Frequently Asked Questions
- Why aren’t the prep sessions and prep sessions held on main campus instead of Huron?
- What are your thoughts on Prep 101?
- What’s in the study guides?
- How many people have you tutored?
- Can I attend the prep session at a discounted rate if I come late? Can I get a discount if I don’t want a book?
- Why aren’t the prep sessions held on main campus instead of Huron?
It would make more sense to run it on campus, wouldn’t it? Unfortunately, main campus refused to rent a room to me when I emailed them in 2006 and they refused. So, I emailed them again in 2008 to see if their policy had changed at all. At first, It seemed that it hadn’t. Their response was along the lines that they can’t let me rent a room because my teaching conflicts with services offered on campus. However, they checked with the Math Department and got their ok. The problem is that renting rooms on main campus costs nearly twice as much as renting a comparable room at Huron. Since Huron’s only a short walk away, I went with them. - What are your thoughts on Prep 101?
I have a few things to say about Prep 101 review sessions. Firstly, Prep 101 has approached me twice to apply to work for them. First, when I was in the second year of my undergraduate studies, I declined because I didn’t feel I had sufficient time to write a quality study guide. Second, during the summer of 2008, I declined because I had already began running my own prep sessions in response to feedback I had heard concerning the quality of Prep 101. During 2007, I attended the Calculus 50 midterm review session to determine what I should tell students when they asked my opinion of Prep 101.- I found that given the length of time (8 hours) it was difficult to focus near the end of the prep session. So, you should expect that your mind probably won’t be digesting the material that’s taught towards the end. (Imagine how drained you feel after a single math lecture - now, multiply that by 8!)
- I counted seven mistakes the instructor made. Several were minor. Some were not minor.
- I’ve tutored students who attended the prep sessions. After the Math 30 review session, a few students came to me for tutoring and it became apparent that they had been taught an incorrect method for solving certain problems (involving the area between two curves). Since several students who attended the Math 30 Prep 101 session showed me this, I’m led to believe it was actually the instructor who taught it wrong.
- The Math 30 Study Guide that was handed out at the Christmas exam didn’t cover specifically the Math 30 material. Instead, it was an all-encompassing guide to Calculus - including several topics that were not taught in Math 30. In fact, over 60% of the guide consisted of material which was not relevant to the course and nowhere in the guide was it made clear which sections were relevant and which weren’t.
So, based on my (admittedly, limited) experiences, I wasn’t too impressed with the quality of Prep 101. I’ve seen a similar sentiment expressed around the web.
- What’s in the study guides?
A bunch of formula sheets, examples and theorems explained in plain english. Everything you need to know to do well on the exam. Basically, I just thought about what kind of study materials I would have wanted when I was doing these classes and I put them all together in a booklet. I went through all the available past exam problems and made sure that everything necessary was included. - How many people have you tutored?
When I started tutoring, I didn’t think to save my emails. So, I don’t have an exact number. But, based on the emails I did keep, as of August 2008, I’ve tutored 224 people. Because of the missing emails, the number is probably closer to 235 - 240. - Can I attend the prep session at a discounted rate if I come late? Can I get a discount if I don’t want a book?
Sorry, no. The prep sessions are a flat rate regardless if you attend late or if you don’t want a book. Everyone pays the same price.