Lauren Trombetta Blog Post #1

Blog Post #1

I must admit, I am not much of a blogger. Aside from a few reviews of products I don’t really blog. Hey, I don’t really do “math” and I don’t really “blog.” That’s what college is about right? My formal name is Lauren Fay Trombetta and I sometimes go by the nickname of Lo or LT. I am 67 inches tall and I am 19 years old. During the summer I woke up at 7am every day as I was a full time nanny. This semester I tend to get up anywhere from 8-9am even if I don’t have class until 11:45. Hmmm, my favorite candy. Now, my taste buds have definitely changed throughout the years. If you had asked me this question a couple years I go, I would have definitely answered Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Now, I have developed an affinity for Almond Joys and the wonderful taste of coconut. My favorite snack food is anything salty and anything with the world salsa in it. I will dip anything in salsa. My favorite artist is Jason Mraz and band is Zac Brown Band. Outside of school I work a ton and love to play soccer. I play on the Women’s Club team here! 

My math background is: Basic Math, Algebra 1 and 2, probability, trigonometry, high school pre calc and statistics at the college level. Never Calculus, however. My comfort level with answering world problems, math application problems and conceptual math problems is probably uncomfortable. It’s been a long time since Junior year pre-calc and I am a little out of practice.  Computations, though, come a little easier to me. I would say I am comfortable with them.  As for the following calculus concepts I have attached a letter corresponding to my comfort level:

Very comfortable (V)  comfortable (C)              uncomfortable (U)  extremely uncomfortable (E)

Concepts:

Curve sketching V

Instantaneous rate of change V

Derivatives (of constant, linear, polynomial, power, rational, exponential, trigonometric, logarithmic functions) V

Difference quotient U

Limits V

Continuity V

Chain rule (an application of composition of functions) V

Product and quotient rules for derivatives V

Finding local and global maximums and minimums V

Determining inflection points V

Area under a curve V

Anti-derivatives V

Integration (of constant, linear, polynomial, power, rational, trigonometric, exponential, logarithmic functions) V

Integration by parts V

Integration by substitution V

Next please find a list of algebraic concepts and the comfort level I have with each:

Very comfortable (V)            comfortable (C)             uncomfortable (U)            extremely uncomfortable (E)

Equations V

Factoring C

Adding/subtracting/multiplying/dividing fractions/rational expressions V

Simplifying expressions V

Simplifying rational expressions (fractions and fractional polynomials) U

Operations on roots and fractional exponent expressions U

Operations involving whole number exponent expressions U

Finding common denominators V

Inequalities C

Functions C

Absolute value C

Linear functions V

Systems of equations C

Domain and range C

Inverse functions V

Transformations (shifting, scaling, stretching, etc) C

Quadratic functions C

Completing the square U

Exponential functions U

Logarithmic functions U

Base e U

 Graphing (trigonometric, quadratic, linear, exponential, and logarithmic functions)

Trigonometric concepts U

I have not taken AU’s precalc class as I took one Junior year of High school and got an A in the course. In college, I have taken Statistics and received an A.  For social media I am familiar with: Texting, facebook, pinterest, wordpress, tumblr, twitter Instagram and snapchat. I use texting, snapchat and facebook most frequently. My major is Business Administration with a policy management specialization and a political science minor. I am taking this class to fulfill my major requirement. This will be my last of two math classes at AU. Who knows what the future has in store, math-wise. I hope to take away skills that can be applied to my interest in business or help me succeed in an internship. I guess if you take anything away, I am a hardworking student and will do all I can to succeed. A final fun fact for you is that I am a twin! (He got the math genes ;) )

-Lauren Trombetta