I double-checked a student’s math homework, and I hoped my explanations helped her better understand the material. There was a question that asked if the person would arrive at the movie theater on time, and the question required information from the previous question for the answer. When I understood what the question asked and computed the answer, I explained to the student what she needed to do using the information from the previous question. I told her that the person would not arrive at the movie theater on time because the person would be 2 minutes late. The student did not mindlessly listen to my explanation because she nodded her head and made eye contact to show that she was listening attentively. She asked me questions to understand the problem. Although I told her what to write on her paper, I think she understood it but she needed more practice on those related time problems to figure out why the person would be late. While double-checking the student’s math homework, I was reminded of how the easier problems were at the beginning and harder problems were at the end. I remembered how I wished all the math problems were at the same difficulty level in elementary school, but now as a college student I understood that the shift in difficulty level was to challenge the students’ understanding of what they learned and force them to apply the math principles in a critical way.