Math Refresher for Adults - A TOS Homeschool Crew Review

In June I learned I would be reviewing Math Refresher for Adults,


 a book in the Math Essentials series, by Rick Fisher.



When I initially signed up asking for this review, I wasn't sure if the student would be myself or my son, who is starting college in the fall. As it turns out, the college offered my son a free on-line remedial math course, so I have been the student.

The first thing I did, after reading the introduction, was find myself a fresh new spiral notebook to do my math work. Pages in the book have space for answers to be written down, but I prefer not to do that.

Transferring answers from the notebook to the textbook is an unnecessary opportunity to make a mistake (dropping a negative, or writing the wrong number, etc.)

After getting myself a spiral notebook, I got out a storage box of sharpened pencils to keep by my side whenever I was doing my Math. Then I looked through the available topics in the three page Table of Contents.

I need to tell you though, in the spirit of full disclosure, that I love Math. I love doing Math. So initially I just sat down and worked through the entire first section, one lesson at a time. 

The answers are at the back of the book, so you do a lesson, check a lesson. I am also an editor by nature. I kept looking for errors in the answer key. Oh, I found errors... but they were MY errors. ::sigh:: If I worked too fast 8 + 6 would come up as 12, or I'd miss a negative sign and get the answer wrong.

When I finished section 1, I decided to skip to the back of the book (pre-Algebra/Algebra) where my son would work if he were in this book. I immediately got a "review" question I couldn't answer about the area or circumference of a circle. So I dropped back in the book again to work where I really did need review.

One section where I got the answer wrong was an area question (#5 below):

So as I looked at the problem, I saw a square figure with a side measuring 4-1/2 ft. So I multiplied 4-1/2 X 4-1/2, and I got the answer wrong. The shape is actually a rectangle, and I did not see that one side measures 1-1/2 ft. The reason I mention this is that if I had a student working through this book who did that, with me checking the answers, I wouldn't want to just hand the paper back to the student with a red X next to the answer to #5. If your student gets something wrong, look at it and see if it was a minor mistake. The goal is for the student to be learning, reviewing, filling in gaps.

The better method is to have the student check each lesson's answers himself. It is really easy using the spiral notebook method -- just turn to the back of the book and hold the spiral up to the answer key page and go through the problems one by one. I like the answer circled so it is easy to find the answer to check it.

So, as I said, after initially doing all of the first section (basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) I skipped around and worked on topics I needed review on. These included formulas (area of a circle, circumference of a circle) and scientific notation. I don't know why, but for me the presentation in this book for scientific notation really made it click for the first time. I feel really confident about working these problems now, and I never did before.

The way this textbook works is as follows:

• First, decide on a lesson to work on based on the topic you need to review. The Contents has the subjects divided into these sections: Whole Numbers, Fractions, Decimals, Percents, Geometry, Integers, Charts and Graphs, Word Problems, and Pre-Algebra and Algebra. Within each section, each lesson describes what it focuses on, such as "Circles" in Geometry, or "Square Roots" or "Scientific Notation" in Pre-Algebra and Algebra.
• Within the lesson you decide to focus on, it will start with "Review Exercises". If you aren't ready for the Review Exercises on that lesson (like I didn't know how to do circumference of a circle) you want to skip back further in the book and understand the "review" topic before doing the lesson you originally had picked.
• Following the "Review Exercises" in each lesson is a "Helpful Hints" section. This is a reminder of the information you will need to do the rest of the problems in the lesson. If these hints are not enough, you will want to dive into the video component that is available, that I will address below.
• Each lesson ends with "Problem Solving", which is a little word problem related to the rest of the lesson. Sometimes I just didn't even see these word problems, like my eyes glazed over. When I am in number mode, I sometimes do not want to read words.
  

