In urgent need of Methods tutor in Berwick!!!!

[mattanem]

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My son is entering year 11 2009 and needs to do methods but is struggling with
maths due to 2 years of not so helpful teachers putting him down

If anyone is interested in helping him get up to speed and get his confidence back PLEASE email me mattanem@hotmail.com

Thanks

[Joel8945]

Firstly what university course is he looking at doing? Not all courses do require maths methods.

[oasfree]

Originally Posted by mattanem

My son is entering year 11 2009 and needs to do methods but is struggling with
maths due to 2 years of not so helpful teachers putting him down

If anyone is interested in helping him get up to speed and get his confidence back PLEASE email me mattanem@hotmail.com

Thanks

I don't know what you mean by methods. Is this something new? or it's just another modern use of word for something that is old? Often kids do poorly in maths is because of lacking the basics. Australian education on maths is very soft all the way to year 10 (school certificates) leaving kids with little confidence into year 11. The loss of the basics is evident when I see that kids in primary schools who got band 6 could be very incompetent in maths. A lot of them have so many gaps in their mathematics. The depth is often not in them. When I saw my nephew (year 11) struggling with maths and his private tutoring college did not really help much, I was so surprised. He was revising stuff that my own kid at year 3 was doing. At end of year 4, my kid is already solving half of the questions in the year 10 school certificate! I see that kids at year 7 in selective schools are already doing a lot of the year 9 and 10 that kids in normal schools do.

The ability of my own kid to perform years ahead of her age is really about my ability to teach her to direct her mind into her own thinking about mathematics rather than letting a teacher tell her the answers. I manage to get her to look at many mathematical ideas that intrigue generations. When it come the basics I got her to learn very deeply and broadly. For example, at grade 2, I taught my child that numbers are separate from their representation. Then I taught her the idea of symbolic representation. Therefore number 2 could be represented as II in Roman numerals, or as '10' in binary system, or something completely different in Chinese, Japanese or Russian language. Primary school teachers never teach in this style because they don't even learn about this stuff unless they have done PURE mathematics at University level.


Anyway, my advice is to direct your kid to self-learning. The kid should revise and relearn the basics of maths from primary school level and move quickly to high school level. Relearning properly the really basic concepts of mathematics is vital to performance at high level. You may want to hire a good private tutor to reassess your child's basic abilities in mathematics from primary school level from grade 2-6. many kids who scrape through schools have very poor speed and basic mathematical reasoning. All these things need to be fixed up. It's pretty much like a child re-learning to walk in order to be trained as a good dancer.

It's not easy. It's frustrating and require a lot of mental discipline and patient. trying to do a quick fix now (as he is in year 11 won't help). Just ignore the fact that he is in year 11, start all over again from the very basics and race ahead to catch up at end of this year.

If you like, ask him to try my free tests for year 1-6 on my website

Online Assessment Home

I think many kids at year 10-11 will not score high on my tests for year 6 because they have so many gaps in their learning at the time when they were in primary schools. If your son can score 80% or better on the revision test for year 5 (available to year 6 kids), then it's OK. If not, serious work to help him relearn the basics would be required!

[mattanem]

Thanks for the insight, I will get my son to do the test on your website. I cant really tell you what methods is as I dont really know myself. I did my schooling in NSW and QLD and they didnt have anything called methods - just advanced 1 & 2. All I can tell you is that in VIC for the VCE they have general, general advanced, methods, further and specialist. Methods seems to be very graph based and seems to go hand in hand with physics and engineering.

[puglover]

Originally Posted by mattanem

Thanks for the insight, I will get my son to do the test on your website. I cant really tell you what methods is as I dont really know myself. I did my schooling in NSW and QLD and they didnt have anything called methods - just advanced 1 & 2. All I can tell you is that in VIC for the VCE they have general, general advanced, methods, further and specialist. Methods seems to be very graph based and seems to go hand in hand with physics and engineering.

why are you on the forum and not your son?

[mattanem]

um gee I wonder!!! He is a 16 year old male. School is not exactly his top priority. I am a mother who cares. What is there to wonder about! I will do everything I can to help him and get him what he needs - I wont be a mother that sits back and says maybe I should've done something.

[puglover]

Perhaps a book on motivation?
Is he going to have a tutor at university aswell?
Ask him - does he really want to go to university?
If school is not his top priority perhaps look at options such as picking up a trade.. he might be more happy and could go back to study when he is more mature.

[mattanem]

Firstly a statement like that is incredibly narrow minded - so maybe you are the one who needs the book. Males and females learn and comprehend things completely differently, if you are doing psychology maybe you should know that - or maybe you should choose another subject, one that is more one dimensional!

Also there is nothing wrong with trade work, alot of tradies earn better money than those who have graduated from uni, I know this from having owned & run a company in the building industry for many years. I say this because I am not pushing him to do anything other than get a good education - he can do with that what he wants (which at the moment is a pilot in the airforce hence the need for physics and methods) he is free to change his mind later and having done the best he could at school will only help! Funnily enough the only people I know who have done well for themselves later in life are those who finished (pushed or not) year 12. A basic education is essential even to trade work believe it or not, and the best time to get it is when you are young.

Maybe when you mature a little more and perhaps decide which direction you are headed in (seem a little confused in your course direction), or perhaps have children of your own you may understand a little better.

Positivity is essential and I am not about to give up on one of my children because he needs a bit of a shove in the right direction to get where he himself wants to go.

[puglover]

ok sorry for getting you on the defence.
and if i were you i wouldn't judge me for my history of schooling.
i suppose i am just frusterated because i value study and i have had difficulty due to having aspergers, my father passing away and housing issues..
and i think that it is okay to try things out and to admit to not knowing what you want to do.. that is mature! we are so lucky to have so much choice available to us.

i am just not sure if this approach is going to help your son.
maybe try to get your son involved with finding a tutor...
perhaps i was lucky because at our school we had a motivator talk to our school and it really helped...
also just as an idea.. i would try asking your son's teacher about tutors they usually know! or at least at our school they had links to past students who achieved really well and were tutoring for a really low price!
has your son checked out BOS? he might like it! there is sections on how to fit in your social life with study etc! even stuff about schoolies!

[i.am.amanda]

I used to have a great maths tutor in Beaconsfield, but as far as I know he has moved and i'm not sure if he's still tutoring or not...so thats not much of a help.

Check the local paper, it would definantly have information on a bunch of tutors. Thats how I found my tutor!

I just found this thread : http://community.boredofstudies.org/...t-suburbs.html

Thought it might be helpful.