Final Study Guide 2015

Final Study Guide

Hello all. Here's a quick rundown of the concepts you'll need to review for your final. Remember, we'll be working on review questions in class all week, so you'll know exactly what type of problems to expect on the real final. There are 37 questions. Please look over your notes from this year and make sure you study the assignments from this week. If you’re struggling with a particular concept, now is the time to ask – I’m more than happy to help! Also, don’t forget that your online textbook has some great resources for studying, like the Quick Checks for each chapter section.

Stuff you need to know:

- Remember the order of operations (PEMDAS) for ALL questions you answer

- Integer operations

- The coordinate plane (identifying coordinates of a given point – walk into the building before you        take the elevator!)

- Simplifying expressions (don’t forget – you can only add or subtract when there are like terms)
- Prime Factorization and GCF
- Exponent rules

 - Scientific and standard notation
- Comparing and ordering fractions/decimals

- Changing decimals to fractions and fractions to decimals
- Fractions operations

- Solving one-step equations

Take a breath and don’t stress – it’s the home stretch! Do your best. J

Practice for tomorrow's quiz

http://www.mathplayground.com/fractions_mult.html

http://www.mathplayground.com/fractions_div.html

Chp. 4 Assessment FRI

Hello Pre-Algebra folks. I just wanted to give you a quick run-down of the major concepts that will be on your assessment Friday. (We will continue reviewing tomorrow.)

The first part of the test will cover exponents, greatest common factor (GCF), and simplifying fractions. Here are a few helpful links to previous posts. Please look through these and refresh your memory on these concepts:

Exponents (here's a helpful post from the Transitional Math blog - ignore the questions and just check out the summary of exponents): http://tlsmath6.blogspot.com/2014/09/thursday-94.html

GCF: http://tlsprealgebra6.blogspot.com/2013/12/finding-gcf-through-prime-factorization.html

Simplifying Fractions: Just remember to keep "dividing down" until your fraction is simplified. You can also find the GCF of the numerator and denominator, and then divide the top and bottom by the GCF.

The second part of the test will cover simplifying expressions with exponents (please review your exponent rules - I've posted a helpful chart below from math-play.com) and scientific notation. For your questions on scientific notation, you will be asked to express a given number in scientific notation and then asked to express a number which is already in scientific notation in standard form.



Happy studying!

Study Guide - Chp. 3 Assessment

Hello mathlings. Be sure to study for our Chapter 3 assessment on Wednesday! :) Calculators will be allowed for most of the test. Bring one to class. The only section on which you will not be able to use a calculator is adding and subtracting decimals.
Please read the following very carefully:
Each answer will be worth TWO points. 
1 point will be given for the correct answer.
1 point will be given for showing your work IF your work is labeled with the corresponding number and if I can read your work.

What's going to be on the test?

There will not be any questions from sections 1 or 2; however, please keep the principles of rounding and estimating in mind as you may need to round an answer to the nearest place-value. It's always, always, always a good idea to estimate your answer before doing the actual math - that way you have a benchmark to look back on and compare your answer. If it's way different than your estimate, you may want to redo the problem.


Questions on the test will be based on what we covered in sections 3 through 6:

3-3: Measures of Central Tendency 
- Mean: Add 'em up and divide by how many pieces of data you have (also known as the average)
- Median: First, order the data from least to greatest; then, find the middle number (or the mean of the two middle numbers if there are two)
- Mode: The number(s) which appear most often
- Range: Highest value - lowest value
- Outliers: Any number that's much, much lower or higher than the rest of the data

3-4: Solving Forumlas
- You will be given the formula in order to solve; you don't need to memorize any formulas.
- Plug in the values that you have for the corresponding variables
- Solve for the unknown
-Remember to include your units

3-5 and 3-6: Solving Equations with Decimals
The rules for solving equations with decimals are the same for solving equations with whole numbers. The goal is still to get the variable by itself.
1. Figure out "what's happening" to the variable.
2. Do the opposite of that to both sides of the equation.
3. Remember your integer rules, especially if you aren't using a calculator.

