Algebra retention, help...

[raganfamily]

My goal for homeschooling has been for my children to learn.  I did not want them to play the game of studying, take a test, and forget what they learned.

 

Somehow, it happened.  Now what to do???

 

My oldest dd has completed VideoText Algebra and did well.   (She did have some trouble with the final comprehensive test)   So, I have her practicing for the College Algebra CLEP test.    

 

Needless to say she is not doing well, she has not retained what she has learned.  What do I do?    Anyone suggest a quick Algebra review to work through or any other suggestions?  What can I do to prevent this from my other kids?    Anyone else experience this?

 

I was not excepting this and would love any suggestions.

[mom2bee]

Fortunately there are a ton of supplements and reference materials an workbooks for Algebra. (Does VideoText cover all of Highschool Algebra? College Algebra is usually some combo to Algebra 2 and PreCalculus, as I understand it)

Keys to Algebra is good for reinforcing/extra practice of algebra 1

The Humongous book of Algebra Problems is also useful and it spans Alg1 and Alg2 and some of PreCalculus (depending on the publisher)

Algebra Demystified is a nice little reference/walk through text

 

There are a ton more but I can't call them all off the top of my head...

[MarkT]

My goal for homeschooling has been for my children to learn.  I did not want them to play the game of studying, take a test, and forget what they learned.

 

Somehow, it happened.  Now what to do???

 

My oldest dd has completed VideoText Algebra and did well.   (She did have some trouble with the final comprehensive test)   So, I have her practicing for the College Algebra CLEP test.    

 

Needless to say she is not doing well, she has not retained what she has learned.  What do I do?    Anyone suggest a quick Algebra review to work through or any other suggestions?  What can I do to prevent this from my other kids?    Anyone else experience this?

 

I was not excepting this and would love any suggestions.

 

How long ago was the completed class?  I have a similar situation with my son forgetting topics he learned over a year prior.  Part of it was maturity in son's case since he was 7th grade taking Algebra.  At what level is your DD? 

 

Does you DD understand the math behind the topics or did she just  "learn" enough to take the test.  I would suggest spiraling of the HW problems would help with retention for the next DC. 

 

There are plenty of review problems and tests out there.

Have her take one to see what parts draw a blank.

 

[jennynd]

DS always starts his math with review. Different topic to review every time, and 2,3 topic a time. Just couple questions. Just to keep it fresh. It is much easier to do a quick 10 mins review then reteach later.

[kiana]

I agree with Mark, how long ago did she complete the class? College algebra usually is not just algebra 2, but review/extension/beginning of precalculus. I don't think most students would be ready to CLEP out after algebra 2. It might be beneficial to acquire a college algebra textbook or learning software and actually work through it. 

[unsinkable]

I linked this last year in an algebra review thread. Scroll to the bottom to see algebra refresher. It doesn't have practice problems, but it has all the topics so you could use it as a quick reference.

 

http://go.hrw.com/hrw.nd/gohrw_rls1/pKeywordResults?keyword=MG7+Parent

 

Here is the original thread:

 

 

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/474975-what-would-you-recommend-for-reviewing-and-reinforcing-algebra-i-concepts/

 

HTH

[Nan in Mass]

How do you make sure your other children retain their math?  Having BTDT, I can answer.  Sigh.  For us, it was a combination of four things.  We had to have ALL FOUR.  If I dropped one of them, they looked like they were learning, they did fine in the course, but they weren't really learning math.

 

1 - They had to do math TWICE A DAY.  Once a day wasn't enough.  I went through the lesson in the morning with them, reading aloud, writing out the example problems and talking aloud as I solved them (pointing wasn't enough), and having them solve a few problem so I could tell they understood.  Then they did the excersize in the evening.  I figured that out by thinking about how I had learned math in public school.

 

2 - Even my math-bright son needed to learn math WITH ME or another teacher.  I felt guilty about this, thinking that I had failed to homeschool my children properly, until I remembered that when I was in school, I spent 45 minutes in class and then spent another half an hour to an hour doing problems at home.  Every single weekday.  I was good at math and in the highest math class.  We were given time to work on our homework together at the end of class and time to compare answers together before class.  And it still took me that long.  (If you aren't spending that much time on math, you might think about increasing the amount of time.)  Even in college, I had a teacher.  Math for us was apparently one of those things that worked better with company.

 

3 - I had to make sure they didn't just memorize the steps, that they really understood WHY they were doing it.  Some math programs make this easier than others.  (I couldn't do it with Saxon, for instance, where-as Dolciani makes it very easy to do this.)

 

4 - They had to USE their math, not just juggle equations for the excersizes.  For us, that meant I had to pick a book that emphasized that, they had to solve tons of word problems, and I had to make sure they had other opportunities to use it, like navigation and building things and in science.

 

HTH

Nan

[Julie in MN]

I think the study ideas so far are great and always useful.

 

However, my son did an entire College algebra class after Algebra 1 & 2.  They aren't the same thing.  They may "look" like the same thing - for instance, all three classes cover the quadratic equation.  However, as my son says, college algebra is the quadratic on steroids. 

 

Julie

[Mom22ns]

However, my son did an entire College algebra class after Algebra 1 & 2.  They aren't the same thing.  They may "look" like the same thing - for instance, all three classes cover the quadratic equation.  However, as my son says, college algebra is the quadratic on steroids. 

 

Julie

 

This.

 

You are expecting your dd to pass a test over material she hasn't covered. She hasn't forgotten, she hasn't learned it yet. Videotext covers Pre-algebra through Algebra 2. It doesn't cover College Algebra. As Julie said, the topics may look the same, but the depth isn't. If you want her to pass a College Algebra Clep, let her take College Algebra first. Lial's College Algebra is easy to self study from. There are lots of versions, but here is one.

[raganfamily]

Thanks for all the posts.  Right now, I have started her on the Keys to Algebra  series as daily review, and told her we were not going to worry about a CLEP test at this point.   

 

I think this has been a great eye opener and I am going to work on establishing good daily review.  I agree with 'Nan in Mass' math came easy to me, but I did math twice a day as well.

 

Now, I have to figure out what else my kids are learning and forgetting :(