Math Madness

Four times a year, the school releases a tempest of stress and anxiety onto the student body known as exam week. This time around they had their second semester midterms.

The rituals and routines surrounding the midterm have kept me busy for weeks. I’ve written, proofread, wrangled with group members, sought approval, copied, stapled, and neatly written individual students names on the test. Now my work is done until the time comes to grade.

I’m not completely responsibility-free for the week of midterms because I have to proctor. The proctoring schedule is set completely on the whims of the administration with no consideration for expertise as illustrated by the fact that I was assigned the task of proctoring the very first test of the day: mathematics.

I am actually fairly competent in math. I took all the advanced math courses through high school, and I always easily received an “A”. College was another matter. While I took a number economics and statistics courses, I was not required to take a single math course. My algebraic equations are a little rusty to say the least.

My trepidation had merit:
1. While these students might hug their stuff animal pencil cases between classes and race up and down the hallways like they just discovered this miraculous game called tag, put a math problem in front of them and they become mini Grigory Perelmans, Bobby Fischers without the chess board, Henry Kissingers without the political intrigue… If they couldn’t find the answer, the likelihood is I won’t be able to either.
2. The kids were not allowed to use calculators! In high school I cradled my graphic calculator like a toddler’s blanket (though I never set my calculator on fire like I accidentally did my security blanket).
3. The students were taking two types of tests: The English geometry test and the Chinese test that I’m pretty sure was borderline trigonometry. Seeing a page full of numbers and random letters is intimidating enough without a bunch of Chinese characters thrown into the mix. My rudimentary literacy in Chinese characters does not include math terms.

I completely sympathized with one petite boy who was focusing so hard on a problem that his nose practically touched the table. His pencil scribbled furiously at the test. Suddenly, he shouted, “Yes!”

His answer checked out and was correct. I would have the exact same response though my voice would probably also contain an element of surprise.

I learned a few tidbits during the experience: China is going to continue to cream the United States in anything math related; fooling the students into thinking you understand the problem is as simple as reminding them of the directions for the section that they probably never read in the first place; geometry is still pretty fun; and I still really don’t like trigonometry.