Certified Tutors From North Florida Community College

We worked through a review packet that had a variety of derivative problems. The student mastered simplifying and speed, which was a goal we were working towards meeting.

We reviewed the topics from the student's class in preparation for their end-of-course exams. We mainly covered exponents and the various rules of exponents, including problems that combined multiple rules. In addition, we went over finding area and perimeter of shapes when the given side is in the form that includes variables such as a triangle with a base of X+2 and H of x^2. The student was truly grasping all of the topics well. She completed the problems with ease and great understanding.

The student and I went through his Final Exam review packet. We mostly covered equations of conic sections, and their various applications. He is doing well with the more recent material (sector area and arc length). He is struggling slightly with some of the older concepts as they are complex and have not been reviewed for some time. However, as we went through the session, he began to remember the material. I have asked him to continue working through the review packet, and I believe by the end of the following session, he will improve exponentially with regards to the earlier material. His challenge is simply remembering what he had previously learned.

Today the student and I covered a new topic. We left our last session with the point-slope formula, so we began today with covering the practice problem from a week ago that asked to find the equation of a line with the given slope and point. After a little recap of the material, he and I were able to walk through each step. After the practice problem we jumped right into triangles - his current topic in class. We looked at his homework, which required him to solve for x, an angle of interest, and then name the kind of triangle based on its angles. In the process, we not only covered how to solve for an exterior angle given two interior angles, but also established the difference between labeling a triangle based on its sides vs. its angles. After we figured out an explanation that made the most sense and defined that the sum of a triangle's angles is 180 deg, he was able to get the hang of it. We were able to get through most of the problems within our time frame, but I left him with five problems on his homework to do as practice over the weekend.

In this session, we mainly focused on a HW assignment that the student had that was based off of unit circles and special triangles. Once we did a couple of problems, we revisited the derivation, and he understood how to derive the triangles without memorizing them. He was quick to figure out how to reflect the angles across the x and y axis, and he was able to complete the rest of the sheet without my help.

The student had a great session this morning. We spent the first hour reviewing for her upcoming exam, and spent the last thirty minutes reviewing for her final, because she was already very prepared for her exam. She told me that she felt relatively confident about the essay portion of her exam, and she seemed to know the material inside and out, so I'm confident for the upcoming multiple choice portion. Great job!