Pre-calc is exposing holes in my step-son's education. Wtd?

[Anonymous]

He is clearly sinking fast and I'm not sure what to do. Looking at historical grade patterns I knew this would happen, but he had A- to B- in previous math classes, so he and my husband were convinced he was good at math. A deeper dive showed every grade was inflated and bolstered due to homework, his test scores averaged a grade level below the overall grade received. So, he's actually been more like a C student in math.

I want to set up a tutor for twice a week but how does a tutor help him if holes are old material from pre-algebra, alg 1, alg 2, geometry? He wants to pursue business in college which would require college calculus, lots of econ, finance, stats.

[Anonymous]

I would look for a general math tutor to relearn him the alg 1 & 2 areas he may be weak and who can support him with pre-cal.

My DD's pre-cal teacher told us that pre-cal was the course to "make 'em or break 'em" meaning if they did well, then they should do well in future higher math classes needed at the college level, but if they did poorly, they'd need to seek extra help or pick majors that just need a basic math requirement.

[Anonymous]

The tutor helps him with his current work and shores up the weak spots identified through that process. The tutor will show him how to do the things he missed somewhere along the way and may assign work to practice those skills. If the tutor is experienced with your son's school's curriculum he/she will know what's coming down the pike and help preview those skills as well.

[Anonymous]

Yup. Hire a tutor. Your child is not the first for whom precalc revealed problems.

You talk to the tutor about what needs to be done and be sure to hire someone who can handle all the old stuff. The problems are most likely weak algebra skills. Then, you have patience. The tutor will not be able to make miracles overnight.

You also need buy in from the kid.

When this happened to us, my son chose to use us as a resource instead of a tutor, and so we tutored him, went over every stitch of homework etc. We both have the skills, although maybe you don't. We finally hired a pro when the parenting relationship was interfering with learning.

We also required that he finish all review material two days before the exam so the rest of the time was for studying not learning.

[Anonymous]

Kudos for being an involved, supportive stepparent.

[Anonymous]

How do you know that there are "holes" in his education - perhaps he's just not good at taking tests and that is why his test grades are lower than his homework grades?

[Anonymous]

I did well in college calculus, but I'm far too rusty to be much help, and don't want to be a step-parent/tutor. No way.

What I don't get is how does a tutor identify holes from old material? I've never seen a tutor try to deep dive and seek out holes, they typically just try to help you get through current material. Wouldn't that first require a comprehensive math test, e.g. print off an old ACT math test?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do you know that there are "holes" in his education - perhaps he's just not good at taking tests and that is why his test grades are lower than his homework grades?

Sorry, I don't subscribe to the not good at tests thing. You either know the material or you don't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I did well in college calculus, but I'm far too rusty to be much help, and don't want to be a step-parent/tutor. No way.

What I don't get is how does a tutor identify holes from old material? I've never seen a tutor try to deep dive and seek out holes, they typically just try to help you get through current material. Wouldn't that first require a comprehensive math test, e.g. print off an old ACT math test?

I can't speak for math, but that's exactly what my DDs reading tutor did. She started with giving an assessment of her current reading and writing abilities. And then she developed a plan. Half of our tutor time is spent developing strategies for reading, comprehension, decoding, inferencing that should have been done years ago and the second half is spent addressing the current assignments.

[Anonymous]

Now is the time to relearn the algebra and geometry-- that's the content of the SAT/ACT math portion. No experience with tutors, but a great question to ask of them.

[Anonymous]

Geometry is worthless except for standardized tests. I have a bachelors in stats and a masters in econ, so YMMV. Nothing I did required geometry.

Now...ALGEBRA is the large foundation for calc. One needs to be incredibly comfortable with algebra and the underlying premises in order to do well in calc.

[Anonymous]

Aren't the algebra 1 and 2 tutor hours going to add up pretty fast if he requires a lot of holes patched? This could be a pretty serious and pretty costly endeavor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Geometry is worthless except for standardized tests. I have a bachelors in stats and a masters in econ, so YMMV. Nothing I did required geometry.

Now...ALGEBRA is the large foundation for calc. One needs to be incredibly comfortable with algebra and the underlying premises in order to do well in calc.

Geometry (and some trig) is half of the ACT's math section.

[Anonymous]

one hour of problem solving every.single.day. including the wkds.

[Anonymous]

Khan Academy - online and free.

It will give you diagnostic tests, and then practice equations where there are holes. The video tutorials are really helpful.

Khan Academy has been such a help to my DD - I donate to them now. What a great free resource.