Adding and Subtracting Decimals:
If you still have the worksheet on which we practiced adding and subtracting decimals, look over that to study. Otherwise make sure you take notes tomorrow in class while we review. Remember when you add/subtract decimals that you:
1. Line up the decimals
2. Carry the decimal down before you solve
3. Solve the problem as though there are no decimals. Your decimal will already be correctly placed in your answer.

See you tomorrow! Bring your smarticles!

Videos to Watch 11/5

Hello everyone. Please watch the following two videos on Khan Academy. This guy goes over solving equations with multiplication and division in-depth. There's an online practice exercise after the second video if you'd like to complete the questions online. It will tell you how well you did. Happy solving!


https://www.khanacademy.org/math/cc-sixth-grade-math/cc-6th-expressions-and-variables/cc-6th-beginner-equations/v/simple-equations

https://www.khanacademy.org/math/cc-sixth-grade-math/cc-6th-expressions-and-variables/cc-6th-beginner-equations/v/solving-one-step-equations-2

Let's Talk Word Problems

In class today we completed questions 10, 11, 21 and 33. I'd like to walk you through the process of finding the answers to these problems. Please come to class tomorrow prepared with any questions you may have. 

When solving word problems, remember to distinguish between what you know and what you need to know. Remember to pay attention to clues like "more than" and "less than" that will indicated whether you need to add or subtract. 

10. What we know - There are about 778 million km between the sun and Jupiter. 

                                - This is 550 million km greater than the distance between the sun and Mars. 

      What we need to know - The distance (d) between Mars and the sun. 

Let's set up an equation. Ask the question, what's equal to what here? We know that 778 million km is equal to d (the distance between Mars and the sun) plus an extra 550 million km. 

778 = d + 550

Now, solve for d by subtracting 550 from both sides:

778 - 550 = d + 550 - 550

228 = d

The average distance from Mars to the sun is 228 million km. 

11. What we know - Speed travels through steel @ 5200 m/s

                               - This is 2520 m/s faster than the speed of sound through silver

      What we need to know - The speed of sound through silver (s)

What's equal to what here? We know that 5200 m/s is equal to the speed of sound through silver (s) plus an extra 2520 m/s. 

5200 = s + 2520

Now, solve for s by subtracting 2520 from both sides:

5200 - 2520 = s + 2520 - 2520

2680 = s

The speed of sound through silver is 2,680 m/s.

21. What we know - Distance from Venus to the sun is 108 million km.

                               - This distance is 42 million km less than the distance from Earth to the sun/

      What we need to know - Earth's distance (d) from the sun. 

This is very similar to #10. We know that 108 million km is equal to d (the distance between the Earth and the sun) minus 42 million km. 

108 = d - 42

d = 150 

The average distance from the Earth to the sun is 150 million km. 

33. What we know - In '96, 487m people spoke English. 

                               - This was 512m people fewer than the # of people who spoke Mandarin. 

      What we need to know - How many people spoke Mandarin (n)?

We could think of it like this: If 487 million people spoke English, and that was 512 million people less than those who spoke Mandarin, we must subtract 512 from n to get the 487:

n - 512 = 487 (Answer A)

Worksheet Answers 1 - 9

Hola Amigos,
Please check your answers. Click on the pictures to enlarge (answers are boxed). See the comments if your answer was incorrect and you're not sure where you went wrong. Be sure to come prepared to class tomorrow with any questions you have. See you then!

Questions 1-4 were pretty straight forward. Change addition to adding the opposite, distribute (if necessary), and combine like terms. Sometimes it helps to put negative numbers in parentheses so as not to confuse the signs with adding, subtracting, negatives, etc.

Number 5 was a big more complex. After changing subtraction to adding negatives, we distributed both the 3 and the negative 4 to their respective parentheses. Then we used integer rules to combine like terms. Negative 12 and positive 12 cancel each other out.

Number 6 could have been done two ways. The first way would include all the steps we see above. The second would entail looking at the problem and saying, "If I've got six times g minus h, and I'm taking away six times g minus h, I'll be left with zero."

For 7 - 9, don't forget that there's always an imaginary 1 next to any variable that's by itself. Changing a variable to its negative would mean that invisible 1 turns into a negative 1.