Certified Tutors From Thomas University

I met with the student for our first session. She has a math packet due on Monday, so we began working on that. She grasps the basic algebra and has natural test-taking instincts in solving multiple choice problems.

Today, we went over conic sections and did some more work on the exponents. The student was very good, as always, asking questions whenever he had one and always being prepared. I left him to look over a video if he has some extra time, just to get an idea on he next section he will go over in class, ellipses. A big win from today's session was his memory of some of the concepts we covered a few weeks ago! He remembered how to solve some tricky problems, which I was really proud of. He is mainly struggling with the concepts behind problems, but he is really starting to understand a lot faster.

We spent today's session going over the in's and out's of transformations in sine and cosine functions. The student had a worksheet to use as review for an upcoming exam. The worksheet included changes in period, amplitude, sinusoidal axis, and graph position (shifts to the left and right). It also included problems that asked the student to rewrite formulas in terms of the opposite function (i.e. writing a cosine function in terms of sine and vice versa). We focused on making step lists and acronyms such as "P.A.S.T" to help her remember specific steps in the problem solving process. "P.A.S.T" stands for period, amplitude, sinusoidal axis, and transformations. We also talked about how to break up a period change into four sections. Those four sections would then show you where your maximum, minimum, and zeroes were located. By doing this, you only have a small number of locations you must test and the rest of the graph will repeat the same pattern. She did much better after I showed her this and by the end of the session, she had completed the last three problems on her own with me only there to double check her work.

The student had a quiz the following day, so together we worked through the assignments from the sections that would be covered. As we came across a sticking point for her, we talked in general about the rules at play and the necessary steps to solve the problem. I left her my work from the session, and by the end she had a solid understanding of evaluating limits analytically and graphically as well as on a conceptual level. She knows both how to do what needs to be done and why.

Today we introduced ourselves to each other. We talked about the structural expectations concerning our meetings. We reviewed conjunctive verbs and prepositions. We discussed how we will discuss articles, videos, lectures, and interviewing for jobs in future sessions.

The student and I reviewed homework problems dealing with parallel lines cut by a transversal. We used vertical angle definitions and supplementary angle definitions to identify which interior and exterior angles are congruent to each other.