Math Mammoth 6th grader

[carriede]

I posted this on Facebook too, in case you see it twice.

Help with 6th grader, please!

We've used MM for his entire math career and he's done well with it in the past - not always stellar, but decent. He just took the 6th grade final test and scored 73% (passing is 80%). There are of course some sections he did better in, but there are still only 2 sections he scored 90%+. So he failed 6 topics on the test.

My plan was to finish out the school year with 7a, then next school year do VideoText which has a pre-algebra element as it's first module, so he would double up on some topics.

Would that be enough review and reinforcement for the topics he's weak on? I feel like he did well on the daily assignments for 6th grade, but the test shows me he hasn't retained much. Or do I go back and explicitly work on the weak topics using what I have (light blue texts) or some other resource?

Thank you for your help!

[Miss Tick]

How did he study for the final test? Did he do problems he hasn't seen much of? Did he re-do homework problems that he didn't get right initially and understand where he was making his mistake?

Sometimes people need to be reminded of problems they haven't seen in a while. They may remember something like how to multiply fractions when it is in the context of a larger problem but not remember it presented by itself. I would spend the next few weeks picking problems out of the sections he struggled with, have him talk you through one or two, and then have him do a few more on his own. You could make up another test if you want reassurance after he goes through the review. 

[alisha]

I've found my tween learns a lot more than I thought by looking at the answer and figuring out what went wrong. Maybe you could have him fix the ones he missed, and then take or re-take the test (not sure if there's another test he could take, or if you have enough math knowledge to alter the probelms or what). 

[Momto6inIN]

We go from MM to Video Text too! (although I have them do all of MM7 because Video Text PreA comes at the subject in a completely different way then MM).

I would not go forward unless they are rock solid on fractions, decimals, and percents. Geometry and measurement and scaling I don't worry as much about. I would definitely go over the ones they missed with you, then maybe do some of the make your own worksheets to practice the concepts they're wobbly on before trying the review and test again.

[Not_a_Number]

73% is the kind of score where I'd want to know WHAT they missed. Can you give an example of some systematic mistakes that he makes? What does he have trouble with?