I need a math tutor, or, Cyni CLEPs it all

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Oh my god. Or my dog. I prefer my dog, since I know she’s real.

Anyway. I decided the other week that I need to put the 'ol G.I. Bill to use. That’s right, I’m going to college. I’ve got some credits from the CCAF that won’t count toward anything the local community college offers. Sadly, they’re wasted. 44 hours of Avionics engineering coursework out the window.

Why didn’t I go ahead and finish up before? You’d do well to ask that. I was afraid of math. Math and I don’t get along. I ain’t much on calculation. Me and integers ain’t never been friends.

Well, sure, I can do day to day arithmetic, no problem there (unless there’s fractions involved that I can’t visualize as measuring cups). It’s Algebra.

Algebra is the bane of my existence. I’ve never understood it. All this X & Y crap, I just don’t get it at all. They started us on pre-algebra in 5th grade, and by the time I quit school in 9th, well, I still hadn’t passed even elementary algebra.

Well, I’ve come to a point where I need 60 hours of credit in order to get the job I want. They might take my CCAF credits as acceptable, they might not. Either way, I’ve got till January 4 to knock 16 hours out.

Enter the CLEP tests. From what I’ve been able to tell, I think I can clep out of a lot of courses. So far, my pretests have indicated that I should be able to walk right through most English tests, as well as most of the Science requirements (except for genetics and geredity. I don’t get that either.) I can grab a couple humanities coursebooks, and read through them to pass that as well. I’m borderline there already, just from knowing stuff and watching Jeopardy when I was younger.

But math. Oh god, it terrifies me. And, this is the bad part: I understand that it’s an absolute. There’s no room for interpretation. 2+2=4, and all that. It always has, and it probably always will, for as advanced as I need to get.

So, I need a math tutor. I’m desperate. I’ve got to learn college level algebra in about 8 weeks. Any ideas?

Will YOU be my math tutor?

2

Sure, for $1.00 a minute. That’s $120.00 an hour.

3

Hey now, that’s basic arithmetic!

4

You might look into posting fliers at your local community college advertising for an algebra tutor.

5

Alternatively, contact the Math Education dept at a local college. They can hook you up with people that not only know math, but want to teach it as well.

And don’t be scared of algebra. Remember: X and Y are just numbers you don’t happen to know the identity of yet. They’re just place-holders.

6

I want a tutor who will punish me with spankings when I answer questions wrong. And when I get them right, I would like to be rewarded with a spanking.

Augh, it’s the way they move! The shifting them from one side of the equation to the other side makes my head spin!

7

Make that $100.00 a minute.

Get Schaum’s Outline to Algebra from the college bookstore.
It has about a billion problems that you can lock yourself in your room and work.
That’s how I had to do Differential Equations.

8

I used to love math. Algebra, geometry, calculus, advanced calculus, statistics. Hell, I aced every single math class I’ve ever taken.

However, last summer I was forced to go through my mom’s garage and get rid of all my college notebooks and such. I had such a laugh over my math stuff because I couldn’t even understand the question now.

Sorry. :frowning:

9

I’ll do it! What do you want, besides spankings?
I had great math marks. I just grew up to be left-brained.

10

uhmmm…

well, i’m in honors algebra II (high level HS soph math) and i’ve been aceing the tests and homework despite sleeping through the lectures… maybe i can help coach you through the extreme basics.

let’s begin with this problem…

a[sup]2 [/sup] + b[sup]2 [/sup] = 41
(a - b)[sup]2 [/sup] = 19

a * b = ?

11

How can you be left-brained when it’s so damn cold?

12

I’m a senior, about to graduate with a degree in math. I’ve been a teaching assistant in computer science classes for the past two years. I can attempt to answer questions by e-mail (address is in my profile), but I can’t be a full-time tutor. I think you’re gonna need someone physically there to get through it all.

13

I’m afraid that’s a little more advanced than I’m ready for :slight_smile:

I just bought some CDs that cover like an introductory class, but I might actually have to go all the way back to fractions :frowning:

14

ogghhh, fractions? you don’t need no steenkin fractions!

really. algebra is more of a conceptual exercise that an actual aritmatic “Solve-This-In-Your-Head” type exercise.

if you really need to go all the way back to fractions, just buy a used high school math text, maybe a copy of “Holt, Rinehart, and Winston: Algebra II” which i use. for that course you will need a nice calculator, hopefully a graphing one.

most nice Texas Instruments graphing calculators are back down from their Back To School “sale” prices. so, a fresh, new TI-83 PLUS (what i use) is back to $80.00 from the $120.00 it was at, and quite significantly less if you pick one up used off of someone who has one lying around from their classes the previous year. though, if you can, i reccomend trying to get a TI-92, if you can afford one. they can effectively solve simple algebra problems on their own, and you can go through the problems you’ve recently run to edit them if you make a mistake with the syntax. very useful, but it might make things too easy…

anyway, i can lead you through the course as mine goes along.

P.S.
well, do you want the walkthrough of the problem? it was on my PSAT (which i took this morning) and it’s lodged in my brain.

it’s really neat if you know the trick…

15

Great, now you’ve gone and activated the compulsive part of my brain (i.e. all of it) that made me waste time figuring that out. I saw it. I said “I know how to do that; simple trick, really”. I thought I could move on blissfully ignorant of the actual numerical value of ab. I was wrong.

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ok… well, what do you think “a” is and what do you think “b” is?

17

Doesn’t matter, does it? I mean, you could solve for a and b, but you don’t need to, right?

18

Stop it, I’m gonna throw up! Too many numbers dancing and whirling before me, and these damn parenthesis and powers and glaiven!

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Hey Cyni! I have a TI-83 (not a plus though) that I used for MY college Algebra class back in 96 that you can have. I aced the class, so maybe it’ll even give you a little luck. (Calculus is MY downfall…)

I even took a chunk of skin out of my thumb and found the Guidebook (book is the operative word) for you.

If you want it, I’ll bring it to DTF and you can pay me in lapdances. :smiley:

20

Is it a * b = 11?