Now I need to tell you also about the video component of this product. With the purchase of  Math Refresher for Adults you also get access to video lessons on all math subjects. Math Essentials includes the following textbooks: 

• Mastering Essential Math Skills, Book 1;
  
• Mastering Essential Math Skills, Book 2;
  
  
• Pre-Algebra Concepts; and
  
• No-Nonsense Algebra
  

Each of these textbooks comes with a video component, teaching a lesson for each lesson in each book. When you purchase Math Refresher for Adults you get on-line access to the other three textbooks, including the video-lesson component! That is amazing! All you need to do is go to Math Essentials  and click "Videos" on the top menu bar.

Richard Fisher is committed to math literacy in students and adults. His Math Refresher for Adults, with its access to all the other math programs, is something he is making available because he wants to do all that he can to help others succeed in math. It is a wonderful program!

So I have thoroughly enjoyed my time working through my math review using Math Refresher for Adults. My son has not been as successful in his college math review, so I am going to offer this text to him to use, if he wishes, instead of using the college-provided review course. I highly recommend this course to you.

Consider this course if you are preparing to teach your students and are rusty. Consider this course if your student might have gaps in his learning and you want to fill them in. Consider this course if your student seems advanced and you want to see if they are ready for the next level. Consider this course if your student is preparing for the ACT, the SAT, or the Math Accuplacer, or your student is graduating and preparing to take a college math readiness test. It is a great course.

To see what other members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew  thought of Math Refresher for Adults, click on the link below to read their reviews.

CTCMath - High School - A TOS Homeschool Crew Review

In September I learned I had been chosen to review CTCMath! I was glad I'd been chosen because this was one of the few review products that my son asked for!

Some Crew members were given a Single Membership for a year and some were given a Family Membership. I requested a Single Membership because only one of us would be working consistently on the program during the review period. I had a previous account with CTCMath with a Family membership, and I was surprised and delighted when CTCMath just added 12 months to my Family Membership. Thank you, CTCMath!

I knew that during this review period my son could not commit to using the product three days per week (which is why I could only request the Single Membership). I was permitted to review the product as the student myself. I want to emphasize how important it is for any parent to considering having their own student account -- for most of us, we still need the Math work ourselves if we are going to help our students!

The high school courses in CTCMath are not intended to be a complete curriculum. They are wonderful, though, and there are many different ways to use them. As a parent, I like to start at the beginning and work my way through from beginning to end. For the student, as a supplement to the coursework, you might find areas where CTCMath presents topics in a different order than your main curriculum, or at a different rate of speed.  You might open each section as your student reaches the topic in your main curriculum, or you might use CTCMath sections only where your student is struggling. Or if your student is advanced, might even use CTCMath as your main material, and then use the tests from your other curriculum to "test out" and document that your student has comprehension of the section. I could easily see switching back and forth between those last two methods!

I did one day of CTCMath using my son's account, looking at Geometry (which is the Math course my son is taking in high school this year). Then I realized that I needed to stick with one account (my own) and not switch between accounts, or it might look to the vendor like I wasn't using the product as often as I had committed to. 

My next CTCMath log in I used my own student account, and for my own coursework I had planned to work on Calculus. Since I got an "A" in Calculus I in college, I thought this was safe.

Each course has the option of starting with a "Diagnostic Test" for the student. I did the diagnostic test in a previous course, but not this time. If I've done the previous course, I find it trying on my patience to take the diagnostic test. If I am a little rusty, I'll score poorly on a diagnostic even though I've studied the material and just need some review. And if they ask me certain questions I should know and don't ("Which statements are true of a Rhombus"), I'll look like I should go down an entire level! I usually figure if a student has completed Algebra I they're ready to progress to Algebra II or Geometry.

The Calculus lessons are divided into Part 1 and Part 2, and Part 1 begins with a review section. 

Each lesson begins with a video. After the student watches the video, the student pulls up a worksheet to practice the concepts covered in the video. 

