Ordinary Maths grinds advice.

ShoePolish

Hi all,

I'm about to give my first maths grind next weekend and I'm looking for some general pointers. The student is repeating Leaving Cert, and failed his OL maths exam last year and failed the mock this year.

Because of this, and the fact that I am inexperienced at giving grinds makes me a bit nervous, because clearly there's a lot at stake here for the student. When the mother called me, she mentioned that the student had been doing group grinds before, but they weren't really helping.

I told her over the phone to approach her son and ask specifically what area of the course he's having trouble with. My general plan is to start doing exam papers with the student, starting at the elementary topics like Arithmetic, Algebra, Statistics and Probability, Trig etc. But where exactly should I start?

How do I approach this in the most efficient way? How do I ensure I don't start doing an area of the course that he might already know quite well?

Thanks for reading!

evolving_doors

Co ordinate geometry would show up algebra problems quickly.

At this late stage maybe I'd just start ploughing into exam papers from start to finish during the grind. It's all about approach and interpreting questions.
Maybe fly through a paper and get him to tick which ones he'd be confident in beginning. Then work on that and try and tie how he approaches into other q's.

doc_17

Get his mock papers and you'll see from there were the deficencies are. But if he's failing OL Maths then he'll be struggling with most/all of it.

everesteduc

Take him through the marking scheme on examinations.ie and show him how important it is to pick up the attempt marks. Pick out the easy ones first to boost his confidence. Let him know he doesn't have to get any sum fully right to pass the exam.