Certified Tutors From Montana State University-Northern

We performed all trigonometry problems today. The student mentioned that she worked with trig last year and it shows! She seems fairly comfortable with all 6 trig functions.

We went through the algebra first. We solved the question that she missed on her exam. Then she said that she still has questions on probabilities. I explained all of them again to her by using the text book and we solved different problems for each concept. She understood how she has to answer each question. She is doing well.

During this session, we worked on practice worksheets for her standardized test that is next week. These worksheets cover many different topics, but many of them included finding area and volume of different shapes and using proportions and being able to convert between decimals, fractions, and percents. She continues to struggle with remembering formulas for areas and volumes, so we will continue to work on that. Once she gets the formula she doesn't have any trouble answering the questions.

We reviewed for the student's upcoming test over finding area/volume of polygons and polyhedrons. We also reviewed electrostatics for an upcoming physics test.

During our first session we reviewed the student's self-identified problem areas that included fractions/ ratios, geometry/ distances, basic algebra expressions, basic grids, and pie graph word problems. We worked through several problems and identified time saving and troubleshooting techniques. We established next steps going forward, including memorization of multiplication tables for multiples of 2, 5, and 10. I will quiz her next session. Additional homework includes going through the GED book in its entirety to identify problems that she does not understand, has remedial understanding of, and problems that she knows she can complete, for which she must complete in their entirety. Additionally, we discussed taking practice exams once every two weeks for the first month in order to allow time for basic mastery and internalization of key concepts. We established an end goal for her taking the test by the third week in November. She is eager, enthusiastic, and a very quick learner. If she applies herself, she should be able to master these basic math concepts over the next two months.

Tonight we went over how to do a scatter plot in a graphing calculator. I explained to the student what an independent variable and a dependent variable are and what outliers are. We also discussed how to tell if something is positively correlated or negatively correlated.