The student can work directly from the computer, or the worksheet can be printed out. Sample worksheet:

What was different for me on this CTCMath course was that the student is supposed to complete the worksheet and then self-check the answers against an answer sheet:  
 
and then enter the student score:

The answers are to be a percentage, which means the student has to determine what percentage is correct. This is difficult to do because there is no indication as to weight per question - Q1 has 7 problems and Q2 has four. Are they weighted equally? Do you give partial credit? My son would not likely take time for figure out the percent for 10 right out of 11 questions...

So I worked on Calculus for weeks, but often I'd watch the video one day but not finish the worksheet until the next (because it was difficult, and frankly, I wasn't ready for it). I knew I was in trouble when I had to graph equations to the number plane. 

Graphing (1)(b) was difficult - I could see that it was a parabala hitting Y at "2", but don't really know why, or whether I should know how to graph the parabala exactly...

(1)(c) was worse -- I had no idea how to graph it. And looking at the answer did not clarify it for me.

I knew I was in over my head. Time to switch back to Geometry. I had done part of the beginning Geometry on my son's account, but did them again. I like the lessons where the student enters the answer and the program indicates correct or incorrect problem by problem.

The above type of question annoyed me because I read and answer too quickly and get it wrong because I only see "Choose ALL of the quadrilaterals" and I miss "and circles." Then I get the answer wrong... I learned to slow down.


The student can't lie to the parent about time spent on the program because it keeps track of everything! I found I had logged in much less than I realized because it was taking me two days to get certain lessons done. It doesn't look as good as I had expected:

CTCMath also sends a weekly report to the parent. The weekly report shows my efforts in a better light, because it does not show only what was completed but rather shows how often I logged in and was working on the material.

Pardon my black outs for privacy...

I can't tell you enough how much I have loved working with CTCMath this month. It has been "tweaked" and is very intuitive and east to work with. There is still room for improvement on the student entering their own grade. It would help if each problem indicated how many points it was worth in a way that the points add up to 100 - then the student could more easily determine their score on a worksheet.

I really love CTCMath and encourage you to give it a try. There is an option for giving a student account a trial, and there is an offer for getting a 6-month subscription for 60% off.

I may not have made it clear, so I'll say it here - CTCMath has courses from Kindergarten to Calculus. The lower grades constitute a complete curriculum and the high school courses are supplemental lessons.

Try the Free Trial and let me know what you think!

Other members of the Homeschool Review Crew also reviewed CTCMath. To read more reviews, click the button below:

No-Nonsense Algebra - A TOS Homeschool Crew Review

In early July select members of the Homeschool Review Crew learned they would be receiving No-Nonsense Algebra to review.

No-Nonsense Algebra is one of many products available from Math Essentials.

The reason I requested to be on this review initially was so my son and I could review Algebra to help him on his upcoming SAT. In late spring he took the ACT and came home upset because of how much Math he did not remember. He took Algebra 1 in 9th Grade, Algebra 2 in 10th Grade, and we had planned Geometry in 11th, but it didn't get done. Then he took the ACT. As the summer began he expressed enthusiasm and commitment to do his Math and Science over the summer to improve college entrance exam scores and finish up some coursework loose ends.

Next year my student will be a senior. He will be taking Geometry in an out-of-the-home class that we are paying for. We need to do this to get it done. This Geometry class is using a Geometry textbook that incorporates a log of Algebra into the coursework, and my student has been told to review his Algebra for this reason as well.

When our copy of No-Nonsense Algebra arrived in the mail, I was already seeing signs that our initial Math plans were crumbling. I knew my son had a ten-day trip planned during the 30-day review period, but somehow two more five-day trips were now also in the works. My son was barely available.

I've had this happen previously as a product reviewer, and I knew what I had to do. The Teacher became the Student.

Opening No-Nonsense Algebra, the student immediately finds the Introduction. The first section of the Introduction explains how the book is set up. The book is broken into ten chapters, and each chapter is divided up into a number of lessons and a chapter review. Each lesson is divided into five sections:

1. An introduction with an explanation of the new topic;
2. Helpful Hints and shortcuts;
3. Examples with step-by-step solutions;
4. Exercises for the student (answers are at the back of the book);
5. A section of Review.

