<p>I know everyone loves to tell others how bright their children are...my son is a hard working "average" student. He did very well in h.s. but, since he is not a great test taker when it comes to aptitude tests his SAT/ACT scores did not stand out. This was fine when he decided to attend the local CC since he has no idea what he would like to major in. While in h.s. he took several college courses which he did very well in. Following his first semester (this fall) he has a 3.2 average with sophmore English, Biology, Psychology...the basics. However, he struggles in math and always has. He gets confused and has a difficult time retaining the information. We have gotten him tutors, I have personally worked with him each night and he is at the point that if he can not pass remedial math he may as well drop out of college! His first semester went well because the teacher took her time and explained the information in detail. This teacher has flown through the work and just informed the class that only 4 people in the two levels he is teaching is passing and it is not his fault.
My husband has told me to back off, and if he falls he has to figure out what to do next. He is my only child and I know that I have to back off but, if there is a way to help him I believe that I need to. With the millions of students in college today, there is no possible way that my son is the only one in this situation. If anyone else has ever been in a situation like this I could use your help. I truly believe that he has a disability in the area of math and would like to find out if he does, are there other courses that fulfill a math requirement in a 4 year college in the state of Va?</p>
<p>I’d recommend talking to the school. They probably have alternatives, or if not alternatives, they definitely have a tutoring center of some sort. Have him try several of the math tutors - there will be student ones and probably professors as well.</p>
<p>You need to have him tested for dyscalculia-- some of the things you mention, like the difficulty with retaining information in math and apparent ability in other subjects, sounds suspicious to me as someone that has it. SOME colleges will allow you to substitute other kinds of courses for the math requirement or excuse it with diagnosis of dyscalculia (in non-STEM majors only, of course), but those programs are rare and you have to dig for them-- and a lot of the times the offered substitutes are not any more dyscalculia-friendly. HOWEVER, I was diagnosed as a sophomore in college after bombing an algebra course and it was life changing. I went on to pass that algebra class with a really good grade and I passed statistics to finish off my math requirement, even though I tested at a middle school math ability level. Getting the diagnosis can really help. If you don’t know what’s at the root of the problem, you can’t figure out how to solve it. </p>
<p>Here’s a good resource on dyscalculia if you want to learn more: [The</a> Dyscalculia Forum - News](<a href=“http://www.dyscalculiaforum.com/news.php]The”>http://www.dyscalculiaforum.com/news.php)</p>
<p>He’ll make a GREAT math teacher some day (I’m perfectly serious).</p>
<p>I agree that it would be good to have him evaluated and also inquire about other ways of meeting the math requirement. I was able to take several other courses to meet my math requirement–statistics, logic, and computer science. You should also talk with the school–it seems unreasonable that only FOUR of the students that this instructor is teaching are receiving passing grades. Can your S withdraw an then take future courses from a teacher who is more willing to work with your S (like the one he had last term)? I’d say something is going wrong in the course for so many of the kids to be failing at this point!</p>
<p>Nearly all CCs have a walk-in tutoring center that offer assistance in all subjects. Many will allow a student to set up a regular weekly (or more often) appointment with a tutor of his choice. Urge him to go to the one at his school and give the tutoring a try. </p>
<p>The tutors have the time to work one-on-one with your son and many are familiar with methods of alternative instruction. (My older D is a math tutor at our local CC. She has worked with students who are blind, severely learning disabled, autistic, and survivors of traumatic brain injuries, as well as students who just ‘don’t get’ math.)</p>
<p>Many CCs also have a testing center which may be able to do preliminary testing for dyscalculia. The testing center will be able to recommend an educational psychologist for definitive testing if the screening for dyscalculia is positive.</p>
<p>(BTW, my mom has struggled with math all her life and was finally diagnosed with dyscalculia when she was in her 40’s. There are some days when she literally cannot look at a number and have it ‘make sense’ to her. Other days she’s pretty functional.)</p>
<p>Do his potential majors require a good knowledge of math? I am not familiar the VA math requirements and what does he need to be able to do? You need to address those two areas for you and your son to formulate a plan.</p>
