Most students struggling with math don't know their multiplication tables. It's the first thing I check with students.The other main problem students have is critical thinking. They don't practice solving problems by thinking. To learn math and critical thinking you have to run into a wall, go back to the beginning, struggle through a problem to solve it.ISME - Especially when someone has no idea what to do with a problem.Identify the problem type. Usually this leads to better understanding and solving the problem.Set Up - This mostly means writing down the info given in the problem (drawing a diagram and labeling if possible, and writing down what is known about that type of problem. For example, if it's about triangles, then what is known is the rule of 180, the sum of any two interior angles is greater than the third angle, 1/2 * b* h for area, pythagoras for right triangles, etc.Also, if a student writes, he can look back later to correct mistakes. If the student does all the work in his head, then he'll have to rethink it if he wants to review the problem.Make Sure - Make sure it's known what the problem is asking, and that all the info written is correct.Execute - solve the problem. Last night I was working a sample problem for finding the area of a region rotated around a line. When I read the thing I had no idea what region they could mean. The two given functions didn't have any space between them. How could there be a region bounded by the functions? But after graphing three points for each given equation, it was clear and easy.
@fcabanski: I am lost. When my DD gets to Algebra and Calculus I'm calling you to tutor me. 4951