Certified Tutors From Brown University

We reviewed for the student's upcoming exam on solving quadratic equations. We focused mostly on solving by factoring and completing the square. I also emphasized the importance of memorizing the quadratic formula. I feel that this material may be the most challenging yet.

The student and I met for the first time this Monday. During this session, we covered topics in geometry, specifically shapes inscribed in circles, areas, and perimeters. He was very methodical in his problem solving and never gave up on a problem. He did sometimes find himself writing an answer down prior to understanding exactly what was being asked, and we will work to improve this area (by making sure that he, first and foremost, ensures his understanding of the question). We will meet again this Wednesday to bolster his learning.

Today we did some quick work on evaluating triangles, but mainly forged ahead in the Singapore math lessons. The student is able to quickly put together equations to solve word problems -- esp. those involving ratios -- and so the area I'd like to work on now is simply doing the math in fewer steps.

We reviewed material in preparation for the student's test on Thursday. It will be multiple-choice, short answer, and essay format. We focused on going over certain tests and concepts that will likely be on the test.

We covered concavity of continuous functions. The student was very positive towards the material presented. I encouraged him to practice more calculus problems from the problem sets and textbook.

We reviewed history homework, discussing Galileo's defense against the Spanish Inquisition for stating that the Earth revolved around the sun. We also discussed science homework and the events leading up to cell theory.