With the support of the Carleton College Office of Institutional Research and Assessment and StudentVoice.com, we surveyed a random sample of first-year students and sophomores during Winter 2009. One third of the students in each of those class years was invited to take the survey. Of the 200 students who received invitations, 72 reported having used the Math Skills Center during Fall Term 2008. Here are their responses to some of the questions we asked.

For which classes did you seek assistance at the Math Skills Center during fall term 2008?

• Math 101: Calculus with problem solving
• Math 111: Intro. to calculus
• Math 115: Statistics: concepts & applications
• Math 131: Inverses and Integration
• Math 141: Mathematical Modeling
• Math 151: Sequences and series
• Math 211: Multivariable calculus
• Math 215: Intro.to Statistics
• Math 232: Linear Algebra
• Math 236: Mathematical Structures
• I sought general math skills assistance (not related to a course)
• Other (please specify):
  • Chemistry 122
  • CS 202
  • Ents114
  • FOCUS
  • I just came to hang out.
  • I used it for study place. It is convenient to reach professor at Math Skill Center
  • Math 241
  • MATH 265
  • Maths 265
  • Meeting space for Bio problem set and printing
  • Physics 131

What motivated you to come to the Math Skills Center during fall term 2008? (Check all that apply.)

• Instructor's advice
• Another student's advice
• Difficulty with a particular problem
• Difficulty understanding the textbook
• Poor test performance (wanted to improve test scores)
• General discomfort with course material
• General discomfort with math skills
• Curiosity
• To take a practice test
• It's a good place to study
• Other (please specify):
  • Russ
  • Russ is a GOD
  • Russ is such a nice guy
  • Russ is very helpful and explains problems well
  • To meet up with other students from my class and work on some of the more difficult problems together.
    

Complete the following sentence:  "As a result of visiting the Math Skills Center, I have learned…"

• . . the logical starting place for problems and a higher level of conceptualization.
• ...about a possible future! Hanging out with senior math and CS majors is fun and showed me that you can be a pretty neat person and still love math.
• A lot about Math! Russ and tutors helped me with tons of problems which would've been otherwise scary to tackle on my own.
• About using excel and not be afraid of big assignments.
• Enough math to get me through calc 3.
• Group study skills.
• How to approach a typical math problem.
• How to approach problems thoughtfully, carefully, thoroughly, creatively, and enthusiastically!
• How to ask for help and how to learn things with others struggling with the same problems as you.
• How to ask for help.
• How to better approach certain types of problems.
• How to better approach math problems that I have never seen before
• How to go about solving any given math problem.
• How to model a prediction graph.
• How to solve particular problems.
• How to solve several bizarre problems.
• How to solve specific problems that I had been having difficulties with. Going through these difficult problems with Russ helped me to understand how to do other similar problems.
• How to study for upper level mathematics.
• How to think about and solve math problems.
• How to understand my confusion for math.
• I have not learned much from CMC, but i used it as space for meeting and studying with friends. from what i've heard from other students, CMC is their second home at Carleton and Russ knows everything. i have also stopped by for technology support. i will join those studnts at CMC when i take a math course a Carleton.
• I really only went once for math help - it was when I was studying for my Calc III final. A student tutor helped me and it wasn't very helpful.
• Many different ways to approach various math questions.
• More about math.
• Much about Calculus that I didn't know before.Not only how to solve particular problems, but also where I went wrong in attempting to solve the problem before. This is a real learning process.
• Nothing new, exactly. However, working with Russ gave me good practice in approaching problems from different directions, which made my Calculus class more interesting.
• Nothing, but that's not a reflection of the skills center; I have only gone there to work on my own, not to learn.
• Partial integration.
  
• Quite a bit about specific problems. Russ talked me through the problem so that I could understand what to do with similar problems in the future.
• Rather specific things about certain problems, in addition to more effective approaches to problem solving.
• Solutions to problems that were previously difficult to understand.
• That Carleton has a God of Math, a.k.a. Russ, on campus and that I can actually be good at math if I really put my time and effort in dwelling on the hard problems.
  that collaboration and receiving and giving help can help me learn the course material better.
• That having someone explain something in a different way can be very helpful.
  that I can solve any problem.
• That I have a solid place to go for help should I ever need it.
• That I have resources to get help when I need it.
• That I still have a long way to go to become a good math problem solver like Russ.
• That if you can't solve a problem one way, you have to keep trying and eventually if you try solving it from another angle it might be possible. It was very useful in teaching me Calculus, but I'm afraid I'm not a "math person" and I realized that I wouldn't be able to be a math or science major.
  
• That in order to succeed in math, you must have faith in your own abilities.
• That it is a useful place to study and do homework, with an amiable atmosphere that enhances my ability to focus on the math problem at hand.
• That it takes time to solve math problems and one must allow ones self to have that time freely.
• That it's more helpful to seek guidance to a troubling problem than to sit around alone and ponder it.
• That Russ is a god.
• That the people there are kind and enthusiastic with their help.
• That there are several ways to arrive at the correct answer for a question
  The mathematical way in which people think and the methods people use to solve tricky math problems.
• The power of group study in math.
• The solution to the problem.
• To go when I know particular tutors will be there.
• To internalize what goes on in the class.
• To never give up, no matter how hard the problem might be.
• To seek help when I am puzzled by a hard problem.
• To tackle problems in different ways.
• Way more Calculus than I would have.
  
• What an excellent resource it is.
• Where to go when I have trouble in Math.