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We reviewed the test on Chapters 5.6-6.4 covering vertex form, polynomial division, finding all rational/irrational zeroes, and factoring. We worked on a study sheet covering each topic and practiced problems that were wrong on the test.

We're reviewing for the final. We went back and reviewed the first chapter, which will probably be one of the more difficult chapters to revisit since it consists of so many disparate concepts (properties, multiplying fractions, converting percentages, simplifying expressions, identifying coefficients, etc.) and contains a lot of vocabulary. The next chapter consists mostly of solving for a variable, something he has had no problem with all semester.

The student and I worked on reading and writing skills today. Specifically, we worked on adjectives versus adverbs, verb-tense agreement, punctuation, and editing sentences for wordiness. We also worked on taking notes from a textbook. He has some good instincts (he made a graphic organizer for his notes) and a solid structure provided by his English teacher, which should help him figure out what to pay attention to as he's reading. We finished with a free-write (on sportsmanship) and then went through and edited his writing. He had good ideas and he stayed on topic. We finished with a brief exercise on punctuation. He seems good at reflecting on what's working and not working, which will help him identify problems that we can continue to address in future sessions (for instance, sentence structure). I look forward to working with him again!

The student did very well on all of the parts of Reading and Science sections that she got to. Today we focused on predictive reading in both sections and how, by looking for common elements, we could have a good idea of what information would be important for questions later. We tweaked her timing strategy to maximize the questions she answers and make the most of the time she may have for educated guesses.

We met for our first session on Thursday. The student had a test on Friday, and she wanted to have her first session before the exam. Her exam was on parallel lines and finding the distance between two points. We did some practice problems from her textbook, and I also brought some extra problems for her as well. She was having a little difficulty with the distance equation, so we did some extra practice with this. She was feeling more confident with the distance equation by the end of the session.

This session focused on the manipulation of trig functions in order to verify identities and solve for all angle values from 0 to 2pi. Due to the nature of problems that require manipulation, I always allow the students to email me with problems in between sessions to help them find the right substitution or rearrangement necessary. The student also reported good news in the form of a perfect score on a timed trigonometry value quiz.