Certified Tutors From Concordia University-Chicago

On Sunday, we went over review problems for a test the student has coming up this week. The format is similar to her previous tests with some of the more difficult problems being multi-step word problems. She continues to catch on to new concepts quickly, after just a couple times of reviewing it. She also had a standardized test this past week, and said she felt pretty good about it. I left her with a multiplication table to review so that she can get those down.

We covered sections 1.1 - 1.5 in preparation for a quiz on Thursday. These sections cover basic terminology: point, line, plane, ray, angle; and some that the student was not so familiar with: intersection and union. The concept of proof is introduced as well as what can be assumed (e.g., three points are collinear) and what can't be assumed (angle is a right angle by looks). The teacher usually assigns exercises toward the end of the "B" section and then mostly "C" section problems. We also spent time looking at a few of the early exercises to reinforce some of the concepts. Sometimes he would use trial and error instead of algebra to solve a problem. I pointed out different ways to approach the same problem. I tried to suggest exercises that would make good quiz problems. He was able to completely reason out the toughest assigned problem on his own.

We covered special triangles, multiple geometric figures, descriptive statistics, probability and quantitative comparison questions. The student struggled the most with setting up and solving equations involving fractions and exponents. The student had a positive attitude towards the material reviewed and felt it was the right difficulty level. I included strategies for approaching quantitative comparison questions and for simplifying geometric problems. I left her with additional math practice questions and encouraged her to review the questions we had gone over to check for understanding. I saw her scores on the practice tests we went over. She was able to quickly figure out the descriptive statistics and probability questions we looked at.

I helped the student review Section 4.4 homework, which included trigonometric functions (sine, cosine and tangent functions). I advised the student on the unit circle and its properties. I gave the student a preview of section 4.5 and 4.6 and review materials.

Since the student starts the new section of work next week we continued to go over all of the topics that were covered before the new year. Next week we he begins to learn new topics we will begin to cover those as well.

The student was continuing his work with rotational dynamics and Newton's second law for rotation. He seemed to have a lot of concepts down, and just needed a few pointers on some of the problems to come to a solution.