Homeschool Math Blog

Here's a resource for high schoolers (mostly)! Varsity Tutors has created a massive FREE practice test bank for all kinds of standardized tests, including SAT, SSAT, ISEE, GED, GMAT, HSPT, CLEP, AP, ACT, and ACCUPLACER -- and also generic subjects such as algebra 1, geometry, or calculus. It contains tens of thousands of practice problems. You can also create a free account so you can save your test results and keep track of progress over time, as well as create your own tests. Note: this is not for math only but includes English, science, reading, writing, social studies  and so on -- whatever subjects are tested in any particular test.

Again, I want to share some thoughts from the How to Learn Math course by Jo Boaler I took recently -- this time about how timed tests and speed affect students in mathematics learning and their "ability" to make mistakes : ). You see, all of our brains actually GROW and make new connections when we make mistakes and think about them. There is no brain growth if you can just sail through a problem set! That is why it is so important for our students to make mistakes -- and then we need to VALUE those mistakes and help them learn from them. People with so-called fixed mindset are usually afraid of making mistakes. We need our students (and ourselves!) to have a GROWTH mindset - the attitude that I'm not perfect nor smart already, but making mistakes helps me learn and grow my brain . Jo has written a book, What's Math Got to Do with It?: How Parents and Teachers Can Help Children Learn to Love Their Least Favorite Subject . I do not have it... but ba...

I just stumbled onto a pretty neat resource for all math teachers (parents too). It is Glencoe's Online Study Tools . What they have is online, multiple-choice tests, quizzes, and standardized test practices, for ALL middle and high school topics. They are randomly generated so you can get as many different quizzes as you like. Just choose any state you wish (it doesn't matter), then a book or course (such as algebra or geometry), and then you'll see the list of topics. In other words, you don't have to own the book in order to do the quizzes and tests.

Photo by Made In China I was almost ready to comment on this exam , where only about 27% of aspiring aspiring elementary school teachers passed the new math section of the state's licensing exam this year... Boston.com says about this test, " Education leaders said the high failure rate reflects what they feared, that too many elementary classroom and special education teachers do not have a strong background in math and are in many ways responsible for poor student achievement in the subject, even in middle and high schools ." ...and then I noticed I had been looking at the wrong link for the practice test. The real link is this: Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure, Mathematics Subtest , from MTEL Practice Tests website. I feel that test is pretty good! In fact, I'd recommend that you do some problems from it, if you're teaching any grade from 1-12. If you're teaching middle or high school, you could use some of those problems with your students, ...

I've just added to the site placement tests for the Math Mammoth complete curriculum (LightBlue Series), for grades 1-4. These are actually end-of-year tests. They could also be used as diagnostic tests, to see what content areas a child might be lacking in .