Expert: Cindy Myers - 1/23/2003

Question
Hello. I'm the father of a 12-year-old girl. She's very smart and I help her on Wednesdays. We sit down 2 or 3 hours at night and we go over the school stuff. This is besides her homewok or any assignments she may have. During this time I explain her mostly Math, not only what she's doing in classes, but refreshing past subjects and I also teach her more advanced stuff so she will already have an idea beforehand. She answers and solves the problems alright after being explained how to do them.

What I'm concerned about is that after a month or so, if we go over the same subject she seems to have forgotten. An example of this is arithmetic with negative numbers. I'm concerned that, for example, in a recent Math test, she got 90% in the problem-type questions, but only 74% in the multiple choices. How is this possible? In the multiple choices the answers are given! I'd appreciate your comments and any pointers you could give me about this.

Thank you very much

Richard

Answer
Hi Richard,

Your daughter sounds really typical of middle-schoolers. They often can learn something new on the spot, but getting it ingrained into their long-term memory takes a lot of frequent repetition and use. Math needs lots of practice in between to get the steps in order and to make the solution process habitual. As for multiple choice,
most students all the way through high school and even through college have not learned the specialized skill of dealing with multiple choice exams. The ability to see why the wrong answers are wrong is as important as being able to work out the right answer. And many people find the presence of similar options to be overwhelmingly confusing. With instruction, this is a skill that can be developed. It is a skill worth working on, of course, because so many exams lie ahead.

I would recommend that you work with her on problems similar to what she's doing with homework and review skills previously learned to be sure they become thoroughly ingrained -- second nature, no need to stop and ponder.
Working ahead sounds wonderful, but if she doesn't have the right platform of previously ingrained knowledge and skills, it actually interferes with new learning. Math is very sequential that way.

It is so good to hear that you're working with your daughter in this way. So many young people (especially girls) get confused about fractions and other math things that they become afraid of all math and lose confidence in themselves. I know too many adults who've been frustrated because of this for decades. By helping her with the current learning goals and by helping her reinforce and maintain previously learned skills, you will help her achieve recognizable success and build her confidence in herself and positive recognition from others. What a marvelous gift to give your daughter!

I am delighted to support your efforts. Please feel free to write again whenever I can assist further.

Cindy M