Holiday Homework

It is that glorious time of the year when students are again on Holidays. I really enjoy this time of year, despite some people's belief, as it gives me a break from school and allows me to relax and recuperate. Maybe even catch up on some television or sleep here and there. Mostly, Holidays are really fun and enjoyable times that I look forward to. I'll admit sometimes I'll be counting down the weeks but only when there is so much work that I just want it all to end so I can relax. However, school holidays are more often than not marred by holiday homework. Marred does seem like a strong word but sometimes you can get so much homework you lose most of your holidays. Luckily I have not received too much homework so hooray!

Image Source: http://rogermontgomery.com/who-asked-for-easter-holiday-homework/

Last holidays I did not actually have that much homework and all I really had was a Methods SAC which was basically all of Chapter 5. I did not actually realise how big it was though until I started. Luckily I started on the second Sunday of the Holidays so I had a whole week to complete it otherwise I would not have finished. I was working non-stop when I was home to finish it and I only actually did finish on the Sunday before school started. The reason it took so long was not because the questions were hard (in fact there were really only a few hard questions once you understood it) but rather because it all had to do with graphing which took a very long time. These holidays I have learnt my lesson and have already completed half my homework and expect to have finished the rest by tomorrow night and at least there was not any large tasks to complete and it is all pretty simple. So if you learn anything from this post, and I will be surprised if you do, it is to complete your holiday homework as soon as possible just so you can relax for the rest of the time.

A little work at the beginning pays off down the track, see you tomorrow!

The Methods SAC

So today we had a Maths Method SAC on Cubic and Quartic Functions as well as everything we had learnt so far (Linear, Quadratic, Graphs) It is so large that we actually haven't finish it yet. It goes for 4 periods and there are 2 sections. During the first 2 periods you can only work on Section 1 and in the next 2 periods you can work on both section 1 and section 2. So it is a big SAC and I studied a lot for it because I knew there would be a lot of stuff on it that I may be a little rusty on because it has been a while. Even during lunch time today I was studying with my friend (who is also in Methods) for the SAC.

So we were pretty nervous about the SAC and it didn't help that one of our friends said that the teacher had said that it was hard. Anyway, as the SAC was going to take full periods we had to arrive at class before the end of lunch so that we could start as soon as the bell went. So when we do finally start I open the first page and I just try really hard to hold my laughter because the Section 1 of the SAC (and I hope Section 2 is also) is based around the story of "Tasmania Jones and The Temple of Doom" or something along those lines ("Tasmania Jones" was correct but I don't think it was "Temple of Doom"). It made the SAC more entertaining as there were questions based around different parts of his journey.

Well, the story started off with the main character ("Tasmania Jones") on his way to retrieve a stolen cure. His first struggle is at the edge of a cliff and he has to jump from the top of the cliff, over the lava and onto a platform. There were two ways Tasmania knew he could do this and the first rule was given and you had to graph it, the second rule you had to work out based on the points they gave you (y-intercept and turning point) and then graph it also. There were questions related to these two rules and once you completed them Tasmania continued on his journey.

Having successfully passed this obstacle Tasmania now faces a pit of crocodiles. He notices a stalactite growing from the ceiling which conveniently has a hook on the end (as stalactites would) which is conveniently exactly in the middle of the gap. You then had to work out the rule for the semi-circle the path the end of the 5 metre rope made when it swung from one side to the other (with Tasmania on the end casually avoiding the snapping crocodiles). Our hero then continues his journey where he discovers he must go on a dangerous roller coaster (sounds like fun) but he needs the key which is at the end of a room with a motion sensor at the entrance. Conveniently, Tasmania is a very fast runner but on his way back he fatigues and only runs at half his speed. The major question here was the distance from the entrance to the back wall (it gave you how long it took to get there and you worked out his initial speed [before fatigue] in an earlier question) which you had to work out.

Jones then stops and checks his blood-sugar (or chloride or something, it wasn't blood sugar) levels [because "He's a very health conscious person"]) and he has a drink called Gatorfade (the originality of this text is marvelous) which restores these levels. There is a rule provided which gives you the levels of whatever he is checking a number of hours (t) after drinking the Gatorfade. Then there are a few questions relating to this rule and it tells you the target levels of whatever it is in his body and you do some more calculations of how long it takes for his levels to drop below the target range.

Finally, Tasmania Jones reaches the roller coaster after a perilous tumble down a hill before finishing at the roller coaster starting platform 20 kilometres below sea level. Then there are a few questions relating to the cubic rule defining the path of the roller coaster and questions relating to this path. That is all for Section 1 and so far it is the end of the story. On Thursday (which also happens to be my Birthday, yay!) I complete section 2 and that day's blog post will probably be the continuation of this story (if it is done so in the SAC) so look forward to the finale of Tasmania Jones awesome adventures to recover the stolen cure.

May the odds be ever in your favour, see you tomorrow!