Muddiest Point

Man, oh man... This unit was a serious struggle for me. I don't know if it's because it's almost summer or what, but I just did not get this unit. The beginning was great and I could easily do the problems where we just had to simplify the expressions. Even when we added cosecant, secant and cotangent, I understood how to solve everything. And when Mr. Jackson was gone one day and we got a new packet and we had to go over it ourselves, I understood it well and was able to go through it myself. When the equations got more complicated I started to have A LOT of trouble... I understand the concept behind solving these problems and that I have to find identities and simplify and such in order to solve the problems. I just have trouble actually doing it. I see the identities fairly well but when it comes to the algebra, I don't even know where to start. Especially on the 7.1 and 7.3 problem sets, I had no idea how to start the problems so I'd try and then get nowhere. So then I'd look at the answer key and completely understand what Mr. Jackson did, why and how he got the answer. I have definitely improved with solving the problems after doing so much practice. Also, after doing the review, I felt a little more confident because I got through it pretty easily and on my own and only looking at the answer key to check.  I have definitely spent more time out of school looking over this unit and did some of the even numbered problems  to prepare for this test. However, I still am not 100% confident for it.