Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

No entries for the past two days because classes were suspended all across the nation in all levels due to the latest, strongest and largest of several typhoons that have passed through the country the last few weeks.

Wrapping up my discussion about the mechanics lecture class Tuesday this week, I had to emphasize to them, particularly to those who were not my students in Mathematical Methods 1 also, that there are times when they will have to use systems of equations in two variables, where they have two working equations in two unknowns and they will have to either eliminate, substitute or use determinants to be able to get one and thus the other.

In my Mathematical Methods 1 quiz last Friday, there were sixteen questions.

The first five were on arithmetic sequences and series, one being a word problem.

The second four were on geometric sequences and series. Again one was a word problem.

The last six were on binomial theorem. One asked for a specific term of an expansion. Three asked for the whole expansion of expressions raised up to the sixth power. The last three asked for only the first four terms of the binomials raised up to an exponent of twelve.

As a concession to the class I wrote down two of the formulas used for the first two parts on the board, although I did not explain to them what the variables d (common difference) and r (common ratio or multiplier) were.

I did the same with the theorems for simplification of exponents, which a pass of going around their seats (and some students still asking me if their solutions were correct) showed me that they had not yet mastered.

Despite the fact that I gave them some sequences with more than twenty elements, there were still some students who, relying primarily on their previous knowledge of the concepts and not mindful of the shortcut formulas we discussed in class, still solved for the sum and average of some items the long way.

Same with Pascal’s triangle, for which some students still solved out to twelve levels despite the fact that they only needed the first four coefficients for the last three numbers.

Because of those factors, just like with the quiz on determinants, the students took most of the class period for this one.

Last Tuesday in the same class (just so that I could end the week talking about this self same week and not leave it all for next week) we started on Exponentials and its application in compound interest.

For this one I had to give them the table for the values of m depending on how often the interest was compounded, from monthly to tri-annually (if there is such a poor choice of investment), clearly showing that quarterly is the same as every four months and bimonthly is the same as every two months.

I’ll have to stop here. I’ll continue on Monday. Class dismissed.