These programs are still being upgraded --
(Lots of new ideas, little time!)
To go directly to the sheets,
this
will do it.
You should chart out how you are doing.
Here are the wonderful
charts
developed by Normand Giroux and Norman Crow.
Why these sheets?
Because in order to do well at math, you must be
fluent with your arithmetic skills -- that is, being
accurate is not enough -- you must
also be fast. Without fluency, without being able to come up
with the correct answers
instantly,
without knowing them "even without thinking about them",
you will
not be able to easily acquire higher level skills. For example, if
you are having trouble with factoring, don't waste time doing more
factoring problems until you master addition, subtraction,
multiplication, and division. (Yes, there are MANY
adults who do not know their multiplication tables -- or even their
addition tables -- very well!) Once you master the first skills, you
may find that you no longer have any trouble factoring -- without
even practicing that.
Suppose you want to factor the quadratic equation
x2 +15x + 56.
If you know the addition and
multiplication tables well, you will immediately see that 7 + 8 is 15
and 7 x 8 is 56 -- and you will know the factors -- (x + 7)(x + 8).
If you do not know
those tables very well, you are going to have a hard time
factoring -- and neither an
expensive calculator nor doing more factoring problems will be able to
help you. What will happen is that you will soon not be doing well in
math, then you will start feeling you are not a "math person",
soon you will hate math. But really, you can be a "math
person" -- you just need to learn the "language" of
mathematics. (After all, imagine going to school in a foreign country
where you were not fluent
in their language -- how could you learn?
On the lower-level skills, you should shoot for at least 80
correct answers per minute. Some people can do far more -- Unfortunately
some people can only do far less.
You can quickly bring these skills up just by practicing a few minutes
every day. (See how many
you can get correct in a minute -- if you do that twice, that's only two
minutes per day!) When you get fluent on the first sheets, move up to
the next ones. But don't try the next skill until
you are fluent in the previous one.
Graphing your results day by day will help you to see how you are
progressing. (Actually, you should graph your correct-per-minute
scores and your incorrect-per-minute scores on semi-log paper. If you
can't find it, though, use whatever you have. "Precision Teaching" is
basically plotting your results on a standard semi-log sheet. Then the
shapes made by the lines on your graph will tell an experienced
Precision Teacher not only how fluent you are becoming, but help diagnose
any errors in your learning. If you go to my
home page, you will find several links where you can learn more
about Precision Teaching.
Would a minute or two every day be worth it to make math easier?
Well, if you bring these skills up, you
will
be rewarded with a much easier time in your math courses!
(You might even begin to like math -- fancy that!)
As it says on one of my colleague's office door:
MATH IS NOT A SPECTATOR SPORT!
-- so like any athlete,
practice!
To get an endless supply of practice sheets, go
here.