Most students and parents come to our center with a relatively clear sense of what is causing them the most trouble in math, and what they're looking for. For some students, there is no trouble at all and they just want to get ahead and get extra enrichment. For others, reasons they cite for their struggle in math vary from keeping up with homework, to being unable to retain concepts from class and homework during test time, and for others still, they feel they just can't grasp their school material at any point which leads to lack of confidence, inability to complete assignments, and poor grades on tests and quizzes.
So why is that we at Mathnasium still begin each student's membership with assessment, even if the student or guardian can identify what area is causing their student the most difficulty?
While it may seem a quick solution for many students, after all, if my student struggles to do homework, just having Mathnasium work on homework every session with my student for the school year will be sufficient...right? Well.... not always. For many students, they problems that we as educators, parents, friends see are frequently caused by deeper issues within students' education. While homework help, studying for tests/quizzes, and reviewing students' current school material is absolutely a part of Mathnasium's math tutoring, and services we are more than happy to provide, assessments provide valuable information about where students may have not learned or retained concepts from the past, or may still have gaps in their learning.
Gaps and other past misunderstandings that keep students from fully mastering their math material are huge primary contributors toward student disengagement, lack of confidence, and struggles in school. For some students, even if they did not display difficulties at the time or recently, concepts from years and years ago can come back and be frustrating or debilitating if we don't remember them. Examples include fractional concepts giving older students trouble when it comes to geometry, solving expressions, etc.
Assessments with Mathnasium and individualized learning plans allow our tutoring services to be tailored to each student's unique needs and gaps in their learning, when we are not working on homework or school work at Mathnasium. School breaks, weekend sessions, and especially summer vacation are awesome times when students aren't preoccupied with schoolwork and extracurriculars and can focus on patching their gaps and foundational knowledge to get caught up and excel, and avoid falling more behind next year!
Call us to find out more: 619-946-5686
