I am leaning toward recommending Lial's or a similar College Algebra text. The reviews I have read on some of the newer editions are terrible, though. Which edition is readily available at a decent price and has supplementary resources available?

I am trying to help a friend come up with another Math credit for her rising senior daughter. She has done Algebra 1, Honors Geometry, and Algebra 2 at our Co-op. Due to health issues and other extenuating circumstances, she did okay (90) in Algebra 2, but isn't real confident of her skills. She is not a great standardized test-taker, and thus did not score quite high enough on her SAT or Compass tests to place into a dual enrollment math class at the Community College. She is a hard worker (I had her in Honors Geometry a couple of years ago), but math is not her favorite subject, and she is not going into a STEM major. What are some options for her final math credit? Pre-Calc at our Co-op is maxed out in class size, so that's out. What could she do, mostly on her own, with some occasional tutoring if necessary?

I don't know anything about Engrade, but our Co-op uses Jupiter Ed, and I really like it. http://jupitered.com/?home=1

That's what I think, too. When I do my prep classes, I work through tons of practice tests with my students, and I never touch my calculator. I show them how fractions reduce easily, how most right triangles are a 3-4-5 or 5-12-13 or occasionally a 7-24-25, or a multiple of one of those. I also point out that the answer choices are usually in terms or pi or in radical or fraction form, and that they need to look ahead so that if they do use a calculator, they don't go too far and then have to back up. I show them how my $15 Casio displays an answer with the pi or radical symbol right there, or in fraction form, as opposed to their $130 graphing calculator that gives the decimal approximation.

The current SAT will be given through January 2016. Can she prep to take it by then?

I know what you mean, and yet I'm afraid that those kids whose parents spend hundreds of dollars on test prep will have an advantage even on this first run of the test.

Are you a member of the church? Most churches around here won't allow non-members to serve in the children's ministry. And generally people cannot become members if they do not affirm the church's statement of faith or whatever documents they have. So, it seems like you could have an automatic "out": I'm sorry, but I'm not a member. I know I've been attending for a while now, but I'm not ready to take that step.

But maybe those who do some prep work will be at a bigger advantage with this first testing.

I routinely do current-version SAT practice tests without a calculator. It takes me longer to use a calculator than to just do it.

See, my sister freaked out several years ago when a store clerk gave her the senior discount on a purchase. She was vocal about it in the store, which embarrassed my Mom, and when she got home, she fired off an email to the corporate office. I don't think she looks her age, except that her hair is kind of a grayish color.

A few years ago, I was talking with a friend about our ages. Based on how old she said she was, she would have given birth to her twin sons when she was 14yo. Since I had first met her when they were two weeks old, I was pretty sure that wasn't correct. She did the math, and decided she was 10 years older than she'd been thinking, LOL.

I teach a workshop each Summer that I call "Algebra Refresher for Students Taking Algebra 2 After a Year of Geometry". :laugh: A Google search will turn up several nice packets of worksheets with material appropriate for such review. Evidently this is an issue in regular schools, too.

This is what I've told parents for years now. It also used to be true that the PSAT had quite a bit of Geometry on it, so I recommended that students get that year of Geometry in by their sophomore year. But the new PSAT will only have a couple of Geometry problems, and more advanced Algebra problems, so it may be better to get Algebra 2 in before junior year.

I posted this on the Chat Board, and it was suggested I post it here, too. Has anyone else looked into the new PSAT / SAT yet? This is a major revision, in both philosophy and scope. I have taught SAT / PSAT / ACT Prep classes for several years, focusing mainly on math concepts and strategies. I am teaching a PSAT Prep class in a couple of weeks, just before our Co-op starts back up. I have A LOT of prep work to do to be ready to teach this. Khan Academy is partnering with the College Board to provide free online test prep, which is nice. I haven't done too much with that yet, though, to see how that is going to work. I did pick up the Official SAT Study Guide, published by the College Board, which includes "4 Real SATs", and Barron's Strategies and Practice for the New PSAT / NMSQT. I usually prefer the Princeton Review test prep publications, but Barnes and Noble didn't yet have a PSAT prep book by them that includes strategy suggestions; the one they had just had a couple of practice tests with explanations of the answers. A few notes, based on my preliminary preparation: A significant portion of the math must be done without a calculator. Many of my tutoring students don't know how to graph without their TI-83 or TI-84. While Geometry used to be significant on the PSAT and SAT, now there will only be a couple of problems. Both the PSAT and SAT seem to assume the student has had more training in statistics than I think most students have had at the beginning of their junior year. For instance, the prep books mention things like margin of error, standard deviation, and confidence intervals. Within the math section, there are some questions which have non-numerical (or variable) answers. For example, they will ask the student to select the sentence which would "be the most helpful piece of information to have about the data collected for the table in order to ensure comprehensive and accurate results?" At least basic trigonometry knowledge is assumed, including working with angles measured in radians, on the PSAT. The Reading and Writing sections include questions which require the student to make inferences from data presented in graphs, charts or tables within the passage to be read. I'm glad I don't have a student who will be a junior this year and is potentially a National Merit Scholar. There is no telling what these scores are going to look like this year.

