It was another rough week for me on KA. I literally got nothing done on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, but then managed to redeem myself a bit on Friday and Saturday by studying for around 3 to 4 hours between the two days and getting 2.2 unit tests finished. As I mentioned in my last post, my life has been a bit of a roller coaster for the past few weeks and I haven’t had the time (or the concentration) necessary for KA. It looks like things will not only settle beginning in a few weeks, but in all likelihood I’m going to have also have much more free time on my hands which I can put into KA. Everything is still up in the air, however, so I’m not going to bother getting into the details of what’s going on, but I should know the answer to some major unresolved questions going on in my life in a week or two and will explain then. Anyways…

I was glad that I got through two unit tests this week even though they weren’t that difficult and I should have been able to do much more… 😒 Here are a few example questions from each unit test:

Geometry – Unit 9 – Unit Test

Question 1

This was a pretty straightforward question. I memorized the area of a circle a long time ago (πr²) so it took me about 1.35 second to figure out that I needed to determine the area of the cylinder’s base and multiply it by the height. Not too difficult.

Question 2

I had to look up the formula for the volume of a sphere before I could answer this question. The formula is v_(sph) = 4/3 πr³, so once I figured that out it wasn’t hard to do the algebra by inputting 600cm³ in place of v_(sph) and then rearranging the equation to determine r. 

Question 3

This question was also quite easy to understand, but the one thing I found confusing was at the end of question where it said, “Round your answer, if necessary, to the nearest integer.” When I read that, I thought maybe I was doing the algebra wrong by multiplying 320*240 since that would obviously lead to an integer. I thought maybe I was supposed to divide the two values and be left with a rational number that had a decimal which I would then need to round to an integer. It didn’t make sense to divide the numbers though which, of course, turned out to be correct.

I finished the unit test on Friday in about 30 minutes and then attempted the unit test from Unit 8 of Algebra 2 on Saturday. This test had 10 questions in it as well, and I got the fifth question wrong on my first attempt but then restarted it later in the day and passed it on my second attempt. Here are a handful of questions from the test:

Algebra 2 – Unit 8 – Unit Test

Question 4

I actually enjoyed working through this question as I more-or-less remembered the log rules necessary to solve it which was satisfying in itself, but moreover, for some reason I find using the log function to balance out equations more satisfying than other inverse functions, so I also had that going for me which was nice. Although it took me only about 60 seconds to solve this question, it’s been such long time since I last had done log questions like this that I wasn’t completely confident in myself. Nevertheless, I got it correct because I’m a gangster and was pretty pumped about it. 💪🏼

Question 5

This question was very similar to the previous one. Still, it was helpful review and practice for me.

Question 6

This was the question I got wrong on my first attempt at the unit test. I couldn’t remember/didn’t know what I needed to do to solve it. I tried to think through it for about 10 mins and was trying a bunch of crazy algebra that I wasn’t sure about. I wasn’t confident about my answer when I submitted it but thought I had it figured out which turned out to be wrong. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Question 7

For some reason, I had to read this question a few times before understanding what it was asking me to do. Once I realized what it was asking, it took me 10 seconds to rewrite each equation. In my head, I always think of exponents and log functions as:

• base^exponent = argument <—> log_(base)(argument) = exponent
  
  • b^e = a <—> log_b(a) = e

Having that formula (?) memorized makes these questions super simple to answer.

Question 8

I don’t mind doing these types of question, but I always get a bit worried that I’m misunderstanding what the question is asking given how wordy it is. It reminds me of Algebra 1 where the questions seem more like English than math. If I’m given an equation and asked to solve for a variable, I find that super easy. But if I’m given some hypothetical situation where I have to decipher what the question is asking and then figure out the math, I always feel much less confident in my answer. I managed to get this one correct which I was happy about.

I actually started a third unit test from the tenth unit in Algebra 2 and got the first two questions correct, but then I decided I’d wait until next week to keep going with it just since I was running out of time this week. (Plus, I already had a bunch of questions to put into this post and I didn’t want it to be too long.) 

I’m not going to bother explaining these questions since I will need to finish off the majority of the test next week and will talk about more of the questions then, but these are the two questions I got correct so far:

Algebra 2 – Unit 10 – Unit Test

Question 9

Question 10

And that was it for this week. Like usual, not amazing but it also could have been worse. I’ve now done with Geometry which is a relief and am 96% of the way through Algebra 2. I have four exercises and three unit tests to get through in Alg. 2 so I’m guessing I can finish it off in two weeks. I’m going camping for two nights this upcoming week, so I’ll have a less time to work on KA than usual. After that though, I have a few days off so if I really push myself, I might be able to finish of Alg. 2 by the end of the week. Either way, I’m sure I’ll get it done soon.

I also just realized that this coming week will be the start of Year 7 for me on KA. 😳 I think I should be able to get 100% in all the Math courses by the end of 2025 so, assuming that’s the case, it will be a grand total of ~6.33 years. Just a little longer than the 1 year I assumed it was going to take…