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You have to know the unit circle, if you don't know the unit circle, forget it! And she tells
you on the very first day of the class. She mentions it on the very first day you know
and then she points it out that you're only going to see it like within in two weeks because
there's some review from algebra you know and functions and things like that. And then
we enter the unit circle and trigonometry itself. This is key for everything and she
emphasizes and she stresses you know that it's very important and she's always going
over and over and over and over. That's key for the success in this class. The class is
not an easy class. The good thing about trigonometry is trigonometry everything makes sense. There's
very little abstract concepts, everything you see the application so it's just basically
knowing how you're working with the tools you have, you know, to make these applications
work. I did struggle because of not knowing the unit circle at the beginning very well
you know and how to build it and how to apply it. But once you know that pretty much everything
is built on top of it, you know. Overall trigonometry is not a really easy class, I would say it's
memory land class, so many formulas that you have to memorize, but I've seen struggling
students from calculus that they struggle in calculus because they don't know these
formulas really well from trig. But if you get Professor Thomas she will never let you
use those cheat sheets that other professors let you use it, you know. Which in my class
was very beneficial, I actually went to her office I mean after the semester and I thanked
her because right here at Mesa in the summer I was actually tutoring people from calculus
that forgot about these formulas. So she makes you learn it, you know, you will come out
of the class knowing those formulas, you know. It seems a little bit frightening, you know
but it is priceless, you know so I cannot thank her enough. Literally to the rule of
thumb they say in the counseling office, it is three hours before, three hours after if
you want to succeed and if you really want to learn it. It is time consuming, expect
that, really expect it is time consuming. It's very hard to describe because you go
to class it's someone that's always happy, you just have somebody, you know, who loves
what she does. She loves what she does, you know, she loves you know giving her knowledge
to people. I mean I've never seen I mean one class that everybody actually was actually
really calm and really relaxed and participating and interacting you know there's no better
professor I have seen so far like Dr. Thomas and her style is she goes beyond her means,
I mean come on she comes here sometimes on a Sunday to help us. Even extra office hours,
special office hours, seriously if you don't succeed in her class that doesn't mean that's
it, it's easy because she makes a lot of concepts and different problems, you know, and it's
your fault because she's there for you, you know, her style, each professor has you know
is particular about going different approaches but I'll stick with hers you know because
it works. You'll be tested every day. Every day. There's a quiz every class, whenever
there's not, if it's not a quiz it's an actual exam. So you always want to make sure you're
doing the homework because if you do the homework, you know, you're going to do good on the quiz.
You always have a quiz every single class so that's what's very that's what's good about
her class, you know so it makes you do the homework you know students cannot afford not
to do the homework. If you don't do the homework you're going to fail the quiz. It's a very
big chunk you know. Homework is only five percent but if you don't do the homework you
will not succeed in the quiz and consequently you don't succeed on the exams. Always expect
a test. But she does not make a really hard quiz that's not the point. The point is to
see if you're understanding the concept, that's key. Very fair. There's no tricks. She will
not trick you. She wants you to learn. About the final, the final it's like she said, it's
a comprehensive final. She wants to know if you can recollect everything that you've learned
and apply it, you know. And before the final it's really key that you go to her special
office hours. Because you know she goes to things that actually more important in trigonometry
which chances are you know most likely you know some of the things the concepts for sure
will be on the final. It's really key and it's cool you know we have private tutoring
for two hours. Simply almost I think every one of them. That's because I you know the
work that you do before you actually get into the class so you know what to expect, you
know, just the flowing around, when the professor's giving a new concept you know what to ask,
you know, your doubts are very important. Especially in trigonometry you really want
to be ahead of the game. You really want to know ahead of the game. And also the test
taking strategies are also very key because trigonometry is a very short class and if
you take her class especially the tests are only fifteen minutes so you don't know something,
go to next problem. Because sometimes the answer or how something, a way to solve some
problem you'll find a next one, it comes back to you. You know those test strategies are
very important. The variations you know, you have to see different problems because don't
expect to have the same thing from the book you know the same. You really have to know
that. Expect to have variations of the problems you know for her class. Get some sleep before
the test, get some sleep because the test the time is short for the test, it's not one
hour and a half; it's usually only fifteen minutes. Get some sleep and do not cram. I
didn't cram many things I always try to be ahead of the game, you know, I mean really
doing the homework. I mean if I went back in time I would have went to bed earlier.
Dr. Thomas, Dr. Thomas, Dr. Thomas, Dr. Thomas, we love you Dr. T! We love you! We do. Seriously.