Cornell: Ask, and then answer, an important question

Ask, and then answer, an important question you would have liked us to ask.

What do you feel you are doing now that will help you learn the most in college?

I feel that by taking Advanced Placement Pascal-independent study now, I will learn how to teach myself complex material without the help of a teacher. Calculus and Physics are challenging and difficult, but the teacher is always there to explain the hardest problems, make sure I do my homework, and challenge me to learn in class. In Pascal, I have to constantly motivate myself to do the homework, set the pace of the class, and make sure that I will be prepared for the AP exam in May.

Keeping a weekly log of what I have learned in class and how much time I spend doing homework every day is one way I motivate myself to do my homework. But I will not learn how to write worthwhile programs spending a certain amount of time everyday reading a Pascal book. I have to understand what I am doing. After spending a week trying to write a program with multiple arrays and getting nowhere, I was extremely frustrated. Finally, after reading the chapter on arrays the fifth time, I was able to finish the program.

The next day I wrote a program to find the area under a curve using rectangles in half an hour. I was overwhelmed by the sense of accomplishment I felt as a result because I knew that I had not received help from anyone else. This was my work. Only four months ago I could not even declare a variable, and now I was programming a computer to do the same thing I was learning in calculus.

Unfortunately, I was only a third of the way into the textbook and halfway done with the year. With a calculator and a calendar, I realized that in order to finish in time to review, I needed to triple the amount of work I did every day and set dates for completion of certain topics.

Once I got myself scheduled and going, completing the work was possible, and I was able to make more of class time by working harder to make the deadlines.

Teaching myself new things from books is difficult and rewarding. In college, I will be able to read ahead in physics and calculus and understand more than other students do. I have heard that in college, some assignments are given at the beginning of the course and are collected at the end without any help from the teacher. From taking Pascal, I will be able to set up a schedule, get the work done on time, and teach myself the material. Pascal has also helped me think more clearly when doing math and physics problems. By learning how to program a computer to do math, I have learned how to do math faster and more efficiently. As a result, I have improved in Mathletes competition. In the past I would be lucky to get one question out of six right. Now, I usually get four or five right.