Nan in Mass
02-03-2009, 09:45 AM
My son says that NEM1-3 prepared him well for pre-calc, except for the use of the graphing calculator. That hasn't caused any problems, because he wasn't the only one and the prof put the keystrokes on the board. Pre-calc 1 didn't use a graphing calculator, but pre-calc 2 does (different prof). He says NEM manages to convey some complicated ideas without relying very much on terminology, and he had to get used to a new teaching style that relied heavily on terminology and was "inefficient in a way I remember from 4th grade math in public school". He had to work on memorizing some of the terminology. He said that probably wouldn't have been true if he'd used the book in Singapore, with a proper teacher. I agree GRIN. Although I try to use the terminology, and I remember some places where I used the US terminology and the book used Singapore terminology and pointed it out, I tend to point a lot. I think it isn't entirely me, though. One of the reasons I like Singapore is that it gets ideas across by demonstrating them rather than by talking about them a lot. I talked aloud as I demonstrate solving a problem, and I definately added some dialogue to the text, but not very much. There were some places in pre-calc where my son needed my husband or me to demonstrate the concepts. He needed us to tell him to make flashcards and memorize them. He needed us to help him gather up his past papers and the syllabus and figure out what his grade was so far. He needed us to show him how to review for the final. He needed us to remind him to read the directions carefully and reread them after he had answered the problem to make sure he really had answered it and had answered all the parts of it. He needed us to show him how to go to the professor for help. In other words, he needed us to show him how to manage a classroom situation, how to take a test, and how to study. He managed to take notes just fine, despite us not having practised this at home, and he kept track of his assignments fine. He didn't need us to check his homework or anything like that. Towards the end of the first semester, there was a chapter or two that he needed us to read aloud to him and solve a few extra problems for him, and watch him solve a few, but he might have managed ok without that. He didn't have trouble understanding it when we read it to him. He says this is partly his fault because he coasted awhile instead of keeping on top of things. (His college acceptance requires him to get a "c", so we were being extra cautious. He still occasionally reverses 5's and 2's or doesn't see negative signs or misreads things, and always gets a few things wrong because of that, so he has to be able to get all the questions right so he can "waste" the difference between a c and an a on misreads.) He got a 3.0 in the class.
Summary: Other than using a graphing calculator, and some terminology that he didn't remember seeing before, and a more terminology-based and less demonstration-based teaching style, he had no problems with CC pre-calc after NEM1-3. He wasn't expected to know any concepts that he hadn't met before in NEM, or if they were, they were so minor that he doesn't remember them.
HTH someone
-Nan
Summary: Other than using a graphing calculator, and some terminology that he didn't remember seeing before, and a more terminology-based and less demonstration-based teaching style, he had no problems with CC pre-calc after NEM1-3. He wasn't expected to know any concepts that he hadn't met before in NEM, or if they were, they were so minor that he doesn't remember them.
HTH someone
-Nan