mathblog

Math In An Attic?

Neil Sloane

Neil Sloane isn’t a well known name to the general public, but to math mathematicians all over the world he is considered to be one of the most influential mathematician of our time. The 75 year old Welshman worked for Bell Labs for some 40 years where he won numerous awards but the creation he is most famous for is his Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences. Mr. Sloane spends a considerable amount of his time organizing numbers into sequences and is the leading expert in his field. This interesting article over at Wired.com goes into depth of his work and his history with the exciting field of mathematics.

Study Tips & Strategies

The 9 BEST Scientific Study Tips

AsapScience has put together this great video explaining not just the best way to study math, but how studying anything effects the human brain. No surprise the first tip is not to cram the night before! The human brain is one of the most unique computational devices to ever exist and AsapScience goes to great lengths showing us how to correctly put our brains to work. Be sure to visit our blog for more Study Tips & Strategies.

Test Prep

Practice Makes Perfect- New Practice Tests!

Redesigned SAT
Practice Makes Perfect, So Go Ahead and Try These Awesome Practice Tests
The popular website CollegeReadiness.org has just put up some fantastic practice SAT and PSAT/NMSQT tests that we highly recommend taking. They’ve also provided an answer sheet so you can check your results right away. Practice makes perfect and Making The Grade, LLC can’t recommend these tests enough. We’d recommend challenging yourself to take these tests once a week for a month, and at the end of the month check to see how you’ve progressed. Taking the tests once will give you a good idea of what to expect on the SAT, but taking the practice tests over and over will help you show the SAT who the boss is. Be sure to visit our ACT Prep page for more tips and information!

 

Newsletters

Newsletter – September 2015

septnewsletter

mathblog

Is Infinite Chocolate Possible?

An infinite amount of chocolate from only one candy bar? What chocolate wizardy is this? Well math of course. Our friends over at VSauce take a look at the Banach-Tarski Paradox which is a mathematical theorem that you can split any item into 5 separate pieces, and rearrange those 5 pieces into two of what you originally start of. They take a mathematical and philosophical look at what infinity could actually mean and how the Banch-Tarski Paradox plays with the foundations of this theorem. Can infinite chocolate be possible? Watch their video to find out! Be sure to check out our Math Tutoring page for more information on how you can excel in mathematics!

Test Prep

What It Takes to Get a 36 on the ACT

ACT Tutoring

The ACT’s importance and difficulty can be intimidating for some students and a welcomed challenge to others. With the right prep work anyone can score very highly on the ACT, and with immense focus and drive anyone can get a perfect score. Allen Chang’s article details how he is one of those people who needed to ace the test. By his own admittance he was always better at math than writing and reading but with the correct prep he made sure a perfect ACT score was inevitable. His in-depth article describes his philosophical and physical approach towards acing the ACT and how he used the same methodology to score a near perfect score on the MCAT’s (he scored a 44 out of 45) for medical school. In his own words “In broad strokes, it takes a lot of hard work, a lot of smart work, and some amount of luck. But this isn’t helpful. Let’s dig deeper. You have to want it. Really, really want it.” Be sure to visit our ACT Prep page for more information.

Math Puzzle

Challenge: Are You Smarter Than 53,473 Other New York Times Readers?

Your challenge is to try to pick a number from 0 to 100, with that number representing your best guess of 2/3 of the average of all numbers chosen in the contest. The question is- what will everyone else do?

Take a look at this really neat article, you can play as many times as you’d like, however, only our FIRST guess will count!

See the full article here to submit your answer!

Test Prep

Revamped GED Test, GED Prep Is Crucial

GED Prep

With a revamped GED Test, GED Prep is more important than ever

The GED exam has been widely known as a great pathway for people of all ages who did not earn a traditional high school diploma to get the credentials needed in order to get a job… And the new GED Test is making that harder than ever. The new Pearson created GED test is much different than the ones before it and students are struggling like never before. The new GED test is so much more difficult that there was a 90 percent drop in passing rates in 2014. The new test focuses on four content areas: Literacy, science, math, and social studies. The focus on these common core subjects is meant to better prepare GED test takers for college rather than just work force readiness. GED Prep is now more important than ever as a the GED test itself attempts to adapt to the world today. Pearson has defended the new and difficult test stating ” based on feedback from employers, colleges, universities, and test-takers, that the value of the GED® credential had eroded” and “It also became clear that GED® graduates were losing ground in the job market. They were not able to compete with high school graduates for the few low-skill jobs that were available, and less than 12% were earning the career training and college certificates required for the exploding middle-skill job segment.” With this new test comes great challenge, and Making the Grade, LLC is here to ensure our GED prep gives our students the absolute best chance for success. Visit our GED Prep page for more information. To view this article, please click here.

Math Puzzle

Challenge: Area Maze Puzzle

Can you solve the area maze puzzle? All you need to know is the area of a rectangle (Area = length multiplied by the width)!

Area Maze Puzzle

Watch this video for a demonstration of how to complete the area maze puzzle. If you would like to read up more on this puzzle that is very popular in Japan, please read the full article here.

Test Prep

7 Ways the SAT Is Changing

SAT

No penalty for wrong answers anymore!

The SAT in 2016 will be changing from an increase in curriculum based questions to a revamped essay section. These are 7 ways the SAT will be changing in 2016 (to read more about this article click here):

  1. ONLINE TEST PREP
    • Khan Academy will provide online test prep.
  2. NO PENALTY FOR WRONG ANSWERS!
    • Students will not be penalized for any wrong answers!
  3. REVAMPED ESSAY
    • Students will read a passage and explain how the author is persuading the audience.
  4. EVIDENCE-FOCUSED READING
    • Students will be asked a question about the text, and then asked which piece of evidence best supports that answer.
  5. NO MORE OBSCURE VOCABULARY
    • Students will be asked to define a word based on how it is used in context.
  6. MORE GRAPHS AND CHARTS
    • Students will have to infer information from graphs and charts as well as revising sentences in order to make them be consistent with the information from the graphs.
  7. MORE GREAT TEXTS
    • The reading section will include excerpts from U.S. founding documents such as the Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, or works by Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi.

The SAT can be a bit overwhelming, especially when you have to adjust to a new test! Making the Grade, LLC can help you every step of the way whether you are taking the SAT for the first time or seeking to improve your score. Visit our SAT Prep page to learn more!