I should be in bed........but........

[Hound dog]

I'm trying to wind down after an entire day of studying. ugh If I'm not careful, I start to get overwhelmed. Then I start to panic. Then I have to talk myself down out of the panic again.

Last year taking the Nursing Entrance exam was nerve wracking enough with most of the info on the test being fairly newish to me. Now I haven't looked at that material in months and OMG you'd just can't believe how much you forget just because you haven't used it!!

Tonight, after one of those panic moments, I told myself to knock it off. It's just like finals. And if I could handle 5 final exams in 5 very tough classes in my first year back at college, then I can handle getting this info into my head for this exam.

And that's true. Except finals aren't on a time clock. ugh! And I've had dh home "sick", Travis sick again, Aubrey trying to help, Nichole studying for her finals, the dogs needing attention, Bruce trying to ly on my books ect.......... Makes you wanna throw the books at times and say forget it!

Drives me crazy I swear.

PC is going to teach me percents. Something I never learned in school. She swears it's super easy once she shows me how. I hope so. Cuz on the last exam I think I scored a whopping 14 percent in Percents. sigh Nichole got a book called The ACT for Dummies from her bf that looks like it will help with the story problems, and it's full of great test taking tips. And yeah, I'm reteaching myself all the math again. Since I didn't use it, it went poof!

Only optomistic thing is.......I'll be able to take the first version of the test this time. It's tons easier than the 2nd version and I remember what's on the darn thing so at least have some idea of what to focus my studying on.

The test is in exactly 1 week. I dunno if I can get all this stuff in my head and keep it there in that amount of time. But I'm sure as heck trying. I'm not doing much of anything BUT studying. I'm even eating with my nose stuck in a book.

Yup. I must've been insane to let them bump my test date up from Jan to Dec.

Problem is......I knew it was because they're trying to fill the Fall of 09 class. And I really really need to get into that class.

Crud. It's 2 am. I guess I ought to go try to sleep. I've got to get up early and start studying again.

[gcvmom]

You can DO IT!!! GO LISA!!!

[Abbey]

Percents? Like percents of a number? There is a formula I used to teach my students that you could figure out ANY word problem. I'm not sure I can type it in...but it goes like this:

x/100 = sample/total (x being what percent. Parts always go on top, totals on bottom with 100 being the total percent)

Example:

x/100 = 24/53 (what percent of people voted for cruddy head kind of question. 24 out of 53 were sampled. Part over total)
(now cross multiply)
53x = 2400
(now isolate the variable by doing the inverse operation, which means divide each side by whatever number is attached to the variable. 53 divided by 53 gives you just the variable. 2400 divided by 53 is...well, I don't have a calculator handy, but it gives you the percent.)

Or, you can substitute any variable in any spot.

56/100 = x/432 (how many people out of the total were sampled. 56% of people voted this way out of 432. How many voted that way?)

(Cross multiply)
100x = 12345 (not correct but no calc.)
(divide each side by 100 to isolate the variable)
x = 123.45

I know this probably makes no sense. I'm not an internet teacher. But the main idea is there are many quick ways to get at an answer. You need to find one that works in ALL situations. Once you get it down...then you can customize and take shortcuts. It may take you longer, but you'll get there in the end.

Ok. Math nerd here.

Wish you well on your exams. I know it's stressful.

Abbey

[Hound dog]

Abbey..............

I LOVE you. I'm copying down your formula. I'd print it but I'm out of ink. Thank God you saw my post.

[mrscatinthehat]

Abbey you make that way more difficult than I do. I can't type out my way though. I just do it. I will have to think on it and see if I can put it in print.

beth