In Algebra for our quadratics 2 unit, we have been working on a grid (which you can see to the right). There are 5 different levels, each with varying assignments. The higher the level, the harder, more advanced the work becomes. I, being in honors, have to get through level 4 while people not in honors go through level 3. After getting through level 1 without much trouble I expected the rest to also be pretty easy too. When I got to the 2b worksheet, it was completing the square to solve quadratic equations. The first 11 problems were easy since the x2 had coefficients of 1, so you did not have to factor out a number from the equation. The last 9 problems on the other hand had coefficients of numbers higher than 1 meaning you did have to factor a number. After watching a video I thought to myself “alright cool I got this” but instead I spent probably around 2 weeks working on these problems. I knew how to factor out the coefficient and I knew how to complete the square so it seemed easy but every time I would get an answer, it would not be the answer on the answer key. Instead of asking for help, I would keep trying over and over, determined that this next time I would get it right. I did get help twice and I was like “hmm okay so maybe I’m doing this wrong” and then I would try again and get another wrong answer. What I later found out was I was doing all the steps wrong except 1 simple thing. So when you are dividing a fraction by a number you can also multiply by the reciprocal but what I was doing was I was multiplying by the same number and not the reciprocal (example: if I was dividing by 2, I multiplied by 2/1 instead of 1/2). This small thing was causing me to have wrong answers from the very beginning which then resulted in the answer being wrong. After I noticed this I was able to easily finish the rest of the problems. I then moved onto 2c and did not have much trouble and then onto 3a where I have hit another road block. In the 3a assessment you are given 4 different birds and you must graph their paths and see if they hit a pig which you are given coordinates for. For one of the birds you are given a graph of what the path looks like but you cannot tell exactly where the vertex is at since the graph is vague and the axis numbers go by fives. For this reason, I have spent probably around 1.5 weeks working the assessment still although here were other small things with the other birds that took time to complete but were not too challenging. I have asked for help from students and have also tried looking at videos for quadratic equations to try and help me. 2b and 3a have been my biggest struggles in this unit, both causing me lots of time spent on one thing which is preventing me from getting work done in other levels. I plan on getting more help.