Certified Tutors From Old Dominion University

Today we covered adding, subtracting and simplifying polynomials. The student did very well and caught on quickly to the concept. We also went over exponent rules and there was much improvement from last week's sessions. We reviewed solving systems of equations by substitution and graphing and she did remember the concept (for a quiz she will make up tomorrow). Overall very good session. I think she is really understanding this new material which will be the foundation for the more difficult polynomial concepts. She had a positive attitude throughout the session and did a good job talking me through her steps.

The student needed help with completing an English assignment that involved reading a short story, from which he wrote down words he did not know in order to find and write down the definitions. He did this for 10 words. After this, he needed to give a quick summary of what he read. This required little input on my part other than to keep him on task. After completing the assignment we looked at his grades for all of his classes and noted the progress he has been making and took note of what he needed to complete in order to pass every class this semester.

The student and I reviewed a quiz he had taken on differentiation. A lot of the mistakes were algebraic in nature, except for the first question where he had simply forgotten a definition. I explained to him the problems he missed.

We reviewed math homework: finding patterns and writing the rules as an expression. We reviewed reading homework: reading comprehension passages.

I covered concepts on chapter 4 dealing with trigonometric ratios, specifically sine and cosine. The student just needed to go over the material presented in class. She had some homework assignments that we worked on. The student's attitude was great.

We went over balancing reactions, precipitation reactions, complete ionic reactions, net ionic reactions, acid-base reactions, electrolytes vs nonelectrolytes, and redox reactions. I explained to the student a good way to approach balancing reactions, what it means when a precipitate has formed, and the difference in writing molecular equations vs complete ionic reactions vs net ionic reactions. Also, I explained to her that precipitation and acid-base reactions are examples of double displacement reactions. However, with acid-base reactions a salt and water are formed. Lastly, we discussed redox reactions and how to assign oxidation numbers and know what is being reduced and oxidized. She improved on her Chemistry exam to a B.