The first time I tried this problem I found it challenging because there were a lot of steps needed to solve the equation. When doing this problem I had trouble knowing when to FOIL the equation. The mistake I made on my first attempt to solve the problem was that I FOILED when I didn’t need to. I thought that there was more than one term. I realized that I had made a mistake when it looked too complicated for me to solve. I checked the answer key and discover that I did not need to FOIL. I did not need to FOIL because there was only one term. After I identified my mistake using the answer key, I was able to correctly solve the equation. To solve this equation I needed the skills to FOIL, combine like radicals and cancel out the radical. Next time I encounter a difficult problem I will try to read the question carefully and try to identify the difference between multiple terms vs a single term.