Friday, March 27, 2020

SDMath and Chemistry Tutor

SDMath and Chemistry TutorIf you are looking for a high school student, high school senior, or college student who needs some help with their math and chemistry homework then you should consider getting an SDMath and Chemistry Tutor to help them. There are many advantages to having a tutor to do the work for you, including getting your grades back up to par. If you are struggling to get your grades back up then you should consider getting some help.A tutor will know what to do with a student who has been taught by someone else. A tutor will be able to find out if the math and chemistry work your student is doing is truly correct and can also help them with any other problems. They will have access to the library where they can keep all of their required textbooks. The library will have all of the materials your student needs for their grade.If you decide to hire a tutor then you will need to think about the type of tutor you want to get. Some students do not want a full time tutor wh ile others do. If you can afford it then by all means go with a full-time tutor because they will make sure that your student gets the math and chemistry work they need in order to get their grades back up.You will need to check on the tutors and make sure that they have experience working with students who are at the junior or senior level. You also want to make sure that they are licensed and that they are teaching students of similar ability as well.You should also make sure that they have enough room in their schedule to go to all of the appointments that they need to make. Some students are limited on the amount of tutoring they can get per week so make sure that they have a tutor that you can see almost every day to go over their math and chemistry work. Sometimes they can only get one week of tutoring in so make sure that they have a tutor that you can see almost every day.If you want to make sure that you have a tutor you can trust then you can try to find a tutor that is re commended by the school where you work. This way you can make sure that you are using the best tutor possible.Make sure that you are getting the most out of your tutoring by making sure that you are getting all of the help that you need. If you do not make sure that you are getting all of the help you need then you might end up paying more than you should for your math and chemistry homework. Make sure that you are getting all of the help that you need by making sure that you are hiring a tutor who is licensed and has enough time in their schedule to go over all of your work.

Friday, March 6, 2020

Preparing for a College Major in STEM

Preparing for a College Major in STEM As a math and physics dual major, I found my university level math and physics classes both challenging and rewarding. The challenge forced me to become a better version of myself and to continually strive to achieve a better understanding of the universe and the logical structures we use to describe it.At many schools, the math and physics majors have a reputation for being some of the most difficult. As people gravitate towards STEM majors, the competition to get into and do well in these classes is intensifying. Many of these courses are graded on a curve, and this means competing against your fellow students. Moreover, the early classes set the foundation for understanding those that follow. As a prospective STEM major, it is worth evaluating how prepared you are to take these classes and the possibility of preparing additionally ahead of these tough classes.Having a strong math background is critical for all prospective STEM majors. Mathematics is the language of science, and wi thout a firm grip on the underlying mathematics, many classroom explanations can fall flat. Strong algebra skills are a must for all STEM disciplines, and strong pre-calculus and calculus skills are especially important for physics.   Simple algebraic mistakes are often punished just as severely as fundamental misunderstandings in university freshman level calculus and physics series. AJ Tutoring excels at helping students bolster key study skills including a refined approach to mathematics that can help minimize mistakes and maximize understanding.The SAT Math II Subject Test provides a good assessment of how strong a student’s precalculus skills are.   If you are in the high 700’s, you can be relatively sure that you have a solid grounding in algebra and precalculus.   There are a couple topics that could warrant some extra review if you don’t feel super confident about them: specifically, vectors, polar and parametric functions.The AP exams in Calculus and Physics are quite a bit more complicated. First, they may or may not be acceptable for credit at the school of your choice. Second, regardless of whether they are accepted for credit, they may or may not be a good substitute for the class itself. The AP curriculum for both calculus and physics tends to omit and deemphasize certain topics that will become important in following classes, and the AP tests themselves are often curved so that a 5 may represent an inadequate understanding (especially with cutoffs for that score typically in the 60% range.) Regardless of whether you are offered credit for these foundational classes, it may be best to retake the class at the university level. Many university professors have old finals available online. These can be a great tool in assessing whether or not it would be worthwhile to retake a specific class.Freshman level calculus and physics classes tend to be considered ‘weeder’ classes for the engineering discipline (even if you aren’t on that track), and are often populated with very high level students. Even so, in my experience, I have seen failure and drop rates as high as 50%.   When confronted with these rather dire statistics, my professor’s comment was, “I need to make sure that if any of you actually wind up becoming engineers that you know your stuff. If my kids are driving over a bridge you designed and it collapses, it will be my fault.” My professors had a minimum level of competence they would accept, and they did not hesitate to fail anyone they did not perceive to be up to their standards.Some advice: Attempt a final for any class you are thinking of skipping. Spend some time digging into any missing concepts. There are online lecture series, videos and books which are great resources. An experienced tutor can also provide guidance, structure and motivation.One last piece of advice: A good general rule for any STEM major (outside of the biological sciences) is to always take at least one math class. If you are always taking a relevant math class, it should be relatively easy to stay on top. Also, don’t take classes you lack the math background for.   For instance, typical second semester physics curriculum (electromagnetism) relies heavily on vector calculus. At the very least be concurrently enrolled; though this doesn’t ensure you will have the math during the course, you should at least have it ahead of your final. Many universities also have mathematical methods for physical sciences classes which are a great way to start your upper division studies.AJ tutoring is happy to provide additional advice for our graduating students, and to help ensure our students are well prepared to succeed as they transition to university.  If you’d like to learn more about our approach, please contact us today!

