Paige Posted October 30, 2014 Share Posted October 30, 2014 My DD is taking the end of year test for her math today because it feels like a waste of time. Everything is super easy and I've always told my kids (who struggle) that if it's too easy and nothing is hard, it's not an appropriate level. I thought about doing it last year with DD but chickened out because I knew she hadn't been exposed to some things in each chapter. We skipped a few pages, but not too much. It was easy. As she's doing this test, I'm wondering how much help I could give her for problems she's never seen before. If she can't do it independently, does that mean she doesn't pass and we should go back to those sections? Or is it appropriate to give her a brief explanation and example and then pass her if she can do the rest on her own? She's 7. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starr Posted October 30, 2014 Share Posted October 30, 2014 I would have her do the test for every chapter. That way you can find the places that need a little work. If you help her at the end it doesn't accurately show if she's ready to move on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MinivanMom Posted October 30, 2014 Share Posted October 30, 2014 I would have her do the test for every chapter. That way you can find the places that need a little work. If you help her at the end it doesn't accurately show if she's ready to move on. This. I've also seen classroom teachers use this method when accelerating their advanced math students. If they can get an A on the end-of-chapter test, then they get an A for the entire chapter and are excused from any further work. When they hit a chapter where they get less than 93%, then that's the place where they pause and start instruction. It allows you to accelerate while ensuring that there aren't any gaps or missed material. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiana Posted October 30, 2014 Share Posted October 30, 2014 I would have her do the test for every chapter. That way you can find the places that need a little work. If you help her at the end it doesn't accurately show if she's ready to move on. I agree with this. You can find and fill any holes very quickly this way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted October 30, 2014 Share Posted October 30, 2014 Is the program you're using one that has a "soft spiral" format? That is, does it review the topics covered in previous years and then add on? A lot of math programs do that and I think it's fine to condense them by covering the topic once rather than year after year after year. I did that with the measurement topics in Singapore 2B and 3B. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted October 30, 2014 Share Posted October 30, 2014 My kids got to test out of math in PS. No help given and they need to hit 100% (because of their age) unless it is an obvious careless mistake out of the whole test. I just treat it as test prep for them I'll let her do without help then go over those that she can't do to see what the gaps are. Usually patching of gaps is fast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paige Posted October 30, 2014 Author Share Posted October 30, 2014 It's MM, so everything will be repeated. She got all the questions correct that weren't in the geometry or measurement Chpt. She got many of those correct, but didn't know some words that would be repeated. I'm not sure if I should bother doing this grade's Chpt on that or just doing it in the next book. The other examples I helped her with first were the multiplication drawings because she's not used to it like that. Things like, what problem is represented by this picture for things like 2x3. She could do 15x 3 and 40x2 in her head with no help but the picture threw her off on the easy ones. She's halfway through the next grade's curriculum on Dreambox so she's seen and been doing most of the calculations in this year's MM already, but she may not have seen them in the same way. I don't think Dreambox has word problems or much geometry and measurement either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madteaparty Posted October 31, 2014 Share Posted October 31, 2014 With MM, I do the end of chapter review and then the test if I feel he has mastered a topic. They are so short, it's easy to do. I have started seeing the merits of MM though, because I see now she reviews older topics while introducing new ones: for example today my DS flew through the constant speed portion in 7a, because he has done more complicated equations before. However, 2.4 divided by 10 tripped him up (eyeroll). So I'm glad the review is there though it seems maddening sometimes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IsabelC Posted November 6, 2014 Share Posted November 6, 2014 Yes, I'd also do the test for each chapter before doing the end of year test. Then if there are questions she can't do, you can ascertain whether she is missing an actual concept, or just hasn't seen that specific terminology or way of setting it out. If the former, you'll definitely want to go back and do that chapter. If the latter, you have a choice: does your child need to be able to do it this particular way, or are you happy as long as she knows a way of doing it (e.g. I told the kids about the terms minuend and subtrahend, but I didn't make them memorize these because I have never seen them outside of our math curriculum and none of the adults I asked had even heard of the words). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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