I will try to remember to come back and update. Our Co-op has always taught SAT Prep as a one-semester course in the Fall. This was to be my first year teaching it during the school year, after having taught it in Summer sessions for several years. Then when we heard about the changes coming, they asked me if I could teach an ACT Prep course in the Fall, and then SAT Prep in the Spring. So that's what I'm doing, but I just don't want to see these rising juniors going in to the PSAT without at least some preparation.

Thanks for the link to the free practice PSAT. I don't know why I hadn't seen that before. Yes, the charts and graphs are reminiscent of the ACT Science test. I don't know that I would say that what I am seeing so far is harder than the old test. But it really requires a very different approach.

I'm sorry. But I figure it is better to know now than to be caught off guard come October or next Spring.

Has anyone else looked into the new PSAT / SAT yet? This is a major revision, in both philosophy and scope. I have taught SAT / PSAT / ACT Prep classes for several years, focusing mainly on math concepts and strategies. I am teaching a PSAT Prep class in a couple of weeks, just before our Co-op starts back up. I have A LOT of prep work to do to be ready to teach this. Khan Academy is partnering with the College Board to provide free online test prep, which is nice. I haven't done too much with that yet, though, to see how that is going to work. I did pick up the Official SAT Study Guide, published by the College Board, which includes "4 Real SATs", and Barron's Strategies and Practice for the New PSAT / NMSQT. I usually prefer the Princeton Review test prep publications, but Barnes and Noble didn't yet have a PSAT prep book by them that includes strategy suggestions; the one they had just had a couple of practice tests with explanations of the answers. A few notes, based on my preliminary preparation: A significant portion of the math must be done without a calculator. Many of my tutoring students don't know how to graph without their TI-83 or TI-84. While Geometry used to be significant on the PSAT and SAT, now there will only be a couple of problems. Both the PSAT and SAT seem to assume the student has had more training in statistics than I think most students have had at the beginning of their junior year. For instance, the prep books mention things like margin of error, standard deviation, and confidence intervals. Within the math section, there are some questions which have non-numerical (or variable) answers. For example, they will ask the student to select the sentence which would "be the most helpful piece of information to have about the data collected for the table in order to ensure comprehensive and accurate results?" At least basic trigonometry knowledge is assumed, including working with angles measured in radians, on the PSAT. The Reading and Writing sections include questions which require the student to make inferences from data presented in graphs, charts or tables within the passage to be read. I'm glad I don't have a student who will be a junior this year and is potentially a National Merit Scholar. There is no telling what these scores are going to look like this year.

I frequently joke about things making me feel old. For example, I just posted on Facebook that today is my last-ever day as a mother of a teenager. But it's really more a way of saying that it's hard to believe that time is flying by so quickly. Last night I was talking with my sister, and she is upset that our Mom says that she is almost 80. She is 78-1/2 years old, so I think that's a fair thing for her to say. My sister's problem is that Mom and Sis are 20 years apart, so when Mom says "almost 80", that means Sis is almost 60. Well, she is closer to 60 than 55. So what? It is what it is. I just don't get being upset about it. In fact, I've learned to embrace my age. Even though I'm a year younger than sis, I actually ask if there's a senior discount available. I'm interested to hear what others think.

I cannot "do" wooden pencils. I like my 0.9mm mechanical pencils.

Slightly off topic, but I found out that my auto insurance company doesn't actually check our drivers' records when it's time for the policy to be renewed, unless we have filed a claim. I know this because dh hasn't driven for over 10 years. He was the primary driver on our insurance, and our agent explained that if we removed him, our rate would actually go up because I would become the primary driver and it would be considered a new policy. Dh's license expired seven years ago and we converted it to a state ID. I thought that by now, a records check would have found that dh isn't licensed to drive any longer, and that would cause a change in our policy, but it hasn't. I even mentioned it to two different agents, because I didn't want to end up being accused of fraud, but they both said not to worry.

My dh is from a large family. We used to host Thanksgiving here. One of my sisters-in-law was in charge of contacting "everyone", which meant 75 - 90 or more people. One year, as the caravan of vehicles arrived, there was a couple that I didn't recognize. I asked dh who they were, but he didn't know either. But they seemed to know people we did know belonged there, so it didn't bother us. Some time later, dh and I both announced that we had figured out who they were. One of us said "The wife is Fred's daughter", while at the same time the other was announcing, "The husband is Jeff's brother". It turned out we were both correct, LOL. The gal was my sister-in-law's husband's daughter, and she was married to another sister-in-law's son-in-law's brother.

I haven't experienced this with extra people, but I was more than a little miffed a while back when we had our church's small group over to our house for an afternoon fellowship, and one family brought their dog without asking. Our dog believes that it his job to keep other dogs off of our property. Thankfully, I caught her as she was getting out of her van with little Toby, and told her to wait while I got our dog crated.

Looking at the palm of my hand, I'm thinking that a scar there may be one of the best places to have a scar if one must have a scar. I'd be frustrated, too, with the doctor in your situation. And I can only imagine the hassles of trying to get one that young to understand what she must do. Can you change up your routine this next few days and have Miss A and Miss I more directly involved with Miss E, keeping her mind off of her hand?

I am amazed that what I found horrifying when my Dad wore it, today's teens find to be cool.