Certified Tutors From Plaza College

This was a first session with the student. We reviewed sections 5.1 and 7.1 of her text for a quiz the next day. We also completed practice problems together to understand how the student approaches the questions. Finally, we began to go over the material for an upcoming lecture on measuring variance in binomial statistics. The student has the full capacity to understand the material. She asks good questions and can get correct solutions with a little help. The student's target is to maintain a B average or above for the semester. Each session we will review her course notes and the text to ensure comprehension. Going forward we will continue to work on identifying the conceptual problem addressed in the practice problems as she has a tendency to apply fixed methods of problem solving. Maintaining her focus on the "big picture" concepts and providing assistance with homework and test prep in order to maintain the target grade will be our primary focus.

This was my first session with the student. He wanted to review for his chapter test tomorrow. We went over his review sheets until he was comfortable doing factoring, and I tried pointing out some hints when I could. We ended with doing the word problems towards the end and used his graphing calculator to answer those questions. I asked him to complete the problems we didn't go over.

We covered concepts related to finding the vertex of a parabola, as well as learning how to graph them by hand. We also worked on how to use the calculator to find points on the parabola.

The student needed help with preparing for an upcoming exam which will cover sequences and series. We went over a worksheet which had problems of the same type that will be on the exam.

The student has a test next week before we meet again, so we spent this session reviewing the concepts of chapter 6. We spent the majority of the time going over plotting points on the coordinate plane, drawing lines to connect them, and then finding the length, width, and area of the resulting rectangle or square. He told me he had a difficult time doing those problems, so we walked slowly through about 5 of them. These sorts of problems require applying nearly all of the major concepts of this chapter (manipulating integers, absolute values, understanding area, understanding plotting), so this was a very good way to generally go over test subjects. I was impressed that he kept asking to do "one more problem until I'm sure I understand." We then spent a little time going over how to convert Fahrenheit to Celsius and vice versa. He understands how to use the equations, he just needs to memorize them before his test. These problems require that he understands order of equations, the distributive property and the commutative property. I was happy to hear that he got a 92 on his last quiz, and I think if he just takes his time on this test he will do equally as well.

In this session, we covered Mechanics of Materials involving stress/strains and shear/moment diagrams. We reviewed Chapters 6 and 7 and reviewed both homework and practice problems. The student has a good understanding of the concepts presented.