Award-Winning Private Algebra Tutoring in Evergreen Park, IL

I specifically went over another state assessment exam with the student today. I am very glad and proud to say that she had gotten everything correct in a timely manner. This leads me to conclude that she does not necessarily struggle with state assessment material but instead with the work that her algebra teacher assigns her as it is very different from the assessment material. I note great progress and am glad to continue working with her.

Quick review of multi-step equations to ensure the student understood how to solve these types of equations. Moved on to covering how to interpret and solve distance equations. Student specified that lines and slope were a concern and their current topic in class. Gave a "lecture" on what slopes and intercepts mean and the relation of the sign of the slope with the orientation of the graph.

* We reviewed the quadratic formulas and we learned distributing and multiplying variables. *Student was meticulous in his work and was eager to learn. *We slowed down and took time on problems involving complex variables. *Student said that he will be taking a qualifying math district exam. *Overall, I was pleased with the session and progress made through the student asking me insightful questions.

Today we went over line equations in preparation for a test the student has tomorrow. We also continued to go over science concepts in preparation for a re-test he will have tomorrow. I made several suggestions to him. One most notable would be purchasing a key ring along with a hole puncher and index cards. He can write each scientific term on an index card, as he is given them, and put them on the key ring, for quick easy access. This way, in preparation for exams, he has a quick reference guide for studying key terms and ideas.

Today the student and I went over the new material she learned which included transformations of exponential functions. Before going over this we went over graphing exponential, quadratic, and linear functions. After graphing these functions, we went over all the components that we can learn from this function. The y intercept, domain, range, increase interval, and decrease intervals were found. I introduced a new method of calculating negative exponents so that she can compute this faster in her head. We practiced this many times with old examples from her notes.

For today's session we had some homework to handle which involved graphing and looking for points of intersection. The first sheet was literally just that, where our accuracy improved when I got the student a ruler from her grandmother. The only wrinkle of the 8 problems was one involving 2 parallel lines (no solution). The second sheet improved upon the first sheet by giving us some word problems and asking for variable definitions along with equations for cost and income. For each question, after graphing the two lines (because of those questionable problem designs) the best we could achieve was an estimate for the coordinates for where the intersection occurred. Finally we solved for the "break even" point algebraically, and the big takeaway I wanted her to focus on was that algebra will almost always trump graphing.