4Real Forums: New Elementary Math

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Topic: New Elementary Math

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pmeilaen
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Posted: May 18 2011 at 7:38pm \| IP Logged

My son has been using NEM 1 this year (grade 7), but he won't be able to finish it. He is a good student and has scored very highly on standardized tests. I'm wondering if I should be concerned about him taking more time to work through the book than what it is intended for. I was also wondering if it is necessary to do each and every exercise. There seem to be a lot of them in the book. Lastly, is there anybody here who has used NEM exclusively for high school and whose children have done well on PSAT/SAT tests and in college? I don't know anybody in our homeschool support group who uses it so I don't know what to expect.

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Eva

Denise in IL
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Posted: May 18 2011 at 8:30pm \| IP Logged

From past discussions online, including comments from some people who were Singapore math students *in* Singapore, the teachers do not normally assign all the problems. They will pick an assortment from various points in the homework list (which is arranged roughly in order of difficulty) to give their students a well-rounded practice session.

My eldest daughter did primarily NEM in high school, but supplemented with a few outside materials to cover topics (like logarithms) that NEM didn't include. Through most of NEM, I allowed her to choose the problems she wanted to do. Usually she just did the star problems, except for a few topics (like exponent rules) where she felt she needed more practice. She went to a community college her senior year and tested into pre-calculus trig, but I had her take college algebra first, figuring a class that was mostly review would make an easier transition to the classroom. She has done very well in college and recently decided to add a math minor to her engineering degree.

I definitely would not worry about a 7th grader taking longer than a year to work through NEM 1. It is a tough book. The later NEMs are easier -- or at least, they have less new material, so they *feel* easier. Beware there are some typos in the answer key, and we found at least one star problem that didn't have an answer as posed. Check the Singapore math forum for errata.

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In His grace, Denise
A veteran homeschooling mother of five, and still learning.
Visit my blog: Let's play math!

pmeilaen
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Posted: May 19 2011 at 8:21pm \| IP Logged

Thank you so much, Denise. Your reply is very helpful. My son has already started jumping around a bit in the book and doing only the problems he thinks are necessary. May I ask what supplemental materials you used in high school? What about College Mathematics from Singapore for grades 11 and 12? I saw on their website that there are no solution manuals for that series, which might be a problem. My son will have the opportunity to attend a private Christian College later in high school. Would that be a better solution?

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Eva

Denise in IL
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Posted: June 13 2011 at 10:49am \| IP Logged

pmeilaen wrote:

My son has already started jumping around a bit in the book and doing only the problems he thinks are necessary. May I ask what supplemental materials you used in high school? What about College Mathematics from Singapore for grades 11 and 12? I saw on their website that there are no solution manuals for that series, which might be a problem. My son will have the opportunity to attend a private Christian College later in high school. Would that be a better solution?

Sorry to delay so long in answering, but this got lost in my Inbox. We supplemented with a chapter on logarithms from an algebra 2 book, and a bit of stuff on matrices (from the same book). I just told her to go through the algebra 2 book and study any topic that looked unfamiliar.

Dd also started another Singapore maths book, I think it was called Advanced Mathematics (it was a pre-calculus book). But she didn't get very far before going to the community college.

Taking the classes at college worked well for her, because I had younger kids to devote my attention to (as I see you do, also). She lucked into a very good (tough!) instructor and a great set of classmates who worked together to understand the topics --- and Singapore math had given her an excellent foundation. With a different teacher and different classmates, it might not have gone so well. Such things are hard to predict.

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In His grace, Denise
A veteran homeschooling mother of five, and still learning.
Visit my blog: Let's play math!

pmeilaen
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Posted: June 16 2011 at 8:41pm \| IP Logged

Thanks again. We'll stay with NEM for now and see how it goes.

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Eva

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