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Posted (edited)

Can I just let this one slide for now? Dd "gets" it but just always misses these questions. She feels like she's lacking a lot of context and just wants to move on for the time being. Even Derek Owens, who usually gives some context, is teaching this mostly as a "plug and chug". This is chapter 10. It's the only thing she missed on the test. Thoughts? Should I let her move on or is there something to help her with the big picture? This is not a topic I covered in PreCalculus/ College Algebra myself.

She worked through the Khan Academy section and realized when she searched for it in MIT OCW that it's really a topic that's in the middle of Linear Algebra.

Edited by MamaSprout
Posted (edited)

I don't see what Cramer's rule is doing in precalculus at all. It certainly isn't a prerequisite to calculus and will make a lot more sense in the context of a Linear Algebra course later on.

I imagine it's in there because somebody decided to include matrices in standardized testing, without any actual thorough coverage. I'd skip.

Edited by regentrude
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Posted

Cramer's Rule is in the AoPS PreCalculus textbook, in chapters 10 and 11.  I personally find the matrix problems to be fairly tedious, and really these calculations are designed to be performed by a computer.  If your student decides to take a linear algebra class in the future, it will probably take all of 15 minutes to review it again.   

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Posted

I just covered Cramer's Rule in Foerster's Alg 2 with one of my kids. I assume it is an intro & isn't meant to be mastered at this level. DH & I each took a Matrix Theory class in college (which I assume is kind of like the Linear Algebra class others are referencing) and I still beeded to review the chapter for a few minutes before teaching it.

So, yeah, I wouldn't insist on mastery.

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Posted
3 hours ago, RootAnn said:

I just covered Cramer's Rule in Foerster's Alg 2 with one of my kids. I assume it is an intro & isn't meant to be mastered at this level. DH & I each took a Matrix Theory class in college (which I assume is kind of like the Linear Algebra class others are referencing) and I still beeded to review the chapter for a few minutes before teaching it.

So, yeah, I wouldn't insist on mastery.

She did see some matrix stuff in Derek Owens Algebra 2, as well. She definitely didn't have as much trouble with it then. Something about these are tripping her up. I told her she needed to review her addition and subtraction facts. She wasn't amused, lol.

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Posted
2 hours ago, MamaSprout said:

She did see some matrix stuff in Derek Owens Algebra 2, as well.

I'm pretty sure DO's Algebra 2 doesn't cover matrices.

Posted
16 hours ago, EKS said:

I'm pretty sure DO's Algebra 2 doesn't cover matrices.

Hmmm. Now I'll have to go look. She did do some matrices last year, but we did two different Algebra 2 programs. I really thought it was in Derek Owens.

Posted
17 hours ago, EKS said:

I'm pretty sure DO's Algebra 2 doesn't cover matrices.

Okay, I just asked her. She went over them just before she took the ACT, so not in a curriculum, just something she needed for that. 

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