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Making a Math Help Sheet - Need Your Help!!


Hunter's Moon
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I decided it might be wise to make a math help sheet for this upcoming semester. Things like commonly used formulas, a few definitions (I always forget the difference between multiples and factors), etc. 

 

What things do you think are an absolute must??

 

It does not need to be extremely extensive, but it will be very helpful to have a few sheets to quickly glance at instead of googling (googleing??) something or searching through the textbook indices. 

 

Thank you :D

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I am unsure of what I will test into. My options are Calc I and Technical Mathematics. Because I am not sure if Tech. Mathematics are the same across colleges (I doubt it), the description says 

 

First of a two-part sequence for technology students in a math-related field. Topics include ratio, proportion, variation, fractions, fractional equations, functions and graphs, right triangle trigonometry, vectors, solution of linear equations, determinants, factoring, algebraic functions, laws of sines and cosines, graphs of trigonometric functions and complex numbers.

 

I will probably be doing Technical Mathematics, though am aiming for Calc I. 

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Barnes and Noble (and I am sure others), sell laminated tri-folding sheets for all kinds of topics. Many for different math levels. Before you reinvent the wheel you might look there.

 

ETA: Unfortunately, I forget the brand on them. They go from elementary level topics through college, I think.

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http://www.sosmath.com/trig/Trig5/trig5/trig5.html

http://www.mathwords.com/t/trig_identities.htm

 

I find it very helpful to have the trig identities printed out and use that as a bookmark.

 

I also think the Casio fx300ES is the perfect calculator to have because it leaves your answer in radical/rational form unless you ask it for decimal form, so it will give your answer as sqrt(3)/2 rather than 0.866.

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I also think the Casio fx300ES is the perfect calculator to have because it leaves your answer in radical/rational form unless you ask it for decimal form, so it will give your answer as sqrt(3)/2 rather than 0.866.

 

And since I need students to be able to do algebraic manipulation on their own (it's part of what my classes are about), I don't allow calculators that show answers like that. The Casios in particular are ones I don't allow.

 

The printed sheets are useful as references, but making your own sheet with things you keep looking up is going to be best. You want to get to a point where you can reproduce your sheet or any part of it you need on a test.

 

In trig & calculus, I'd keep a sheet in the front of my notebook with the unit circle and some basic trig identities. On tests, I could resketch what I needed.

 

If you know the text you'll be using, if it's published by Pearson, you may find it with the InterAct software and you could start reviewing by working some problems. See where you look things up and then those things go on your review sheet. Then make notecards or whatever you need to memorize formulas (quadratic formula for instance).

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One of the things I do in math (& chemistry & physics) is to write out the general formula I use for each problem. So if I am using the quadratic formula (for example) in 6 problems, I write the formula in each problem, so a total of 6 times. That is the way I learn the formulae. I think your idea of creating a reference sheet is a good idea, also. You will learn better if you make the sheet rather than buying one.

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One of the things I do in math (& chemistry & physics) is to write out the general formula I use for each problem. So if I am using the quadratic formula (for example) in 6 problems, I write the formula in each problem, so a total of 6 times. That is the way I learn the formulae. I think your idea of creating a reference sheet is a good idea, also. You will learn better if you make the sheet rather than buying one.

 

Rewriting the formulas will help a lot. Creating your own sheet will also help much more than buying one. It is very, very easy, when using someone else's sheet, to get used to using it on homework, and then realize when the exams come around that you don't actually know the formula you need, you just recognize it when it's written down by someone else.

 

If you do decide to go with a purchased sheet, I would recommend that you start practicing writing it down until you can duplicate it from memory -- because that's the way it's going to be useful.

 

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