Dealing With Factorization

I always said that in my brain there was not room for Math because it was full with other important things.  Every time we had a test I felt like dying, numbers just wouldn’t help me. I hated Mathematics! During class I tried to pay attention but it seemed like the teacher was speaking Chinese to me; with all those numbers, multiplications and subtractions I got lost and started to think about everything but the class. I just thought about how weird, boring and lame Math was. Why did Pythagoras enjoyed it? Math is hard and no one should like it, or at least that is what I thought.

Last year I was in second grade and Math was extremely hard for me. I don’t know how I managed to pass the class. It turned even harder when my teacher said: “We will start to practice factorization” with a mischievous smile. All my classmates were excited about learning factorization but I wasn’t. I wanted to die, if fractions were hard for me how was I going to handle factorization? Even the name was puzzling for me.  I had heard a lot of students saying factorization was the hardest topic in Math ever. My teacher assigned each of us an investigation about a specific factorization topic. To my surprise, mine was the easiest one so I understood it perfectly and received a good grade in that assignment.

The test was coming and it was going to be hard, all factorization cases mixed up, not only mine. I was scared and nervous; I even started to bite my pencil. When I received the test all I could see were a bunch of numbers mixed up with letters.  I repeated myself: “Don’t worry Mariana, you can get through this. Just focus!” But my time was precious at that moment and I kept wasting it trying to understand the first problem. I was about to give up when a light bulb moment showed up. I understood in that precise moment that my case related with the others. I finished my exam quicker than I expected and gave it to my teacher. What had just happened? I couldn’t believe what had occurred. How did I understand everything in just a minute? Feeling proud, and amazed at the same time, of myself; I realized Math wasn’t that horrible. My teacher returned the exams, and I have to confess I felt nervous. As I was approaching to my teacher to pick up my test, thoughts began to appear in my head. Maybe my exam was so bad I finished first; or maybe I did well and that was the reason I did it fast. I took a deep breath and took the test while my teacher gave me a big smile. I flip the paper back and saw a 90. At that moment I felt like a little kid inside, I was so happy. I exclaimed “Wow! Is this really my grade?” My teacher just smiled again as I returned to my seat more than happy and satisfied.

Today I am still good at factorization. Sometimes I struggle to get it right but I no longer think there is no room in my brain for Math. I have a new teacher, and even though at the beginning it was hard for me to understand him, now he explains everything very good. Whenever I feel frustrated I remember that day, and how I could figure things out.  Thanks to that light bulb moment I understood it is just about paying attention and focusing; sometimes numbers and letters can even be fun. Math is essential in life. You use it for almost every career in the world and also in the daily life. Now I don’t see Math as the worst class ever, I see it as a challenge I should overcome with focus and a lot of concentration.