<p>Yes, Calc. The frustration lies in that he says he gets what he did wrong, but he struggles to recall the problems after he comes home. He has put in a lot of effort in trying to fix his issues, but it’s not going so well.</p>
<p>It might be time to throw in the towel. He does well in all other areas, and math has been hard all along. I</p>
<p>I feel for you. It sounds like AP tests and/or Khan academy might be your best resource. I think it’s a ridiculous, counter-productive policy.</p>
<p>If you want a larger supply of calculus problems, then you can look here (Math 1A and 1B, or Math 16A and 16B for somewhat easier ones from a calculus course for business majors):</p>
<p><a href=“Exams | Department of Mathematics at University of California Berkeley”>Exams | Department of Mathematics at University of California Berkeley;
<a href=“https://tbp.berkeley.edu/students/exams/math/”>https://tbp.berkeley.edu/students/exams/math/</a></p>
<p>Edit: Nevermind.</p>
<p>A problem for some students who have a very good intuitive sense of math is that they don’t “show their work,” i.e., the intermediate steps in solving a problem. A teacher will generally mark those test results down, whether out of concern the student somehow copied the answer or that the student just made a lucky guess. One piece of advice I would offer students is that they take care to show all their work. (Way back in 8th grade when my son was in a statewide math competition, he finished tied for 2nd but was awarded 3rd place. The tie-breaker was that he didn’t show his work, even though he had the right answer! Nowadays, as a journalist he shows a lot more of his work than most journalists do – I think he actually learned from that experience in his youth.)</p>
<p>I would EXPECT the tutor to have their own diagnostic materials. In my opinion, that is part of their job…to diagnose, remediate, and progress monitor. They need their OWN things to do so.</p>
<p>Our high school didn’t allow any graded tests to come home. I thought it was terrific. Kept down on the paper clutter.</p>
<p>Edit: Nevermind.</p>
<p>No Vladenschlutte…HS. Not posted in HS forum as I really wanted a more mature perspective. You know…from old folks like me ;-)</p>
<p>Thumper…I’d gladly take the clutter if it meant my kid got to study from his old tests. </p>
<p>There are TONS of calculus problems out there…TONS. Your kid needs to know the process…not how to solve ONE problem, or even type of problem. Your tutor should be able to analyze your kid’s strengths and weaknesses in this area of math. You are paying for this.</p>
<p>And for the record…yes I think the policy of not giving students their tests is unnecessary. But it is what it is.</p>
<p>Agreed that there are more ways to skin this cat. Just trying to help my less than gifted math student. For some, drawing connections between similar problems is intuitive, or logical. For others, re-doing a problem until mastery may be necessary to help cement the process in their minds.</p>
<p>Given that math is not his strong suit, we may indeed have reached the outer limits of his abilities. We just need to get through this year. </p>
<p>Thx everyone. </p>
<p>Shellz- speaking as a former remedial math student who had to take a mandatory calc class before grad school- DON’T focus on what he’s getting wrong on tests. Ask the tutor to work on concepts from the ground up. I had a lifetime (or at least grades K-end of college) of teachers showing me what I was doing wrong, and never got my math problems “fixed” until my remedial calc teacher stopped worrying about what I was doing wrong, and taught me what the concepts were, how to frame the problems, and THEN how to solve them.</p>
<p>The outer limits of my math ability appeared to be “dummy trig” in HS but guess what- I ended up in a quant heavy grad program and did fine once remedial math did its thing. Too bad I couldn’t have done it in HS instead of grad school…</p>
<p>Sorry OP. we hate this policy too. DD used to go over the tests with her father and it was very helpful. Now she is not allowed. She does often stay after and go over it with a friend or the teacher. Is this not an option? Have you tried involving the teacher? Maybe a quick e-mail after a test? “Hello Mrs. H. DS was very unhappy with the 78 he earned on the last test. Can you please let us know what areas he struggled the most with? He is working with a tutor and this would be helpful. Thank you.” Maybe you could set up an appt. between the teacher, DS and the tutor. You don’t know unless you ask…</p>
<p>Faced this and took it nearly to the school board. They relented and DD1 received her tests in a brown unmarked envelope to take home…</p>
<p>I pay an outside tutor to help my d and it is annoying when they do that. It would be nice for them to go over test corrections.</p>
<p>In a different class one year my d used her brothers old tests to help study. I even gave them to her to see what his tests were like. Turns out he just gave them same test. She took the test then told him that she used her brothers old notebook and tests to help study and he essentially accused her of cheating. He and I got into it - there’s nothing wrong with using old tests that you hand back. But if your going to hand them back, you have to change the test for the next year, there are tons of siblings in schools. </p>
<p>^ Is it wrong of me to find this funny? My kids have had teachers who did this. Sadly, there were years when I had thrown out all the old notebooks, including the old tests! </p>
<p>It befuddles me that people don’t think it’s necessary or helpful for kids to have their old tests back. D1 was very good in math. She has found mistakes her teachers have made after going over her tests later. The only time D1 was not allowed to get her test back was when she studied abroad at Sydney U. They failed her on a finance course, which she got an A back at her home Uni.</p>
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<p>Perhaps the teachers don’t want to be exposed, in addition to being lazy about reusing old tests.</p>
<p>I still remember when D1 in 7th grade solved a problem differently than her teacher and received no credit. She got the same answer, but her steps were not what her teacher expected. She later showed her teacher it was indeed correct. The teacher even said it was a more eloquent way of solving the problem.</p>
<p>As a tutor, if he is able to see how the student tried to solve the problem, even if it is wrong, he could see the student’s way of thinking. It is interesting to see how so many posters think when it comes to math, it is very black and white on how a problem can be solved, but in reality there is more than one way to solve a problem, and how someone tries to solve a problem can reveal a lot of insight to someone’s critical thinking. </p>
<p>Oldfort, there are so many wacky school policies to fight that you have to pick your battles.</p>
<p>Yes- would be great if the teacher gave the tests back. Do I think it’s worth fighting this misguided rule? No. Can the OP’s kid learn calc without the old tests? Yes. If the parents weren’t paying for a tutor already a case could be made that this policy is really quite offensive to the parents who can’t afford outside tutoring. But- they’re already doing it.</p>
<p>Sometimes you’ve got to do a workaround. Not every dumb thing that happens in a high school is worth getting riled up about. And no- not every problem is a black and white problem. But something tells me that this kid is not understanding a couple of basic, early in the year kinds of concepts (or even holdovers from last year’s math) and it’s not some big critical thinking issue we’re talking about. Call me crazy-- but this doesn’t sound like Sir Isaac Newton struggling to make sense of the world, just a kid who had strep the day a concept was introduced and has never quite caught up.</p>