Award-Winning Test Prep & Academic Tutoring in Taylor, TX

"The student and I spent this session going over a unit test on quadratics that he just got back. He got a B- on the test, which was a great success. We identified a few errors that he made on the test that were just from rushing, things like mixed up signs and forgetting to completely distribute products. He would have potentially been in the A range for this test had he not made those errors, which is encouraging. He still needed help somewhat with completing squares, but only with more advanced forms of it, cases where the leading coefficient isn't 1. We discussed this in a little more depth. He may benefit from a bit more practice completing the square. We reviewed a few graphing problems. I saw this as a good opportunity to reinforce the function concept for him. I emphasized that algebra often boils down to being able to solve equations for different letters, whether they're constants or variables, and that often involves knowing the values of other constants and variables in the equation. I then explained how this relates to the concept of a function - how, given our argument/ input value, an equation/ formula allows us to solve for the value of the function. Graphically, this means that the graph of a function is the set of points (x,y) where y = f(x). For extra practice, I asked him to redo the problems where he lost some points on his most recent test, working slowly to catch mistakes, and noting what concepts he still doesn't quite have mastered."

"We went over a test review set of questions dealing with surface areas and volumes for a variety of geometries, including cylinders, spheres, cones, trapezoids, pyramids, and other more complex shapes (e.g. an octagonal pyramid). These problems were mostly complex and required a full sheet of paper to solve in some cases. She was able to achieve the correct answers most of the time even for the complex problems. Occasionally, algebraic steps throw her off, but overall her problem solving ability is good. "