The second section of the Introduction explains how to use the book: 

1. Carefully read the Introduction;
2. Carefully read the Helpful Hints section;
3. Read through the examples;
4. Copy the exercises onto a separate sheet of paper and work through them;
5. Complete the review problems;
6. Check and correct the work from the back of the book.

The end of the Introduction tells how to access the free online video lessons. Initially I did a couple of lessons where I watched the video and then worked my way through the lesson. Then I changed up two things. I decided I really didn't need to watch the videos unless I needed more help than the written instructions. The second thing I did was switch from individual sheets of loose leaf paper to an inexpensive spiral one-subject notebook. This was so much better for me! No more loose sheets!

So I started the book at Chapter 1, Lesson 1 and worked my way through lesson by lesson. Chapter 1 is basically a pre-Algebra section, and I could already see subjects I believed my son needed to review. I truly found this Algebra review helpful myself and want to suggest that any mom consider going through No-Nonsense Algebra as a preparation for teaching your student Algebra!

When my oldest student started Algebra (1998), I could already tell there were holes in my Algebra education from public school. One of the gaps was negative exponents. I think I learned the rule that a fraction made of an exponent over an exponent could be simplified by subtracting the bottom exponent from the top exponent. I never learned, though, that a number with a negative exponent is simplified by making the number the denominator under a "1".

I also totally needed to learn about Scientific notation. I really didn't learn that. They may have covered it one day, and for me that was like 45 years ago (8th Grade).

So my world traveler finally came home ready to do some math. It was fabulous that I had blasted through all of Chapter 1 and had a notebook showing all my work. I used the white board, and we went through the instructions, hints and examples of every lesson until we got to one where he really needed practice. On that lesson we did the instructions, hints and examples together, and I assigned the Exercises and Review (and to check the work). After that we worked at his pace, going faster when he knew the material and slower when he needed the review. 

So far this method is really working for us and we are not using the video lessons. It is wonderful knowing they are there if we decide to use them.

I love this program! It is clear, concise, and effective. I also love that it is so flexible! One family might want to do their review by having the student watch the videos only and no exercises. Another might do videos and assign even numbers or odd numbers for review. Or they might do it the way we did, just working in the book and not watching the videos.

When the student is into new material, I strongly recommend the student do ALL the Exercises and Review problems. It really is not onerous. Every lesson I did fit on one page, although it sometimes really filled the page!

I highly recommend No-Nonsense Algebra, particularly for SAT preparation (college entrance exams). It covers everything and covers it quickly, clearly and well. The video lessons are also clear and understandable. It is affordable. Give it a try.

Other members of The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Review Crew also reviewed No-Nonsense Algebra. To read their reviews please click the below button to go to the review page and check out more reviews! 

LearnBop - A Schoolhouse Crew Review

In May I learned we'd been selected to review a new product for a company called LearnBop.

LearnBop is affiliated with K-12 and has been available to schools for some time, but is now offering a specialized math program called LearnBop for Families for families to use at home. LearnBop has materials for the grade-range 3rd through 12th. We were offered plans for one individual student or a package for up to four students. I asked for the package because I wanted to be a student as well. I later learned that this program always allows the administrator (parent) to be a student as well, so if you only have one student you only need the individual package!

My son and I have been working all year, albeit slowly, on Algebra 2. In asking to be part of the LearnBop review it had been my hope that I could find material in the program that paralleled what my son is currently studying in his Algebra 2 book so he could benefit from the video instruction available to help him with his concept comprehension. I have not been able to do that so far. 

Initially I had difficulty understanding how to get to different sections of the program, so I was working at the beginning of Algebra 2 (myself only, not my son). I did not want to double my son's assignments -- he is already having difficulty working at the pace his book needs him to work at. So I was myself going back to the beginning of Algebra 2 thinking I'd speed through the material to get to where we are in the other book.

