Apri's 1st Posting - Mathematics Autobiography

Many people state mathematics is hard, and is uninteresting. There are so many reasons why people do so. Either they had bad experience about their killer-math-teachers, or the complexity of the math itself. For another people including me, we change the uninteresting becomes interesting. Moreover, we add some words to describe mathematics, which are enjoyable, fun, and meaningful.

Back to the reality, people have their own strength, their own decision, and their own life. “You are in your own way, and I am in my own way,” so I cannot force the people who dislike mathematics to agree with my thought.

I thank to God for having great experiences with mathematics along my life. However, my relationship with math doesn’t always great. Since the 1^st  until the 3^rd grade of elementary school, I didn’t realize about my hobby in math. I just felt math was an ordinary thing. At that time, I ever got bad score on some quizzes which called “mencongak”. I didn’t desperate, and didn’t sad either because math was not worthy for me until God met me with the abacus.

My meeting with abacus was quiet long. I have joined the abacus course for four years, from the 4^th grade until the 8^th grade. The main purpose of the course was having a skill to calculate numbers in fast just by using the abacus and our own brain (neither calculating by the calculator, nor the paper). At first, I was taught to use the abacus for doing calculate the numbers. Moreover, I was taught to use an invisible abacus on my head, so I didn’t use the real abacus any longer for some types of questions. I just learned to imagine my invisible abacus on my head, then play with it to solve the problems. That method is called “mental”.

Using the real abacus and the invisible abacus means facing the numbers, the operations of the numbers, and it became an ordinary thing to solve math questions. Along the way, my hobby in math was increasing. My love to math was getting more and more. On the 6^th grade, I was chosen to join the math competition for JABOTABEK region. I didn’t place on the 1^st place but on the 5^th place (harapan 2). I was so happy because it was my first competition, so it motivates me to learn more and more in math.

My relationship in math continued to the junior high school. In the 7^th grade, I had a nice experience with my math teacher. In the other hand, I had a bad experience with my tecaher in the 8^th grade. My teacher’s explanation was not clear, so that I didn’t understand about the material. It made my score decline on my raport book. Next, I thanks to God for giving me a nice teacher in the 9^th grade. I understood his explanation, so I mastered the material given. It made me to make a target for getting the highest score for math final exam. My target was 10, but I did a little bit mistake, so that I was wrong 1 question and my score was 9,67. It hurted me, but again it became my motivation to learn more on math.

In the senior high, my realtionship with math was still good. In the 10^th grade, my teacher was not too bad. I could understand his teaching, but I did not brave to join the elimination section for olympiade yet because my knowledge was still low if I compared with my friends on the other classes that were taught by another teacher. The next year on the 11^th grade, my perception about my teacher was great, even my friends said he was not a good one. However, I still thought that he was great, I could undertsand his teaching, and also I joined his course outside the classroom. I was brave to join the elimination section for the math olympiade. However, I failed to continue my effort to the math olympiade, but I was chosen to join the physics olympiade. It was a bad news for me, so I never join the training of physics olympiade, and my dream to join the math olympiade was over.

My failure to join the math olympiade didn’t make my realtionship with math became lifeless. I still love math, and it motivated me to get the 10 for math on final exam. I was struggle to learn math not only from my teacher, but also from another source, such us internet. Finally, I got it, I succeed for getting 10 on my math final exam. Another experience about math in the 12^th grade was when my friends and I became a substitute teacher for a month. We taught 2 chapters, “matrices” and “linear programming”. We prepared all of the materials, the exercises, the daily quizzes, and everything by ourselves. For that, we got 10 for every single assignment on those two chapters from my teacher.

Sharing knowledge to the others is one of a good thing which I love. Along the way of my life, I wonder about my dreams. I really like chemistry and math. I ever thought to become a scientist, but also I thought to become a teacher because one of the teacher’s duty is sharing and transferring the knowledge, so becoming a scientist is cool, or becoming a teacher is great.

To reach my dreams, I took the opportunity in Sampoerna School of Education (SSE) and also the SNMPTN. When the announcement came, I succeed in “Pure Math” of UNJ, but I also succeed in “Math Education” of SSE. It was a very hard decision. By considering the strengthens and the weaknesses of each institution, I chose SSE. By taking “Math Education”, my learning in math is less than the “Pure Math”. Sometimes, I feel sad. However, if I re-think about my presence in SSE, I always say “Thanks God, I’m in a precious place.”

To cover my curiousity in “Pure Math”, I joined some pages and groups of math in the social networking. So many members who discuss about the material of “Pure Math”. I really want to join the discussion, but my knowlegde does’t enough. Honestly, it’s really sad. However, by paying attention on their discussion, at least I know how hard “Pure Math” is.

My obstacles in learning math in SSE are the English language and the content of the math itself. I may proud of my bilingual learning in math because so may of my friends just learning math in Bahasa Indonesia, so I have something to be proud. They struggle just in the complexity of the content, but I also struggle in the bilingual learning. Everything has its own strength and weakness, so I just reffer to my first statement “you are in your own way, and I am in my own way.” I love math and I love education. Long life for my dream!