Parents often ask: What's your approach to tutoring algebra or any math subject? Having volunteered and worked as a tutor for several organizations, I use a combination of training and experience to guide my approach. Generally, I use the Socratic Method. Sometimes student simply want answers to questions but this usually isn't helpful in fostering critical thinking and understanding. If they rely on my help for everything I can't prepare them for independent learning. I ask my students qu...

Algebra 2 typically involves the study of inverse functions, among other topics. If you take a function and reflect it over the line y=x, you have its inverse. Let's take y= log(x): Now, let's add the line y=x and the inverse of y=log(x), which is y=10x. We can now see the reflection over y=x: To graph inverse functions you may simply take all the points (x,y) of the original function and swap the x coordinates for the y coordinates. For y=log(x), you can see the first two coordina...

Textbooks can be expensive. Fortunately, some professors are looking out for students' financial interests and have developed free and open textbooks. A collection of some of the current available books can be found at Stitz Zeager Open Source Mathematics. Professor's Stitz and Zeager offer a precalculus book released in July of 2013 that can be obtained in a pdf format. Here is a preview of the first two chapters:  

Finding a Seattle math tutor is no easy chore. What do I look for in a tutor? Are you looking for a genius with a long resume of achievements in mathematics who can coach your child through math contests? Or does the tutor need to have expertise in special needs? As someone who hired a tutor while studying calculus at the University of Washington, I can relate. A brief phone call with a tutor is a great start to get a feel for what the tutor can offer. Meeting in person for a cup of coffe...

In Algebra 2, we may be asked to look at rates. Often these come in the form of speed and distance questions. The general formula for this type of problem is Continue Reading Speed and Distance

Sometimes you are presented with solving for unknown variables in rational expressions (expression where numerator and or denominator are polynomials).Continue Reading Solving rational expressions

A not so helpful definition of logarithms from 1797 Britannica: Logarithms are another way to consider unknown exponents. They ask: To what exponent do we raise this base to get another number? Here are a few examples and explanations: Log2(8) = x We interpret this as asking: “What number do we raise 2 to, to get 8”. So, let’s convert this into exponential form: 2x=8. We know that 2*2*2=8 so 23=8. Thus, x=3. If a problem simply has log without a base, it is assumed that the base is 10...

When students are first exposed to trigonometry (the measurement of triangles) they are asked to memorize some trigonometric ratios. Here are a few of them: sin=opp/hypotenuse, cos=adjacent/hypotenuse, tan=opp/adjacent. Memorizing these ratios is important and can be aided by the following mnemonic device: sohcahtoa. It turns out one sailor in Seattle hasn't forgotten these ratios...in fact, he or she has opted to name their sailboat after this mnemonic device. I snapped this photo at a boaty...