Math Monkey | Classes | Tutoring | Cleveland

 

 

What Will We Teach?

 

The bootcamp will focus on problem solving strategies students can use to answer the difficult SAT problems. They will also learn test-taking techniques they can use when they get stuck.  Students will be provided a practice test prior to camp. The information from those tests will be used to structure the camp to meet the needs of the students.

 

It will be a small class environment where the students will have individualized attention.

 

Example Problems & Solutions:

 

Here are two examples of how knowing the SAT inside and out can help students succeed.

 

Problem 1:

 

SAT Solution: Solve the first equation for r and plug into the second equation, then use the quadratic formula to solve for r and s. Finally, plug those in and compute. That’s a ton of steps and lots of opportunities to make a mistake.

 

Better Solution — A clever student could factor the equation like this:

 

Now you can just plug in what was given to get 15! This simple solution saves tons of time. The time saved will help students to finish early and be able to go back and check their work.

 

SAT problems have simple shortcuts like this ALL the time, but students need to learn how to recognize them. That’s a large part of what we will focus on in SAT bootcamp.

 

Problem 2: One person can paint a fence in 1 hour. Another person can paint a fence in 30 minutes. How long will it take them to paint the fence together?

 

 Solution — Most students look at this and think the answer must be the average of the two numbers given and the incorrectly guess 45 minutes (you can be sure that this will be one of the multiple choice answers!). However, it should be obvious why this is wrong… if one person alone can paint the fence in 30 minutes than two people working together can do it in LESS than 30 minutes.

 

Better Solution — Start with an easier question… How many fences could they paint together in 1 hour? The first person can paint 2 fences and the second can paint 1 fence. Together they can paint 3 fences an hour. If they can paint 3 fences in an hour, then they paint one fence every 20 minutes.

 

This solution is intuitive, simple and avoids complicated, time-consuming algebra and equations.

 

Ask your child to solve these sample questions and see how they do, then come join us for this 5 week bootcamp.