Many a times we underestimate the little things we know because of the much we have learnt. We tend to look at every situation and problem with the complex lens. This is because many people have attended greater heights that they expect nothing but what matches their status.
This was the case of certain final year students in the department of mathematics. They had learnt all the basics in their first year and from their second year, they had started receiving tougher and more demanding tasks in mathematics. As the University adage goes “ the higher you go, the tougher it becomes”, they expected nothing less than worst. The level of mathematics that they were being exposed to was very high and they could solve some steps without touching a pen. These guys were good to go.
In their final year examination, they prepared as if they wanted to write a $1 billion exams. They solved both what they expected and what they tagged as “miscellaneous”. So in the exams hall, when they were given the question paper, number one question shocked them to the marrow. The question was:
Using the normal method, solve the following
1+1=?
These students were perplexed. The hall was set ablaze with confusion. Two(2) never occurred to any living soul in the hall. They swore that they must answer the question though it was tough. So many people started looking for ways to integrate the problem. Some tried converting it to Algebra while other tried introducing arbitrary letters so they could solve it as partial fraction. No body wrote “2”. What a pity? 25 marks just went away because everyone was thinking too far.
Sometimes the solution(s) to our problems is/are not far fetched but at our finger tips. It’s just all about looking around first before looking far away. If you keep looking too far, you may not be able to see the treasures in front of you.
