Does anyone have any tips on doing well in Math (mainly high level algebra)

My daughter is having the same problem. Despite getting a number of good grades she has ended up with a B for this grading period.

In my experience, you need to practice, practice, and then practice some more. You need to go to any tutoring sessions offered, and you may want to form a study group with others in your class, so you guys can discuss what you are supposed to be doing. Often, one person picks up on a fine point that others miss.

@Darwin I think tutoring would work too.. but I dont have enough time ):
I finally quit my part time job but I also have theatre (which takes up most of my time)

The only thing you can do to improve your ability to work the problems is to work similar problems over and over until it is second nature to solve those types of problems. Are any other theatre folks taking the same class? Could you folks work on math whenever you aren’t needed on stage?

You can also shoot for a cram session with fellow students the night before each test, but that may limit your sleep.

@Darwin Sleep is about the only thing I’ve valued in my high school career :P
Can’t and Won’t give that up. I will try to look into tutoring @ school.
Thanks!

@naivete I always needed a personal tutor in math, even in college I still need help. It can be difficult for some people, but I’ve found lots of practice, and tutoring so I can actually grasp it, is essential for me.
I would definitely try to make time. Do you have a free period at all, geez what’s it called..homeroom or graderoom? I know they allow for tutoring during that time period. I would ask in the math department for an available teacher or fellow student. I would never be ashamed to ask for help, it’s your grades and you need to do well..who cares what others think! Good luck!

I print out as many practice problems as are available/necessary and do them over and over until it’s more or less muscle memory. It usually works. Sometimes the material just doesn’t cooperate with the method, though.

Certainly you should practice problems as much as you can to get the hang of them. In addition, the question title contained mention of algebra, and I don’t know if this is relevant to the difficulties you’re having, but having a good foundation in algebra, trigonometry, and functional analysis (just being familiar with the general behavior of different classes of functions) is crucial for calculus. Calculus draws all of these elementary areas of mathematics together and a gap in understanding in one of these areas can cause a gap in understanding the calculus that involves them. Some of the problems you’re having with calculus might be due to some things that you didn’t understand about an earlier math.

Also I don’t know how much it will help, but this is a particularly nice website that contains online course notes for algebra, calculus, and a variety of other courses.
http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/
I’m a sophomore engineering student in college and I still check this website every now and again for math help, it’s pretty good.

When I was in the University and taking up calculus courses (differential and integral) I: (a) listened exclusively to the lecture – no note-taking while the professor was explaining the lessons; and as the professor usually talked while doing board work, I’d copy whatever was on the blackboard but only after he stopped talking; (b) I did ALL the exercises in the workbook provided for the course as well as the exercises in the main reference books, every night, without fail, until I perfectly understood the questions and the process of getting the answers (don’t cheat when answers are provided at the back of the book!); (c) only after having done a and b, could I begin to learn the syntax and grammar of calculus and be able to understand it enough to pass the courses with good grades. Um it also helps if you don’t ‘hate’ the course :-D

There is a learning center called Tutoring Club in cities across the US. They did wonders with a friend of ours. No high pressure…just great instruction and caring. They have website

There are also useful books in the “Dummies” series:

Pre-Calculus for Dummies

Pre-Calculus for Dummies Workbook

My daughter used the “Algebra for Dummies” book happily and with great success.

This program is great and it is free although you can buy the disks , you can get there from the first link on this page http://www.traumaticbraininjurycenters.com/2009/11/math-help-after-tbi/ plus there are other helps. Mostly with math the problem is because you have lost steps along the way….I was more proud of passing the maths that I was getting advanced degrees and contrary to what people say you need math for almost everything!

@empower math after traumatic brain injury???

The links are generalized math help all in one place. It is possible to do math even after a brain injury…just not all that easy. There are lawyers, doctors and researchers that have sustained TBI and gone on to practice…the post was not to say that if you can’t do math you must have a TBI…These are the best links I have found and because math was tough for me I looked in a lot of places!

@empower I’m loving and downloading the pdf files in the mathcentre :-D thanks!