[Advice Column] An error in recognising errors
Don't tell me you have never done this before: you do a question from the textbook, flip to the page with your ruler bookmarking the page with the final answer, and panic when seeing that what you have in front of you is nowhere close to what is printed on the page. A lot of (usually negative) thoughts go through your mind: am I actually useless at this? Why is this making no sense? I don't understand the answer (the most popular one by far!) or just shouting that the textbook is wrong (usually when referring to you-know-what) and storming out of the room to throw the vase at the wall. Alright kiddos, blow off some steam, sit down and listen up. Not knowing why you make an error is fine, feel free to ask your friendly helpers or your teachers, but after a while you’ll start to notice the difference between arithmetic errors and conceptual errors. Let’s break each of them down. Arithmetic errors You know my favourite identity 3^2 = 9 = 2^3? In other terms, maths at mi