Me, Musicals, and Multivariable Calculus by Samuel

Me, Musicals, and Multivariable Calculus by Samuel - December 2024 Scholarship Essay

Two cardinal facts about me: I’m a theatre kid, and I love math. If you’re well-versed in the dramatic world or if you sit behind a desk to crunch numbers all day, you know these two facets of my personality are not necessarily congruent. However, by some strange force of the universe, I have been thrust into both interests and enjoyed myself too much to find a way out of either. I’ve spent countless tech weeks grinding integral study questions, and I’ve absorbed lessons about the shell and washer methods in between memorizing sentences of audition monologues. Balancing these two has never given me too much trouble. Recently, though, I faced a challenge I didn’t see coming.
I am currently in AT Multivariable Calculus and Differential Equations, the hardest math course at my high school which I am taking as a senior. If that didn’t sound hard enough, my Cuban-Russian professor (who was a top physician and mathematician from both countries he hails from) decided he wanted to take a spin on our final semester exam. Instead of the traditional and yummy multiple-choice test with a few FRQ sprinkles on top, my professor decided we would be partaking in an oral examination; we would meet with him alone, be randomly assigned questions, and explain them to him out loud without ever having seen them before. And we only had a week to prep. Brutal.
When he first delivered the news to my class, most of us were incredibly nervous, but secretly I held the most anxiety out of all. Not only does my professor’s expertise frighten me, but I have a deep social anxiety that 10 years of therapy have tried working out (notice the word “tried”). I was having an internal freakout; I’d never done such an assessment before, I had such little time to study, and I was undeniably afraid I would get up there and stammer my way through every question. I didn’t know where to turn. And then, I went to my next period: theatre class.
The moment I arrived in the room, it hit me. I’ve been performing onstage for a decade now! Not just boring monologues, but full-on song and dance routines in shiny clothing in front of countless judgmental crowds… and I love it! Reflecting on my time onstage, I figured that the actual delivery of my multivariable conundrum couldn’t be that bad. There was a sudden easiness, but I had another qualm: my window to study. If I only had a week, how was I supposed to refresh myself on two-and-a-half chapters worth of lengthy partial derivatives and three-dimensional graphing? I once again clocked my immediate surroundings, the obnoxious belting of fellow theatre pupils, and I arrived at a conclusion.
Mnemonics. One of the most powerful devices known to the academic weapon. To cope with the many topics of multivariable calculus from my first semester, I’d turn it into a musical number. First, I listed out each individual subject we’d gone over that could appear on the oral exam. Then, I rearranged them to fit a meaningful and memorable song structure involving each of their respective processes, all to the tune of one of my favorite Broadway standards. Finally, I tried to hook myself to the song by recording myself singing it over and over and listening back to it, attempting to memorize each lyric to understand the topics fully.
To my surprise, it worked. Going into the oral examination, I had a consistent multivariable-musical earworm playing all of my lyrics back to me. When those questions came, I knocked them out of the park and got a 98 on my final exam! This all goes to show that any two fields can be combined to make effective solutions to academic troubles. I am incredibly proud of what I did, and I hope there’s something others can learn from it too.
Coming to a theater near you: Multivariable Calculus the Musical. Music and lyrics by Sam Dyer, the theatre kid with a 98 on his math final.