TA Interview

							What high school did you attend?
East Valley. [WA]


And what math classes did you take in high school?
Freshmen year I took algebra, sophomore year I took geometry, junior year I took
algebra II and trigonometry and senior year I took pre-calculus.

And in college?
Calc I and calc II

Can you describe yourself as a math student? What type of math student do you
think you are.
I am confident and competitive.

What do you mean by competitive?
Like, if I am working with a group of people I want to be the first one to get the answer.
And when I work a problem I don’t want to quit on it until I know the right answer.

Okay. What do you think your strengths are as a math student?
Umm…I would say problem solving. I think that that is too broad. The ability to fall
back on previous math formulas that I learned over the years.

Are you saying that you feel like you know which ones to use?
Yeah.

And can you be a little more specific?
Umm. This actually requires thinking.

Well, if you had to say that you struggled with anything, what would that be?
I think the only thing I struggle with in math is sometimes I will go down a wrong route
and try and pursue the answer and I will, I will kind of like run through a mental checklist
I will already cancel the idea before even attempting it. So, not all the times but some of
the times I’ll think I’m right and I think I’m going down the right path which I factored out
the correct attack.

Okay. How would you compare your experience in high school math classes with
your experiences in the math classes that you have had.
So how would I compare them.

Yes, if you were asked to compare and contrast.
High school, well we did most of the work in class. So I would only get the learning in
there so my learning was pretty much only in high school. After high school I got our of
school everyday I wouldn’t have to worry about anything. And then in college all they
do is they just we teach and then I do the homework at home. I think I’m getting more
out of in college.
And is that because you’re having to work outside of class, or is it anything else,
that is making you think you get more out of it in college than in high school?
Also because it’s a lot more independent than it is in high school. And you actually go
out and do everything on your own.

Did you feel well-prepared for college math?
When I was taking the compass test I didn’t think I was but now that I’m here after a
year I’m I think I was more than prepared.

What about what you did in high school most prepared you to be successful?
I would have to say it was not necessarily a class but it was what a teacher had done for
me. They taught me umm no matter how hard it is it is better to do that to not do it
because it will pay off in the long run. I was told to hold the long runs higher than you
do the short runs.

Is there anything about college math that you experienced so far that you didn’t
feel well-prepared for?
Umm, nothing really. The only thing that I feel not prepared for is when I’m tutoring
math students for classes that I’ve never taken. But the classes that I’ve tooken [sic]
I’ve been prepared all the way.

Is there anything that you could have done in high school that would have better
prepared you for college math?
Yes. I could have not slacked as much and not procrastinated and I could have tooken
[sic] it more seriously than I did.

If you were going to give a middle school student advice about what he or she
should do in high school to prepare for college, what would you tell him or her?
I would tell them that every year they’re in high school they need to take a math course
no matter if they hate math it’s best to take four years of math because there’s math in
every class in college and the more you take in high school the less you have to take in
college