Text: an original contemporary personal-essay-style practice extract.
At the end of the lesson, the teacher copied my final solution onto the board. It occupied four straight lines. My notebook told a less orderly story: two pages of crossed-out calculations, arrows pointing in several directions and one method attempted twice because I had forgotten why it failed the first time.
For most of the lesson, I had been trying to answer the wrong part of the problem. Priya, who sat beside me, eventually asked, ‘What are you actually being asked to compare?’ She did not supply the answer. Her question made me read the final sentence again and notice what I had missed. I started afresh, using a simpler method, and this time the result made sense.
Later, another pupil said that my solution looked as though I had understood the problem immediately. I showed him the crowded pages in my notebook. I am proud of the four lines on the board, but I am also proud that I abandoned an approach that was not working and listened when somebody helped me to think differently. The correct answer was the end of the achievement, not the whole of it.
The writer wants to show that a correct final answer can conceal the uncertainty and help involved in reaching it.
Evaluate how effectively the writer communicates this idea. You may consider the contrast between the solution on the board and the notebook, the importance of Priya’s question, and the writer’s judgement at the end. Support your views with detailed reference to the extract.