Office Hours

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Office Hours
The questions students actually ask, and a decoder for my red ink

MR. FARRELL · MATHEMATICS
Office hours: Mon.-Thu., 10:00-11:00, and by appointment
Door open = come in. Door closed = knock anyway.
There is no such thing as a dumb question during office hours.
There are only questions I've answered before, and I'll gladly answer them again.

Frequently Asked Questions

"Will this be on the test?"
Yes. Here's how I decide: if I took the trouble to say it out loud in class, it's because I thought you'd need it. At eight in the morning I don't say anything I don't have to.

"Do we have to show our work?"
Yes. The answer tells me you got there. The work tells me how, and if you went wrong, it tells me where, and the where is the only place I can help you. A right answer with no work is a rumor.

"Can I use a calculator?"
On most tests, a scientific calculator, yes. Graphing calculators are allowed from precalculus on up. But a calculator only does arithmetic. It doesn't know which arithmetic to do. That part is yours, and that part is the class.

"Is there any extra credit?"
There's homework, which is the same thing, done ahead of time.

"When am I ever going to use this?"
A fair question, and I'll give you a fair answer. Half of my students are headed for nursing, and they'll use ratios and proportions to figure dosages, where the arithmetic has to be right every single time. My welding and machining students use geometry and trigonometry every day they work. Anybody who ever takes out a car loan or a mortgage will meet compound interest whether they want to or not, and anybody who reads a newspaper meets statistics on the front page. And if you truly never use the quadratic formula again, you will use the habit of sitting with a hard problem and not giving up on it every day for the rest of your life. That habit is what I'm actually teaching. The formula is just how we practice.

"What's the lowest I can get on the final and still pass?"
That's a linear equation, and I'm delighted to solve it with you. Sit down. Say your three tests count 75 percent of your grade, the final counts 25 percent, and you need a 70 to pass. If your test average is 68:

0.75(68) + 0.25F = 70
51 + 0.25F = 70
0.25F = 19
F = 76

You need a 76. Nearly everybody who comes in with this question leaves with a study plan, which was my plan all along.

"Did I miss anything important on Tuesday?"
Every Tuesday is important, I'm afraid. The notes are in the blue binder in the rack outside my door. Copy them, try the homework, and come see me about anything that doesn't make sense. That's what these hours are for.

"Can I take the test on a different day?"
Come and see me. Most of my students have jobs, and a good many have children, and life happens to everybody. In twenty years I have never turned down anyone who asked ahead of time. Asking afterward is a longer conversation, but we'll have it.

"Are you a morning person?"
I teach the eight o'clock section four days a week. I am now.

Decoding the Red Ink

A check mark	Right. I don't say more because I'm saving the ink for where you need it.
A circle around one step	This is where it went wrong. Everything above the circle was right. Start there, not at the beginning.
"Sign?"	You dropped a minus sign somewhere. Go back and find it. It's always there. It's always in the second line.
"Units?"	Forty-two what? Feet? Dollars? Milligrams? In nursing it matters a great deal which.
"Show work"	I believe you can do this. Prove it.
"Simplify"	You're right. You just stopped one step early.
"?"	I honestly can't tell what's happening here, and I'd like you to come explain it to me. This is not a trick. Sometimes the student is right and I learn something.
"-1" in small numbers	A small slip. Don't lose sleep.
"See me"	You are not in trouble. I want to help, and it's faster in person. Bring the paper.
"Nice!"	Rare. Put it on your refrigerator.
A little smiling face	The problem was hard, the answer may not be right, and you didn't give up. That's worth more to me than the points, and I want you to know I noticed.

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Last updated Thursday, September 23, 1999