OnMyOwn Posted May 31, 2016 Share Posted May 31, 2016 Has anyone used this? If so, did you find their workbook offered sufficient practice or did you need to add to it? Is it a strong program? I'm thinking about this because when I watched the sample videos, it looked simple and straightforward and to the point. I also think my dd would appreciate the humor in it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cuckoomamma Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 I'm not sure how much I can help. My daughter had used Thinkwell for Algebra and Geometry before moving to their Pre-Calculus. They list their progression as Geometry, then Pre-Calculus which would include their Algebra 2 class. Dd had breezed through the previous classes but found the Pre-Calc confusing without having had Algebra 2 beforehand. She was carrying a heavy load with several AP classes, so rather than help her through the rough patch, I called Thinkwell. They gave her access to their Algebra 2 class (along with the Pre-Calc). She decided to just take the Algebra 2 alone and move to the Pre-Calc next year. I'm not sure if we'll stay with Thinkwell for Pre-Calc or switch to DO next year. Although dd finds math relatively easy, she doesn't like Aops. I don't feel that I can teach her Pre-Calc myself, so I'm in a similar situation to you and looking for a great option for Pre-Calc. The difference in price between DO and Thinkwell is significant, but I'm not able to judge if it's worth paying for the difference. She wants to follow with AP Calc the following year. Let me know if there's anything specific that I can answer. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hornblower Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 (edited) ds just started this about a month ago. I think there is a comment floating around on the web (or here?) that there's insufficient practice. I saw it & asked about it here. When I asked a few months ago, someone said their student thought there was plenty & in fact the parent was having a difficulty getting the student to do them all & now that I've seen it, I'm inclined to agree. Just fyi, there are (it seems always) 12 questions assigned per lesson. The lesson lectures run ~10-15+ minutes. Then there are additional videos which is someone demonstrating in more detail how to work the problems. Ds at first wasn't watching those but he discovered that to succeed in the question set, you usually had to watch those practice problems because they go beyond what's in the lecture and show some tricks and techniques. So per lesson you have the lecture, plus 8-12 minutes of additional video of problem solving. Then you have the 12 problem questions. They're not always fast to solve. If you do "nose down, no distractions, make no mistakes, don't have to look anything up to refresh etc", you can probably do them in 3-4 minutes each but it's not unusual to take closer to 5 minutes. Plus breaks etc. So over 30 minutes & sometimes 1 hour + for the questions. The proposed schedule that they have on the website suggests usually 3 lessons per day. In our house that's turned out not doable. We've had to scale back to 2 and some days only 1.The problem sets seem to beat you over the head. They're the same thing, over and over and over again. Sometimes you load the question and think I've done this already!?? and then realize one digit was changed or a sign was reversed but otherwise it's the same thing. On the plus side you get really good at doing that type of problem. On the minus side, so.so.so. boring. It doesn't seem to spiral per se but I can see already that if you missed or didn't get something a couple weeks ago, you'd struggle now so it seems more cumulative & applying previous lessons. (btw, I'm doing this alongside ds because I might be going back to school in a couple years & my old calculus marks from university are too old so I'd have to do placement tests etc & so I figured I might as well do the refresher now....) any more questions, pls feel free to ask :) Edited June 2, 2016 by hornblower 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hornblower Posted June 3, 2016 Share Posted June 3, 2016 p.s. it is kind of funny. I find him amusing in a not annoying way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkT Posted June 3, 2016 Share Posted June 3, 2016 Added this link for BYU online Precalc: http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/542418-homeschool-high-school-math/page-2?do=findComment&comment=7033820 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnMyOwn Posted June 4, 2016 Author Share Posted June 4, 2016 ds just started this about a month ago. I think there is a comment floating around on the web (or here?) that there's insufficient practice. I saw it & asked about it here. When I asked a few months ago, someone said their student thought there was plenty & in fact the parent was having a difficulty getting the student to do them all & now that I've seen it, I'm inclined to agree. Just fyi, there are (it seems always) 12 questions assigned per lesson. The lesson lectures run ~10-15+ minutes. Then there are additional videos which is someone demonstrating in more detail how to work the problems. Ds at first wasn't watching those but he discovered that to succeed in the question set, you usually had to watch those practice problems because they go beyond what's in the lecture and show some tricks and techniques. So per lesson you have the lecture, plus 8-12 minutes of additional video of problem solving. Then you have the 12 problem questions. They're not always fast to solve. If you do "nose down, no distractions, make no mistakes, don't have to look anything up to refresh etc", you can probably do them in 3-4 minutes each but it's not unusual to take closer to 5 