Video Text?

[Strengthen My Hands]

I'm looking hard at this for Algebra.

My dd finished ABeka Pre Algebre and we have begun Algebra(finished with the first Unit)... We've had no problems and I was satisfied with the Pre Algebra. But now I'm panicing, thinking that handing her the book and telling her to figure it out (with my occasional help) is not going to last too long. Then we're going to be in trouble because she doesn't understand the concepts correctly. Anyway on to my real question....

 

Is Module A in the Algebra neccessary? Dd is a gifted student when it comes to math, she has completed the ABeka pre-algebra with no problem and I'm worried about making her review all this and boring her to tears. Could we just go on to Module B?

 

Those of you who have been through it, could you help me think through this?

[Grace is Sufficient]

My son came to VT having completed most of NEM 1, so clearly he was beyond the pre-Algebra phase. He'd done well with NEM, understanding more of it than I did, frankly, but I was clearly at my math limits, so we turned to VT, and it has been great. He's just finishing Module E.

 

We went through Module A, although fairly quickly. Yes, much of it was foundational stuff we were already familiar with, but VT has a very systematic, thorough way of explaining things (even I understand it!) and I think it's best to hear it from the beginning. The instructors make references to certain parts of it all the way through. One example which comes to me is the explanation of the 'language' of math, which is used frequently when new concepts are introduced.

 

BTW, in a couple of months I should be able to give a pretty good final evaluation of VT. We'll finish the two year program early, and my plan is to spend the rest of the year in ALEKS, to see how he does in the Algebra 2 level. (I'm hoping that not having Geometry yet won't hurt him.)

[GothicGyrl]

I can give a good evaluation of it--you want it and you do NOT want to skip Module A. It's that simple. VT is thorough and concise and teaches you the language of math as well as the how. Mod A might "just be review" for her, but she needs it because the introduce most of the language of the entire thing in the first module.

 

I just sold a complete set. We finished it up in 8months by doing one lesson a day (and even then, there were days we skipped math).. if you watch the video and then do the lesson, she can finish the entire first set of Mods in one year. And then she'll have 3 years of Math credit for doing so. ;)

[Tullia]

I agree with the other folks about the value of Module A. If your daughter is a strong math student it won't take long to go through it, and she may find that VT explains things differently than ABeka. If you go on to use VT geometry, you'll be building on some of the concepts introduced in Algebra Mod. A in constructing proofs.

[Claire]

I just sold a complete set. We finished it up in 8months by doing one lesson a day (and even then, there were days we skipped math).. if you watch the video and then do the lesson, she can finish the entire first set of Mods in one year. And then she'll have 3 years of Math credit for doing so. ;)

 

I am thinking of using VideoText for algebra review over the summer. How fast could a student get through the entire course? (My dd has completed Algebra I and II but she is only an average math student. I'd like to strengthen your algebra skills for college prep.)

[GothicGyrl]

We did one lesson a day starting in July and finished up in February. We did skip a few of the lesser not needed concepts, but that's with doing almost the whole thing.

 

So that's 7 months or so... maybe if you did 2 or three lessons a day--they are pretty short, but that would be her whole school for the summer-- each video lesson is about 15 minutes or so, then on to the work.

[5sweeties]

I just sold a complete set. We finished it up in 8months by doing one lesson a day (and even then, there were days we skipped math).. if you watch the video and then do the lesson, she can finish the entire first set of Mods in one year. And then she'll have 3 years of Math credit for doing so. ;)

 

 

I'm just wondering what a day of math looks like, in order to complete the course in this amount of time? We just started VT, and I'm trying to figure out how to arrange our time, as far as video lessons, problem sets, and quizzes. Thanks!

[Claire]

So that's 7 months or so... maybe if you did 2 or three lessons a day--they are pretty short, but that would be her whole school for the summer-- each video lesson is about 15 minutes or so, then on to the work.

 

Thanks! That was very helpful! I'd love to have her do this, but I think realistically it won't work for over the summer. Hopefully Life of Fred will be enough.....

[GothicGyrl]

I'm just wondering what a day of math looks like, in order to complete the course in this amount of time? We just started VT, and I'm trying to figure out how to arrange our time, as far as video lessons, problem sets, and quizzes. Thanks!

 

Well, for starters, we didn't do any tests or quizzes.. we just went from lesson to lesson... and doing so made it simple enough--day one lesson one and so on. :) Even if you do the quizzes, it should still only take you a full year at most. And that's with doing every single lesson, which we did not--we skipped a few of the minor not really necessary stuff (the word problems/venn diagrams).

 

Otherwise, it should only take you two years if you do a lesson every other day. I couldn't do that, so it became a lesson a day and if you do all the lessons, you can count it as 3 years worth of math (pre, alg. and alg2).

[Grace is Sufficient]

Well, for starters, we didn't do any tests or quizzes.. we just went from lesson to lesson... and doing so made it simple enough--day one lesson one and so on. :) Even if you do the quizzes, it should still only take you a full year at most. And that's with doing every single lesson, which we did not--we skipped a few of the minor not really necessary stuff (the word problems/venn diagrams).

 

Otherwise, it should only take you two years if you do a lesson every other day. I couldn't do that, so it became a lesson a day and if you do all the lessons, you can count it as 3 years worth of math (pre, alg. and alg2).

Well, it did take us almost two years, and that was doing it every day. However, I used a lot of the worksheets off the website as extra practice. I also did every lesson and every quiz, and most of the comprehensive reviews, assessments, unit tests, etc.

 

Having started in 8th grade, he'll still start Geometry in 10th, so I saw no reason to go through more quickly.

 

I am planning to get through it more quickly with my youngest, starting next year.

[mcconnellboys]

I think you need to start with module A, as others have already explained to you,

 

Regena

[carol]

This is a great but expensive program! Total lessons

are 176 plus lot of quizes and test. The average students take one and a half year to complete. According to the publisher 2 credits are issued for this course, algebra 1 and algebra 2.

 

Carol

[Strengthen My Hands]

Thank you all for your advice. I ordered Module A, I can't wait until it arrives so we can begin!

[BlueMorpho]

My son used VideoText after Saxon Algebra 1/2. It took about 12 months, but he finished shortly after turning 10 (very mathy kid). He took the author's advice and did a few problems at the beginning of each problem set, then just did the odd problems. Sometimes he went back and worked the evens if he needed to. Overall we found this to be a very solid program. It doesn't have the most challenging problems, but my son feels very well-prepared for the kind of non-standard problem solving he's done since in the Art of Problem Solving courses, AMC tests, and MathCounts.

 

As others have said, Module A is essential. In fact it's likely that some of the language introduced early in the module will not be familiar to your daughter. Encourage her not to get frustrated because she thinks the first module is supposed to be "easy." The rest of Module A is a review of things like commutative and distributive properties -- but these really need to be second nature for an algebra student.

 

I'll mention that before starting VideoText I had acquired a used Lials Introductory Algebra and found that the order of presentation was very similar to VideoText (after module A and up to somewhere in module E). At a couple of points when my son had trouble really catching on to a new concept (as evidenced by not performing up to par on a test), I read through the presentation in Lials with him and had him work extra problems. He always did much better on retaking the test after this.

 

For later on in the course, when we got to conics and functions, I found a free online graphing calculator (Googled "online graphing calculator"). We haven't seen the need for a handheld graphing calculator (with a tiny screen), though the schools here use them from algebra I or II on. But it was instructive for my son to see what these calculators can do and to see the graphs of equations and how modifying coefficients or constants altered the graphs.

 

Good luck,

BlueMorpho