Technical Math I Penn Foster

[snazzlefrag]

Okay, it's over and done with now.

I obviously don't want to jinx myself, but I feel like I probably passed this exam.

Bad News:
I found it hard to complete this exam in one hour. You HAVE to show all your working out for every question. This was very time consuming because I ended up writing down calculations that I could have quickly and easily done in my head.

Good News:
I was able to finish the exam in the allotted time....but only by the skin of my teeth. I was writing non-stop for the entire 60 minutes, and my hand is STILL aching and sore several hours later.
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I felt so stressed out by this exam that I came home after taking it, and crashed in bed for eight hours straight. I believe I had a similar physiological response after completing the Statistics exam too. Maybe it's part of the whole math anxiety thing. Then again, I was up all night studying prior to taking the exam, so maybe my body just needed to catch up.

Alright, on to some tips and tricks.

The exam is 60 minutes long. Even though it is possible to finish within this time limit, you have to work as fast as you can for the entire hour in order to do it. So make sure you index the study books thoroughly and in a very organized way. Even though this is an open-book exam, you don't have much time to go searching through the books.

They give you only two pieces of paper on which to write ALL your work for the 15 questions. For that reason, you should be careful not to write too big, or use up too much space for each answer. I drew a vertical line down the center of each page so that I could write my answers down both sides of the page. Even so, I used up both pieces of paper (front and back).

Make sure you have a few pencils in reserve. I was writing so furiously, and with such nervous tension in my hand, that I kept wearing down, and even breaking, the tip of my pencil (ha ha). Thankfully, I had one of those mechanical pencils that allow you to get a fresh tip at the touch of the button.

On my exam, I felt that about 3 or 4 questions were very easy, 6 or 7 were moderate, and 4 or 5 were very difficult. Statistically, this is about what you might expect on a 15-question exam like this.

Without giving too much away, here are some general types of things to study in preparation for this exam:

1. How to remove grouping symbols (one question).
2-4. Word problems (one age question, two perimeter/area questions. One was easy, one was moderate, and one was hard).
5. Logarithms (one question but split into four sub-questions. Three questions ask you to simply find the logarithm of a number, the fourth question is a fifth root question and you have to solve it using logarithms and show ALL steps).
6. Simultaneous Equations (one question).
7. Simplify an expression containing multiple fractions into one single fraction (one question).
8. Find the roots of an equation by factoring (one question).
9. Find prime factors of a polynomial using the factor theorem (one question).
10. Subtraction of radicals (one question)
11. Find the reactance when resistance and impedance are given (one question).
12. Graph an equation (one question, basic 'x+y' type of equation, then draw the graph of the solution).

That's all I can remember.

As I said, I THINK I have passed this exam. I actually knew how to answer all of the above types of questions. Or at least, there was no question that I didn't have a clue on. Now I must wait anxiously to find out how I ACTUALLY did.

Hope that helps,
Snazzlefrag