certainly not a disaster!!! Let's be a bit realistic here. If you got an F in algebra 2, then there might be cause to worry.

If you were not able to achieve an A on the exam, that tells you that you may have to work a bit harder in your next course, but it is surely NOT cause for despair.

Once you know where your shortcomings were on the exam, you can apply yourself to correcting those shortcomings. And, you have a LONG time to correct things.

OH...and, if you "forgot" the last page on the test, who can you blame for that???
 
i can only blame myself. i agree with you that one should only set realistic goals. i was able to maintain a 93 throughout the course, it was definitely a realistic goal to hope for at least an 86 on this exam. the only problem is that this was a 6 week course and was very fast. i know its not the end of the world, but i currently have a 4.0 as a science major, and obviously this would bring it down. my whole philosophy was if i can get an A in my alg 2/trig course i nthe 6 weeks course, then the trig/precalc course im taking in september that's 15 weeks i can work hard and get an A. this philosophy works because the material is a little harder but i have 2.5 times as long to learn the material. like isaid though, from the sounds of things it seems like i made careless mistakes and that hurts even more than not knowing the material! i made carless mistakes on some quizzes to but oh well, if i get the A in this class, i will be so happy, if not i will be very upset, but like you said life isnt gone and overs.
 
Who knows, perhaps your instructor is fair and will give you the A considering you worked hard and showed you understood the material, but just made silly mistakes. Don't fret quite yet. Life's too short to get all knotted up over something like this. Are you in high school?. Well, when one is that age, one is immortal.
Being 40 one day is an eternity away. I used to be like that, until I decided I was not going to get high blood pressure and diabetes at a young age.
 
LOL NO, im in college.im 19 though so im not an old man haha. i know im a little behind in math, but im catching up! first semester i didnt feel like taking math, then second semester i had to take a beginning algebra math class. the semester that just passed was the summer semester which was biology 101,english 122 and intermediate algebra (alg 2/trig intro) in a faster pace. in september which is semester 3 for me im taking trig/precalc so im not that bad off haha.
and yes i keep hoping she will be fair. i think i have a good shot if i actually did the last page. im just hoping its me trying to convince myself i didnt get the A, and i really did the las pages!
i understand my GPA wont be a 4.0 forever. as a science major im destined to have pretty hard courses, i was just hoping i could get past the summer, and maybe even the fall semesters with it in tact! fall im only taking bio 102,lab, chem 101 and my trig/precalc class, and bio 101 was easy and i have the same teacher so he said its not any harder just different kinds of materials.

anyways im ranting.
 
I GOT AN A!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
idk how but this is sick!
thanks for the help everybody. youll be hearing more from me in september im sure ;) :D
 
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