Summer Vacation is around the corner, and I was reminded of this incident. I was mighty impressed with this girl and I hope this story will help many students to overcome their biggest bugbear of fearing Math’s. Vidhi Singh approached me while she was doing her final year of BA Economics from a top college under DU. Entry to that college requires a cut off at 99% and above. Coming from such a prestigious college and telling me that she is clueless about what to do next, intrigued me to some extent. So, I asked her why she felt that way and out tumbled a story that really inspired me.
Vidhi was a normal child and she did reasonably well in academics except one subject ….. Maths. She had morbid fear of Maths and there came a point when she failed in the very first test Class 10. She was taken to the Principal’s office where she was given a dressing down. That night she cried a lot. Then she resolved herself that she would never again get into such a situation.
After this incident there was a long summer vacation she teamed up with her uncle, who coincidentally happened to be my senior in the Corps of Army Air Defence. I knew him well. Late Col Rohit Dalal. Col Rohit and Vidhi sat together and worked out a plan. In the next three months of summer vacation, they both started from Class 5th textbook and solved every page diligently. They covered all the exercises one by one till they finished Class IX textbook. This effort consumed her entire summer vacations, but she was determined to learn.
On the first day of her Class X after Summer Vacation, in the very first period, she froze once again when she saw the Math’s Teacher walk into the class. She cursed her bad luck. The Math’s Teacher wrote a question on the board and asked the class to solve it. Vidhi solved the problem and when she announced the answer, the whole class was surprised. The Teacher said that was the right answer. Maybe it was a fluke…she thought. Then came the second question and again Vidhi was the one who solved it first and then the third and fourth….. By the end of the day Vidhi says, she fell in love with Math’s and the love story continued. She topped the school in Math’s in Xth Boards and then went on to take Commerce with Math’s and she started performing well. She aced her XIIth boards and got selected to the very prestigious DU college.
She then said that two years flew past and now in her third and final year she did not know what to do next. She underwent the counseling and got clarity and later I got a message from her mom that she has got through NY University and also ISB for her Masters.
If a girl like Vidhi can overcome the fear of Math’s, and was able to reach her peak performance, what stops us, from doing what she did. We too can fall in love with Math’s and thus Conquering Mount Mathematics.
The Author is a Career Counsellor who has counselled more than 3000+ students across several countries. He can be contacted at www.renergetics.com/careercounselling . You can get more such stories at www.sajanspeaks.com