<p>I would have him tested for a learning disability. There could be a number of things going on here and information is king. Math may only be the tip of the learning disability iceberg and you need to find out. </p>
<p>I have an issue with how math is typically taught (but the details of which are more than I want to write about in this forum) and that could be part of the problem. However, testing of your son could also bring that to the forefront.</p>
<p>My S struggles with math but is an above average student in everything else. When his ADD was treated in college after flunking his quantitative mid-term, he aced the final:) He can get by, and usually excel, without treatment in just about every other subject except math.</p>
<p>You might want to check to see if there’s a different instructor he can take. At the hs level we have experienced some issues with the teacher, not the subject. Having most of the students failing a class like remedial math is an indication to me that something is up, especially if grades in other classes are fine (not flunking everything). In our area there is a college algebra instructor at a community college who has the reputation of being able to teach ANYONE college algebra in an understandable way. Several students at other universities take their college algebra from this instructor at the cc because of his reputation and track record.</p>
<p>This is a concern for me with my youngest , who will enter high school in the fall. My older girls did very well with all maths they took , but she really struggles, and I was never good at it , so I am no help. I am wondering if she has learning issueswith math ?</p>
<p>“I truly believe that he has a disability in the area of math and would like to find out if he does, are there other courses that fulfill a math requirement in a 4 year college in the state of Va?”</p>
<p>Sure there are. At the University of Mary Washington, for example, the general education requirements include two “quantitative reasoning” courses. This requirement can be fulfilled by taking any of a menu of mathematics courses, or it can be fulfilled by taking designated courses in such disciplines as economics, music theory, sociology, physchology, philosophy and business administration. </p>
<p>Math requirements at most Virginia 4-year colleges can be fulfilled without taking college algebra or calculus.</p>
<p>I’m a tutor at my CC and after seeing many students having trouble in remedial math classes it comes down to the two things-the teacher and the amount of work the student pits in. </p>
<p>Use ratemyprofessors.com to pick each and every teacher. Talk to other students to find out who the good teachers are. Many cc teachers are part time with a real full time job. Some of these couldn’t care less about their students. </p>
<p>I have students who are in the tutoring center every day. They can do their homework there and then if they don’t understand something they come up and ask. </p>
<p>Barring any legitimate issues like those mentioned already this is his fight. He needs to be his own advocate. If he has a problem he should be the one trying to solve it. It sounds harsh but it’s true. </p>
<p>You said he did well in high school so maybe the math isn’t the problem. Remedial math in college is high school level math. If he got through hs math this should be a review for him.</p>
<p>One web site I found useful when I went back to college a couple of years back and had to take algebra was the Texas A&M page here [Virtual</a> Math Lab - Intermediate Algebra](<a href=“http://www.wtamu.edu/academic/anns/mps/math/mathlab/int_algebra/index.htm]Virtual”>Virtual Math Lab - Intermediate Algebra)
It has different levels of algebra from elementary up. It really helped me grasp basics that I was blurry on after class.</p>
<p>I am good at math but the teacher went pretty fast (and I am several decades away from my last HS math classes). I found the above site helpful. </p>
<p>I had a couple of friends who really struggled and it did make a difference what teacher they had. One friend could not pass with the teacher I had and changed to a different teacher. A fine solution as long as you don’t need higher level math classes for your degree (the students who had the easy teacher were often less prepared for the higher level math).</p>
<p>On thing I would suggest to your son - is practice practice practice. I would work math problems for hours so I would be prepared for exams.</p>
<p>My son tutors math (precalc, calc, differential equations, linear algebra, mathematical statistics, discrete), science (physics 1, 2, chem 1, bio 1) and some other courses. The #1 issue that students have from his perspective is their algebra skills. The problem is that the schools gave the students good grades in algebra so that they appeared prepared to go into calculus when their skills were really shaky. Most university students aren’t going to relearn algebra (pride I think) and they might never make enough progress to get through calc 1 and 2.</p>