Teaching a Growth Mindset Principles to Your Child

Teaching a Growth Mindset Principles to Your Child In my last post I discussed the powerful impact that having a Growth Mindset can have on motivation and academic achievement. With a Growth Mindset you believe that through effort and the use of solid strategies you can become smarter and better at just about anything you put your mind to. And in fact, theres a great deal of neuroscience research supporting the notion that we can in fact grow our brains and become smarter! Unfortunately kids with ADHD may be more likely to have a Fixed Mindset. Their struggles with motivation and academics may have lead them down the path of believing that their hard work doesnt really pay off, and there is nothing they can do to become smarter or better at the things that are challenging for them. And with this set of beliefs, mustering up the motivation to work hard at school or tackle challenging homework problems is extremely difficult. Fortunately, research has shown that mindsets can be changed and that includes your child with ADHD. Parents and teachers can foster Growth Mindsets in their children and have a big impact on their motivation and achievement. So, how do you go about encouraging a Growth Mindset? It takes two phases. First, teach your child a few core Growth Mindset principles. Then on a daily basis, emphasize Growth Mindset thoughts and actions to cement the new Growth Mindset lessons and encourage increased motivation over time. So lets start with Phase I: teaching three core Growth Mindset principles. We can grow our brains. Explain to your child that the brain is like a muscle. When we lift weights our muscles get stronger and they grow. The same thing happens when we exercise our brain. The more we challenge our brain the more it grows, and the more we grow our brain the better we become at things like math, reading, writing, and even fun things like videogames and sports. (Videogames may make the most sense to some kids: Remember when you got that new game and didnt know how to get past Level I, but then you kept playing and learning and you were able to not only get past Level I but get all the way to Level 4. And now youre still playing and learning and soon youll be at Level 5? Thats because you were exercising your brain and challenging it to grow.) There are some excellent videos online that teach kids about how they can grow their brain. For younger kids I recommend the Class Dojo Growth Mindset series https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zrtHt3bBmQ and for older kids I recom mend the Khan Academy Growing your Mind video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtKJrB5rOKs. How our brains grow. In order to straighten our muscles, we challenge them through exercise. If we keep lifting the same light weight over and over again, then our muscles wont really get stronger. We need to challenge them by gradually adding heavier weights. With our brains, we exercise them by doing challenging work. By trying things that may seem hard, and by making and correcting mistakes. Mistakes can actually be good things, because when we correct our mistakes our brain gets stronger! (Lets go back to our videogame example: When you first started Level 2, you struggled to defeat the monster. He won a lot of the time. But you kept hitting the reset button and challenging yourself to find a way to get around the monster. Each time you failed to beat him, you learned a little bit more about what might work next time.) We need good tools and strategies. Your child has certainly tried to do challenging work in the past. But if your child has ADHD, theres a good chance that there have been quite a few times when he or she were not able to succeed at the level that was expected of him or her. These failures may have made your child hesitant to take on new challenges, even if he or she knows that challenging work is good for him or her. So, make sure to let your child know that in addition to challenging work, they need strategies that will help them succeed. Tell your child that you recognize that he or she may not have had the tools and strategies that he or she needed in the past. But youre going to do everything you can to help him or her learn different strategies and tools so that he or she can succeed now. And with your childs hard work, combined with new strategies and tools, the sky is the limit! (And one last time well revisit the videogame example: And then when you reached Level 4, you real ly struggled with the dragon. But it was your babysitter Mark who gave you a great idea for a strategy to try and it worked! Sometimes we need some coaching and help just to give us a little help in what direction to go in or what we might want to try. Mark didnt give you the answers, but he gave you a strategy. And having that strategy helped you beat that Level. Sometimes life is like the videogame where we just need someone to give us a new strategy or a tool to help us do our work and then we can see the way forward.) In addition to teaching your child these key Growth Mindset principles, get started on figuring out ways to help your child learn new strategies for the things that are hard for him or her. Talk to your childs teacher about subjects that are difficult. Find out which learning tools are currently working for your child and which tools are not. Kids with ADHD may need different learning strategies, so ask about alternate tools and strategies that they can try. Consider getting extra help for your child through their school or through a learning center or tutoring program (see my previous post on choosing a good tutoring center for your child). Remember that your childs hard work will only lead to improvement when he or she is putting their effort into using the tools and strategies that work for him or her. My next post, the last in this Growth Mindset series, Ill talk about Phase II -- the things you can do every day to encourage a Growth Mindset in your child. Youre well on your way to instilling a Growth Mindset, and soon youll start to think about all of the ways that your child and you can rethink challenges and have a Growth Mindset approach to life. ABOUT DR. MARY ROONEY Mary Rooney, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco. Dr Rooney is a researcher and clinician specializing in the evaluation and treatment of ADHD and co-occurring behavioral, anxiety, and mood disorders. A strong advocate for those with attention and behavior problems, Dr. Rooney is committed to developing and providing comprehensive, cutting edge treatments tailored to meet the unique needs of each child and adolescent. Dr. Rooney's clinical interventions and research avenues emphasize working closely with parents and teachers to create supportive, structured home and school environments that enable children and adolescents to reach their full potential. In addition, Dr. Rooney serves as a consultant and ADHD expert to Huntington Learning Centers. ABOUT HUNTINGTON Huntington Learning Center is the tutoring and test prep leader. Its certified tutors provide individualized instruction in reading, phonics, writing, study skills, elementary and middle school math, Algebra through Calculus, Chemistry, and other sciences. It preps for the SAT and ACT, as well as state and standardized exams. Huntington programs develop the skills, confidence, and motivation to help students of all levels succeed and meet the needs of Common Core State Standards. Founded in 1977, Huntington's mission is to give every student the best education possible. Call us today at 1.800.CAN LEARN to discuss how Huntington can help your child. For franchise opportunities please visit www.huntingtonfranchise.com. This website does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The material on this site is provided for educational purposes only.

