Certified Tutors From Pulaski Technical College

During the session, we discussed assignments the student had completed. The first dealt with the number e, compounding interest, and exponential growth and decay. The next few assignments we reviewed dealt with using trigonometric functions (sine, cosine, and tangent) to solve for sides and angles in right triangles. We reviewed one complicated problem which involved creating a system of two equations; the student was able to grasp the concepts, and it seemed to help his math comprehension very much.

During this first tutoring session, we covered Calculus AP test questions that require the use of a calculator. We covered topics such as area, volume, derivatives, and definite integrals. We also covered word problems involving position, velocity, and acceleration. The student has a good grasp of the concepts. I believe with further practice, she will be able to solve the problems she is currently struggling with.

The student and I have begun a selection of Algebra test questions to prepare her for her evaluation in May. In addition, we also looked ahead in her curriculum to dividing polynomials by binomials and binomials using factoring and cancellation in fraction form. I left the student with problems for extra practice.

Student A continues to do well. At the beginning of our session she told me that she was having trouble understanding the material in her algebra class, involving more complicated expressions in a single variable that require one to collect all the x's on one side, but when it came time to work through some problems she only needed a small amount of prodding before she was able to consistently solve problems of the allegedly troublesome form. As before, I think the biggest thing that she needs is confidence. Student C tells me that he feels he is struggling in geometry, yet also reports getting an A on a recent quiz and a 95% on the paper mentioned in the last write up. He was able to zip through his homework with few hang-ups. Since his work is mostly straightforward, he is able to do this without much trouble, getting stuck only on the occasional tricky problem that forces him to slow down and think. This creates an effect where he is usually able to solve his problems but he doesn't feel like he has a grip on what he is doing. I will work on how to help here.

We worked on isolating the variable and solving for it. The student's confidence is increasing with these types of problems. He has a great attitude, and he asks for examples of how I use these types of problems at my job, so it's good to be able to show him how what he's learning applies to a profession. All of these problems were being manipulated with multiplication or division. To keep things simple, I had him just multiply by the reciprocal every time. From the middle of the assignment to the end, he had a really good grasp on it. The last problem was a little tricky, so we went over it a couple of times to make sure he understood everything well. This is the same material that he was doing on Wednesday, and he is doing much better with it now than he was then.

The student has a test coming up on Friday in geometry so we went over material for the upcoming test. She got a 90 on her quiz and a 96 on her biology test she took last week.