SJ. Posted March 3, 2018 Share Posted March 3, 2018 My 7th grader is currently taking AOPS prealgebra. He is not solid on all of the concepts but he has learned a lot this year and I feel he is definitely more ahead using AOPS than he would be using another program. This summer I plan to have him review prealgebra to prepare for WTMA AOPS algebra. What do you consider the most important topics to focus on in preparation for algebra? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.... Posted March 3, 2018 Share Posted March 3, 2018 From my experience: Fractions, Order of Operations, Least Common Multiples 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caroline Posted March 3, 2018 Share Posted March 3, 2018 Add to the list above negative numbers and factors of numbers (although both factors and multiples really just mean number sense) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chicagoshannon Posted March 3, 2018 Share Posted March 3, 2018 LCD, order of operations, fractions(how to add, subtract, multiply and divide them), and how to turn fractions into decimals. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.... Posted March 3, 2018 Share Posted March 3, 2018 Add to the list above negative numbers Yep, forgot about those. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmrich Posted March 3, 2018 Share Posted March 3, 2018 negative numbers, order of operations, and fractions - oh my! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penelope Posted March 3, 2018 Share Posted March 3, 2018 (edited) If you are going to do AoPS algebra, I think you need to be solid on most everything in the AoPS prealgebra book. Really that is true for most any solid algebra. All operations with integers positive and negative, fractions, decimals, percentages, some ratio work, and some work with variables and setting up simple word problems with variables (even if they aren’t yet sure how to solve them. Basically all of it. From my memory, what AoPS prealgebra is heavy on and more thorough with, that some prealgebras don’t cover to the same extent, is negative exponents and working with more complicated exponents. For the most part, I didn’t think that AoPS Preaglebra covered that many extra concepts, but more that they just went deeper with more challenging problems. Edited March 3, 2018 by Penelope 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted March 4, 2018 Share Posted March 4, 2018 If your son is advanced enough to be using AoPS, I'd just review concepts as necessary as you get to them in algebra. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Targhee Posted March 4, 2018 Share Posted March 4, 2018 (edited) Order of Operations, operations with fractions, operations with exponents would be my best guess. Also possibly LCM, LCD, and prime factorization (how to use it to find things like GCF and common multiples) Edited March 4, 2018 by Targhee 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SanDiegoMom Posted March 4, 2018 Share Posted March 4, 2018 If you are going to do AoPS algebra, I think you need to be solid on most everything in the AoPS prealgebra book. Really that is true for most any solid algebra. All operations with integers positive and negative, fractions, decimals, percentages, some ratio work, and some work with variables and setting up simple word problems with variables (even if they aren’t yet sure how to solve them. Basically all of it. From my memory, what AoPS prealgebra is heavy on and more thorough with, that some prealgebras don’t cover to the same extent, is negative exponents and working with more complicated exponents. For the most part, I didn’t think that AoPS Preaglebra covered that many extra concepts, but more that they just went deeper with more challenging problems. Agree about the exponents- we are on chapter two and man, it covers so much! I pulled out Jacobs Algebra and compared and it covered negative exponents as well, but in a much gentler manner and didn't include negative numbers raised to a negative exponent. Which is killing my dd right now... All that to say Aops really covers a lot more than your traditional pre-A... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daijobu Posted March 5, 2018 Share Posted March 5, 2018 This summer you could also assign an old AMC 8, maybe once a week. That way he can be on his toes and see if he has the recall for random math tools. It will also give him an intro to algebra and geometry. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJ. Posted March 7, 2018 Author Share Posted March 7, 2018 Thank you everyone for your helpful advice. I will keep this in mind as I begin to plan out our summer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanaqui Posted March 7, 2018 Share Posted March 7, 2018 My older kid is in high school now, doing algebra. She has come to me a few times and told me that her classmates all have trouble with various things I drilled into her. Most recently, she told me that all her classmates make frequent errors when working with negatives. I can believe it! When we worked together she had trouble remembering which way to go when adding and subtracting from negative numbers and when adding or subtracting negative numbers to other numbers. She had trouble remembering what to do when multiplying by a negative. She had trouble remembering what to do if she had a -7 on this or that side of the equation. I don't know why, but negative numbers was a huge conceptual leap, and now her sister is going through the same thing. It took the better part of a year before the older kid was confident with them, and I kinda want to go back to my 7th and 8th grade math teachers and apologize for thinking they were wasting our time with all those exercises, because clearly this subject that was so intuitive and easy for me was not easy or intuitive for the other students in my class. My kid also has specifically thanked me for instilling good, neat work habits. If you're doing a problem with multiple steps, each step should be labelled and should go in a logical left-to-right or top-to-bottom order so you can easily identify your reasoning and track any errors, and that applies no matter what you're doing. If you see an error, you should neatly cross it out, not scribble the entire page black. That way you can check your thinking later. If you're doing anything that you can pre-estimate, you should do so, and you really do need to have a habit of checking your work. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daijobu Posted March 9, 2018 Share Posted March 9, 2018 My kid also has specifically thanked me for instilling good, neat work habits. If you're doing a problem with multiple steps, each step should be labelled and should go in a logical left-to-right or top-to-bottom order so you can easily identify your reasoning and track any errors, and that applies no matter what you're doing. If you see an error, you should neatly cross it out, not scribble the entire page black. That way you can check your thinking later. If you're doing anything that you can pre-estimate, you should do so, and you really do need to have a habit of checking your work. I love all of this. Good for you and your student! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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