Core Competency Reflection

Working collaboratively with others

Throughout the course we were required to work with others almost daily. Whenever we were taught a new lesson, we would break off into groups to do group work questions. Through this, I was able to successfully complete the assigned questions with my group. Anytime any of us were stuck on a question, someone else would step in to help solve it. We would work together and explain our thought processes so we could figure out how to answer the question. Furthermore, after the group work was done and we would move on to homework questions, I would collaborate with the people at my table anytime one of us needed assistance in solving one of the questions. I would work together with my peers to help them understand a question or vice versa.

Strategically preparing for assessments

I had a prepared study plan for every assessment, which always began with inputting the date of a test into my calendar so I wouldn’t forget. To prepare for assessments, I always made sure that I finished all the assigned workbook questions, reviewed notes and asked for clarification from my peers to ensure that I understood all of the content. Furthermore, I found that the ability to explain concepts would help with my understanding, so I would often review each concept by explaining them out loud, as though I were teaching it to someone. Although this may seem like overkill, it greatly helped me prepare for each assessment, as I always went into the tests feeling confident and prepared. My efforts came to fruition, as I often got high marks on my tests.

Dealing with challenges

I faced many challenges throughout the course as we covered new topics. Specifically, trigonometry was the most difficult unit for me, as I missed an important lesson and began the unit with no memory of anything learned in Math 10. I also found the concepts difficult to grasp and confusing at times. To deal with this challenge, I looked through the notes of the lesson that I missed, and when I was still confused, I watched a YouTube tutorial on the topic that explained everything in detail. This greatly helped when doing the homework questions, as I now understood the concepts taught and could easily complete them. As of writing this, I have not yet written the test for the Trigonometry unit, but I’m confident that I’ll be able to do well with some review.

Advice for Future Students

My advice for future students would be to do the workbook questions. The amount assigned is almost always enough to finish in class time and it is good practice for tests. The questions on tests are usually the same as what is assigned in the workbook, so it will help greatly when writing them.