<p>If there is a learning disability involved here, then that is one issue. If there isn’t, then going back and relearning everything might be another approach. I’m not necessarily saying that this is best done in a classroom. I’ve seen remedial classes where they are supposed to cover a certain amount of material but they never get there because of additional classroom time needed to go over homework or explain things multiple times.</p>
<p>I understand how to do this at a one-on-one tutoring level and I think that many tutors could teach too but that’s a pretty expensive way to go. Other things that would help along the way: fun and recreational math. The fun stuff can support and generate internal interest in math which can make it a lot easier to memorize and learn.</p>
<p>There might be innate abilities toward math. but for most students I think it’s a matter of practice. My son used to be very weak in math. Then one of my colleagues who is a math professor told me, just like WRITE WRITE WRITE will make you a good writer, SOLVE SOLVE SOLVE will make you good at math. He also told me don’t trust what they do in middle/high school. Because most teachers were taught by weak teachers and they themselves are no better than their teacher. So most likely your son has a bad math teacher. I started to realize it’s my responsibility to help my son in his math. Three months ago I started to give him “home homework” every evening. The homework sheet normally contains 8 – 10 questions, normally takes him 15 - 30 min. or so each day, on the areas I thought he should develop. His math improved so much. It exhilarated me! His SAT pretests went from consistently around 500 to consistently between 620-660 in three month. </p>
<p>One thing I can tell that badly ruin people’s math aptitude in this country - letting students use calculators when they are in middle school and the first year in high school. It is a killer! Chinese students in China are not allowed to touch the calculator until senior year.</p>
<p>To OP: don’t lose hope. Tutor him yourself if you can, or find him a good tutor. There are kids who are born to be mathematically able. Yours and mine are not one of those. My son is an average kid in terms of math. But he got better by practice and tutoring. yours will too. </p>
<p>In general, I think limit the calculator use when they’re young will sure improve their brain. Too bad that some standardized tests actually require calculator in middle school.</p>
<p>A lot of good info in here, I hope it helps you. </p>
<p>I had to comment on this:
This is unfortunately too true in far too many cases. My husband is actually back in school to become a math professor, and is fortunate enough to be teaching two math courses for non-tech majors. Before that he had tutored kids in math/physics/chem. He’s seen the damage left in the wake of bad teaching. I have to agree wholeheartedly with the last line here. He most likely has a bad math teacher. </p>
<p>The OP said that the first semester prof was better, you need another one like her. It’s very telling that only 4 students in 2 levels will pass this teacher’s classes. My husband would be horrified to think he taught so poorly. And unfortunately with tenure, you are unable to make this teacher learn to teach better, or stop them from teaching.</p>
<p>Best of Luck to you and your son. Let us know how it turns out.</p>
<p>I believe early calculator use is a major problem. At the college I work at, the remedial classes don’t allow calculators for some portions, and the students fall apart because they really don’t have a grasp of basic arithmetic. My H teaches AP bio kids who don’t recognize when a calculator has given them impossible answers (becuase of bad imputs). The don’t have the “Number sense” to recognize what doesn’t make sense, because they see numbers purely as buttons pushed, not measure of anything. (similarly, they can’t read analog clocks, so time becomes discrete moments rather than movement through a whole continuum. Additionally, analog clocks provide familiarity with fractions and make them visible–many students don’t know what you mean if you say it’s “a quarter to X” or “half past.”)</p>
<p>Many of the remedial teachers actually do not have tenure; they’re adjuncts, but even bad ones tend to be kept because there’s a shortage of good ones.</p>
<p>Gah! Agree with everything people have said about calculator use and bad teaching. The level of math instruction at many, many school is appalling. Esp at the middle school and lower high school level where many critical math skills are learned and solidified.</p>
<p>D1 (who is the math tutor) says high school kids come in all the time and the way the teacher has shown how to solve certain classes of problems are obscure and convoluted if not just plain wrong. She also sat for the state teacher’s certification exam for mathematics last May and was horrified at how many teachers there were taking their exam for the fourth, fifth and sixth time and were still teaching despite not being able to pass the exam–which only include up through pre-calc!</p>
<p>This is not to say all math teachers are poorly prepared, but a significant number are.</p>
<p>Good math teachers are treasures!</p>