Thursday, March 5, 2020

The Mysterious LSAT Writing Sample

The Mysterious LSAT Writing Sample LSAT Law School Blog The LSAT’s Writing Sample is the last section of the intellectual marathon. After a day spent navigating Analytical Reasoning, Logical Reasoning, and Reading Comprehension, many LSAT takers experience waning motivation. That the Writing Sample is not scored misleads people to think of it as a throwaway exercise. Nothing could be further from the truth. A great writing sample may increase your chances of law school admission if your credentials are lacking in some way.It’s your job to spot the crucial issues from the prompt and choose a position to advocate. The prompt is written so that both choices have merits and deficiencies. The Writing Sample tests your ability to make a cogent argument under timed conditions.Tips: Go out with a bang and not a whimper. It’s worth your effort to put your best foot forward. Take a few minutes to organize your answer. Start with a strong topic sentence and your strongest point. Don’t ignore evidence for the opposition. Figure out a way to neutralize it. Practice under test conditions. Set your practice sample aside for a few days and then reread it with a critical eye.

Preparing for university

Preparing for university If your child is off to university this autumn, then the whole family need to do a lot of preparation. It's important to have some frank and open chats with your student child as they prepare for their first taste of independent life. Here are our five top tips to help your child prepare for university: 1. Make sure your child knows how to manage their finances. Set up a student bank account with them and discuss how to budget. If your child is going to have to get a part-time job make sure they can manage a job with their university work. 2. Find out what they get supplied with in their halls of residence and what they need to buy. Make a full list of the supplies that are needed, including any supplies for their course, and then buy the cheapest version wherever you can as things at uni often get broken. Then make sure your child has student insurance! 3. Away from home, your child can be tempted by the excesses of student life. Talk to them about balancing partying and study before they go and make sure that they know to phone you if they get into difficulties once term starts. 4. Does your child have study skills, the ability to touch type and speedwriting? These are all very helpful to have during a degree. See if there is anywhere that they can learn these skills - their university might even offer classes, or you could hire a study skills tutor for a few lessons. 5. Expect to feel sad when they leave. You might even see a few tears from them when you say goodbye. Luckily, mobile phones and email make it easy to keep in touch, so remember that it's au revoir rather than adieu.

