Tally

Chapter 10: Final Trial

"No, no, no, I'm telling you, man, this question is guaranteed in the test," Roland shouted.

"That's impossible. Mr. Silas never taught us this in practice," Roman countered.

"That is exactly why he would put it in the exam," Roland countered.

What is happening right now is the presence of my first group study, and well, it is how I expected it to be. Earlier today, I was invited by Roland and Roman to join in on a group study with a few others for our final exam on the topic of math. I usually would resist joining these interactions since my take on group studies isn't exactly the best, but I'm willing to give it a shot with the difficulty I have in the subject. So it is currently 8 p.m., and I am in a group chat with Roland and Roman, joined by others being Danielle, Sibyl, and Faron.

"Roland cut it out," Sibyl said, cutting out the conversation. "It is impossible for this topic to be in the test when we learned nothing about it at all."

"But still, we need to be prepared, right?"

Faron followed Sibyl's point, "We need to be prepared at the right topic, and your topic isn't."

With the majority being against Roland's, he let out a small but audible sigh and admitted defeat.

"Okay, let's get back on track," Danielle said, getting everyone's attention. "So we know that trigonometry and geometry are all primary topics that will be in the test with algebra and measurement. So we are not missing any topic, right?"

"Unless you include the one Roman was ranting about, then no," Roman answered.

"I was not ranting!"

"Okay, anyway, are there any questions that we need to discuss before moving on?"

"Yeah, there's this question and the last worksheet he gave that I didn't answer."

"Okay, so first you write-"

And from then on, we started to help each other's back by covering the questions and topics we didn't understand. Roland would occasionally pop up with an off prediction that he thought would appear, and Roman and Sibyl would talk him down, calling him an idiot. I felt a bit bad since I didn't say much in the conversation, but I did achieve communication with other people besides Roland and Roman. It doesn't change my opinion on group studies, but I wouldn't hesitate to accept it again if I was ever invited to one again.

***

It is now time for the exam, and after one last group study of us testing each other, we hear Mr. Silas, our math teacher, is about to start it.

"Okay, everyone, good luck."

"Yeah, good luck to you too."

"Yeah, see you guys and the other side."

We gave each other final words of encouragement and mentally prepared ourselves for what was to come. As I saw Mr. Silas approach my desk, I designed every material needed and prayed that this would go well.

He gave me my test paper, and the moment I saw it, I got a sense of deja vu from Mr. Tavis' exam as I was screaming at the top of my lungs internally. Thankfully, this test was much easier because the questions were straightforward and only needed to be answered through methods. Additionally, we could use a calculator as the test would be straight-up impossible if we weren't allowed one.

Analyzing the paper, there were a total of 25 questions, with 20 being multiple choice and 5 being word problems, with difficulty increasing as the student progressed further. I could pass by just answering the multiple-choice questions as they were worth three points, and the word problem was valued at 8 points each. But remembering my parents' expectations, I must at least attempt to get a 100 since math is one of the few subjects they have high expectations in.

Okay, remember what you've learned together. Through logic and elimination, overcoming the first few questions was a breeze but moving on to the latter that combines the two topics into one was getting much longer. I'm checking how much time I have left, I still have about an hour left, so I'm still safe. More and more, I scribbled rapidly with my hands burning from all the writing and drawing. Now I am just left with the word problems.

The first time I saw the word problems, I knew that it was difficult, but now that I look at it again, this is just plain ridiculous. You know how they would sometimes have several questions, but then the questions ask for more than one answer. This is the case. At least four questions have a. b. c. written on them, causing me to calculate more than I need to. Luckily after rereading the questions, most of them are asking my values that would be used on the part in the same question.

I have 5 minutes left. I can do this. However, as I was about to answer the last question, I encountered the problem that I was most worried about. A question that combines multiple topics into one particular question. It is asking for a trigonometric calculation by using algebraic values.

The question asks to find the area of a scalene triangle with an angle and two algebraic factors next to it. Recalling what Roman taught me, I can only see the value of its area by inserting the importance of both the angle and the two lines touching into a specific equation. The only issue is that I can't input its value with a calculator as it doesn't accept letters from algebra, so I have to scrap it in the meantime. I have 2 minutes left on the clock, so why not separate the algebraic expression and add it later. I tried to recall the equation, and once I remembered it, I typed it down instantly and added the algebraic expression at the end.

I was done but was I correct? I don't know the answer to that. As I was about to check again, Mr. Silas got up and said, "Time!"

The test was over, and I was exhausted. I looked at my group mates in the study group, and they all glanced back at each other with the same expression. God, I don't feel too good about this.