minutes. Plus breaks etc. So over 30 minutes & sometimes 1 hour + for the questions. The proposed schedule that they have on the website suggests usually 3 lessons per day. In our house that's turned out not doable. We've had to scale back to 2 and some days only 1. The problem sets seem to beat you over the head. They're the same thing, over and over and over again. Sometimes you load the question and think I've done this already!?? and then realize one digit was changed or a sign was reversed but otherwise it's the same thing. On the plus side you get really good at doing that type of problem. On the minus side, so.so.so. boring. It doesn't seem to spiral per se but I can see already that if you missed or didn't get something a couple weeks ago, you'd struggle now so it seems more cumulative & applying previous lessons. (btw, I'm doing this alongside ds because I might be going back to school in a couple years & my old calculus marks from university are too old so I'd have to do placement tests etc & so I figured I might as well do the refresher now....) any more questions, pls feel free to ask :) Yes, I did see some older posts that said it was just a supplement or there wasn't enough practice, so I was definitely wondering about that. So they suggest doing 3 lessons a day and each one may take close to an hour? And is this to complete the course in a semester or a year? We definitely don't want to spend that much time on math. Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hornblower Posted June 4, 2016 Share Posted June 4, 2016 Yes, I did see some older posts that said it was just a supplement or there wasn't enough practice, so I was definitely wondering about that. So they suggest doing 3 lessons a day and each one may take close to an hour? And is this to complete the course in a semester or a year? We definitely don't want to spend that much time on math. Thank you! This is the schedule they suggest. http://www.thinkwellhomeschool.com/pdfs/lesson-plans/PrecalculusLessonPlan.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoPlaceLikeHome Posted June 4, 2016 Share Posted June 4, 2016 Did anyone have current subscription to pre-calculus. We just extended ours but I noticed that the CD of the videos that was available for purchase seems to no longer be for sale:( Also, Homeschool Buyers Co-op is no longer able to offer discounted group buys:( Any other places for discount? We use as a supplement to saxon advanced mathematics which they use at our kid's school. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hornblower Posted June 4, 2016 Share Posted June 4, 2016 Did anyone have current subscription to pre-calculus. I have a subscription right now & no, they did not offer CDs. Only optional thing was to buy the textbook (which I did). I paid whatever the price is on the website - full, I guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnMyOwn Posted June 4, 2016 Author Share Posted June 4, 2016 Did anyone have current subscription to pre-calculus. We just extended ours but I noticed that the CD of the videos that was available for purchase seems to no longer be for sale:( Also, Homeschool Buyers Co-op is no longer able to offer discounted group buys:( Any other places for discount? We use as a supplement to saxon advanced mathematics which they use at our kid's school. How did you use this as a supplement to Saxon Advanced math? That's what my dd is actually supposed to be using in the fall since she's just finishing up Saxon algebra 2, but I'm unsure about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkT Posted June 4, 2016 Share Posted June 4, 2016 I have a subscription right now & no, they did not offer CDs. Only optional thing was to buy the textbook (which I did). I paid whatever the price is on the website - full, I guess. textbook http://www.gettextbooks.com/isbn/9781605380797/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hornblower Posted June 4, 2016 Share Posted June 4, 2016 textbook http://www.gettextbooks.com/isbn/9781605380797/ it's weird but the textbook they sent us doesn't look like that & the copyright date is 2008. The one we have is kind of poor quality in terms of paper/binding.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoPlaceLikeHome Posted June 6, 2016 Share Posted June 6, 2016 it's weird but the textbook they sent us doesn't look like that & the copyright date is 2008. The one we have is kind of poor quality in terms of paper/binding.... Burger has a separate regular textbook. The one Thinkwell sells is specifically for their courses and includes notes from course and problems from what I understand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoPlaceLikeHome Posted June 16, 2016 Share Posted June 16, 2016 Thinkwell is going to be on sale again 6/23! I am happy because last I checked Homeschool Buyer's Co-op said they would not be able to offer reduced price on Thinkwell again. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnMyOwn Posted June 16, 2016 Author Share Posted June 16, 2016 Thinkwell is going to be on sale again 6/23! I am happy because last I checked Homeschool Buyer's Co-op said they would not be able to offer reduced price on Thinkwell again. Yea, I just saw that yesterday as I was once again contemplating math plans for my dd. I like what I saw of their dvds enough that I may order them to use as a supplement even if we stick with Saxon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkT Posted July 24, 2016 Share Posted July 24, 2016 Added Mini-review of hardcopy Thinkwell Precalc text book http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/542418-homeschool-high-school-math/page-2?do=findComment&comment=7119710 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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