Practical Tips for Your First Physics Class Part II - TutorNerds

Practical Tips for Your First Physics Class Part II - TutorNerds Irvine Physics Tutoring: Practical Tips for Your First Physics Class Part 2 Irvine Physics Tutoring: Practical Tips for Your First Physics Class Part 2 These final three tips now pertain to solving physics problems themselves. Every chapter in your physics class will include word problems. Sometimes the questions will be exclusively word problems. You need to know how to tackle the confusing ones if you’re going to succeed book your private Irvine physics tutor today. 4. Draw pictures Draw your vectors. Draw your free-body diagrams. Draw your circuits. When they tell you that a ball is thrown off a building at a 45-degree angle, draw the ball, draw the building, and draw the angle. Draw your triangles, label everything, and give yourself enough space to make it clear. This will help you avoid mistakes, understand what’s going on, and also help your teacher grade your work or help you. Many students get lazy with their pictures or try to skip them as a short-cut. Don’t do this. Just draw your picture. Everyone makes mistakes especially with physics word problems but a carefully made picture can help you prevent them. 5. Write down your variables An extremely common issue students have with solving physics problems is not knowing where to begin. Physics classes tend to include a very high number of word problems with multiple sentences, variables, and details. This can feel overwhelming, especially if the problem does not feel familiar, and can lead to giving up before you even get started. To combat this, you want to pull the details and numbers from the problem and write them down in a list. If they tell you the mass of a ball is 10 kilograms, then write down mball = 10 kg. If they tell that ball is initially moving at 15 meters per second, then write down vball initial = 15 m/s. Listing your variables can help make complex problems generic. 6. When you’re stuck, just try your equations Once you have all of your variables written down, then you write down any equations you know that might be relevant. Did they mention friction? Write down any equations you have with friction. Is something going in a circle? Write down your centripetal equations. You can also just look at what variables you have and check your equation sheet for equations that use those variables. If you’re confused don’t be afraid to just guess an equation that might be helpful. See where it takes you and if you can solve for anything important. Worst case scenario is you still get the question wrong. But at least you got some work on the page and opened yourself up to partial credit and a chance for success. The biggest hurdle students have with physics problems is not knowing how to start and giving up. Your equations can help you. Get used to them, even if your class doesn’t make you memorize them. And if you are in an AP class you should get a copy of the AP equation sheet and start using it since it’s the one you’ll have for the test. If you keep these tips in mind you will have a better chance of doing well in your first physics class. You already know that you should go to class, do your homework, take notes, and study. I don’t need to tell you that again. If you are still struggling with the class and your teacher can’t help you, consider hiring a private Irvine physics tutor to explain the material better and help you overcome your difficulties. Physics tutors are experienced in presenting the lessons in multiple ways to make sure their students understand. They are also familiar with physics and what you need to do to get a good grade. Read part one here! Michael C. is currently a private math, science, and standardized test tutor with TutorNerds in Irvine and Anaheim. All blog entries, with the exception of guest bloggers, are written by Tutor Nerds. Are you an education professional? If so, email us at pr@tutornerds.com for guest blogging and collaborations. We want to make this the best free education resource in SoCal, so feel free to suggest what you would like to see us write.

Al-Bayan Bilingual School

Al-Bayan Bilingual School Al-Bayan Bilingual School Al-Bayan Bilingual (BBS) was established in 1977 with a vision to prepare students for the world of today and the challenges of tomorrow. The school offers a bilingual program in which the Arabic and English languages carry equal emphasis and status, the goal of which is to bridge global progress with the traditional values of Arab culture. It is a private, non-profit, coeducational, day school from Pre-K through High School. The mission describes the school as an Arabic and English learning community nurturing compassionate and innovative students, leading sustainable change and progress in Kuwait and the global environment. BBS isa large school of 2400+ students operating four school divisions on its spacious and well-equipped campus in Kuwait. It features spacious learning spaces, four gymnasiums, a theater, clinics, media centers, Makerspaces, multipurpose rooms of various sizes, ten science laboratories, computer labs, a canteen, a mosque, and open-air sports facilities. The campus is WI-FI enabled to support the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program in Middle School and High School and the iPad program in Pre-School and Elementary School. We are a vibrant learning community, nurturing our faculty and staff to grow and learn with our students. As the first and largest American curriculum bilingual school in Kuwait, accredited by CIS and NEASC, we have a rich and proud tradition of achieving outstanding outcomes for our students, most of whom go on to study in leading colleges and universities in the US, Canada, and the Middle East. BBS is committed to building a community that is dedicated to the overall development of every child in the school. We believe that quality education rests on the selection, development, and retention of a vibrant team of faculty and staff and seeks professional, experienced, dynamic and creative educators to enhance the schools efforts in positively influencing the lives of our students. To learn more about Al-Bayan Bilingual School, please visit www.bbs.edu.kw.