Award-Winning Algebra Tutors serving Cambridge

The student took a placement exam and placed in the intermediate algebra range, which means he tested above the pre-algebra level. He also earned more than 90 percent on both the writing and reading portions of the test. In preparation for his pre-algebra final, we reviewed concepts such as ratios, fractions, slope intercept equations, graphing, polynomials, etc.

The student completed the homework I gave him last week from Chapter 6 (factoring). The solutions are in the book and I let him go through and check his work. We then looked at the Chapter 6 review. We worked through several problems and each time he made a mistake I had him write down the errors he made in a sentence. His assignment for next week is to redo the problems that he did incorrectly. Then, he is to complete the rest of the Chapter 6 review and do the odd numbered problems in the Chapter 5 review. He will be quizzed on these problems at our next session.

The students and I started going through the chapters in their book that they didn't complete in school. As we reviewed, it seemed like percentages, especially in word problem form were a bit of a problem, so we went through how to untangle the words into an equation and practiced each type of question. I assigned 10 problems a day until the next session.

The student and I reviewed a test on solving quadratic equations she had taken on Friday. After we worked on it, she had a better understanding of some of the mistakes she made, all of which were simple errors. We then reviewed the multiple methods of solving quadratic equations that she has learned throughout her summer school session in preparation for upcoming quizzes and tests. She is doing very well and I believe she will do excellent on all exams.

Today, the student and I mainly focused on word problems with fractions. We began by reviewing division with fractions - it is important to keep the first fraction the same, change the sign to multiplication, and then take the reciprocal of the second fraction. During our practice with word problems, we had to locate keywords that would assist us in solving the problem. Words like "is" and "of" were important indicators. We then wrote out the word problem in algebraic form. In some problems, we created proportions to solve for the unknown variable. These word problems were tricky! However, she became more comfortable with word problems throughout our session together.

Completed this week's POW. The student had already done the first problem, a complex Singapore bar problem. Together we tackled a combinations problem, a division problem involving large exponential numbers, and three counting problems in which the number of integers in a given range were counted given that all the multiples of 2, 3, or 4 different prime numbers were removed.