Set goals, but learn this secret.
I graduated from a small, rural high school. Among the many perks of a small school is often having the same teacher for multiple courses. I had the privilege of learning from Mr. Leuthold for two years of algebra, one year of geometry, and one year of pre-calculus, and even though the content changed from year to year, his approach to class was the always the same. Each day we would spend a significant amount of time reviewing the homework problems assigned the previous day, going over the steps we used to arrive at an answer. He wasn’t interested in just the answer that was at the end of the…