Submitted by FletchOnMaths on Sun, 07/30/2017 - 20:02
Hi, while following the assignments I've been ignoring the blue text unless/until I'm stuck - is this the right approach, or were the assignments designed with the expectation that we should read and inwardly digest the blue text _before_ a first attempt at a question?
I ask because by my time-keeping I'm spending around 4 hours on each assignment, and I expect* I could halve that if were to read the blue text first, but I fear I would then lose the benefit of training the brain to seek the paths that will lead to a solution.
(* I know full well that these expectations are unrealistic, since my main time waster is silly sign or bracket mistakes - but as they say: "perfect practice makes perfect").
Up to you!
The blue text hopefully does not give too many hints, sometimes it is there to stop people spending too much time going down blind alleys. Sometimes the blue text is to day something interesting after a question (sometimes these are labelled "discussion" instead). The amount of blue text decreases as you go through the assignments.
Basically it is your choice how you use the blue text (and the assignments in general!), for example some people prefer to have a go at the STEP question before looking at the preparation.