The sad thing is I had no idea there was so much material in Algebra 2 that I really did not adequately understand myself! It is easy to think you are "getting it" when you get to look at the teacher's manual on every question that you struggle with... So for awhile I was working on my own to improve my own Algebra 2 comprehension. But then one of my fellow Review Crew members told me how to move around in the program.

Equipped with the new knowledge of how to change my "Roadmap" in the program, I went to various units to try to find concepts that paralleled where my son was in his book. As I would open up a new section I would watch videos and work on the "Bop"s before moving on. 

So each section of LearnBop offers videos, optional additional videos, and sections to demonstrate understanding ("Bop"s). 

The program wants the student to watch three videos, possibly watch additional videos, and solve Bops with 90% Mastery before moving on. When you click on "Extra Video Lessons" the button opens a list of additional videos. Here is a screenshot from the video about "imaginary numbers", which means dealing in negative square roots, which can only occur theoretically but not in reality. Who knew?

When the student goes on to work on the Bops, he needs to treat it like real math -- as in use paper and pencil (don't try to figure it out in his head).

 When the student answers a question incorrectly, the program immediately readjusts to reteach the concepts step by step to secure comprehension. When he answers correctly, he gets affirmed and moves to a new question until he has answered the complete "Bop" set.

I really like LearnBop for Families. I like the video lessons and the way they are taught. I like the individualized teaching the student receives when a concept is not grasped. (I experienced a lot of this as I would think I understood a concept and would then answer incorrectly...)

I did experience a couple of problems, though. (There is a way to report problems, and they then look into the problem to see if there is an incorrect answer in their program or a glitch. Sometimes it is still the student that is wrong...)

At one point the program was telling me the square root of 4 was 2, but not -2, that the square root had to be positive. This is incorrect, and I reported it. The square root of 4 is plus or minus 2. The solution to any square root is always plus or minus. I called this one in and was affirmed. They are looking into it.

At another point on one Bop it did not accept any answer as correct. I tried all four answers. This can be very frustrating, because you can't get out of the loops and continue answering the Bops. The program keeps looping back to the reteaching.

The thing is, though, the way I understand it this is a new program and there are still some things that need to be worked through. I, as an adult, don't mind this. I believe my student would have very little patience with it. It can be hard enough understanding this higher level math without having the video teaching you something opposite from what you've already been taught (square root answers must be positive vs. answer is plus or minus) or having no answer that will be accepted as correct.

I will continue using LearnBop. When I find material that will be helpful to my son, I'll offer it to him and hope he benefits from it. I am expecially looking forward to moving on from Algebra 2 to Geometry to see if I can slide him into LearnBop for his Geometry work next year.

So, when you are using LearnBop for your student's math you are able to:

• monitor what they are working on; 
  
• see how well they are doing vs. how much they are struggling;
  
• see how much time they are spending on the program. 

What I am not clear on is how you assign a grade for a high school transcript. I guess that whatever they complete and get to move on from is "A" material, because the program requires 90% to move on. But how do you determine when they have done enough material to call the course complete? Do they need to complete all the "Milestones"? (think "units") In a normal course you can call it complete at 75% of all units done.

 

And how do you grade for a struggling learner? Can you award a "B" or a "C"? How do you determine these lower grades? So many questions I still have...

There is a link to go to a User Guide, but when you follow the link it leads to "User Guide for Family Coming Soon".

So, if you were already familiar with K-12 you may already know answers to some/all of my questions. You can no doubt tell I am new to using anything related to K-12. I've long been curious about their materials, and I'm glad I had an opportunity to try this out. It's new and still has things to be worked out, but I think it is a good move for K-12 to be branching out to families and home schools. Resources like this one make it possible for some people to choose home schooling even when they themselves are weak in some subject material. (After all, most of us went to public school!)

Other members of the Review Crew also reviewed this product. To see other product reviews, please click the button below.