Notes from Janice’s Desk
Many people are not good test takers and I am one of them. I seem to go into “brain freeze” when I have to take a test. I am 67 and the only test I get concerned about now is my blood sugar level. But more than two million students this year took the SAT test and they all wanted a high score.
Since the SAT test score affects admission in some colleges, I wonder why studying for the test doesn’t begin in elementary school. In fact, I recommend that parents and educators use Paul Osborne’s “LD SAT: Study Guide” as one of their resources. While the book was written for learning disabled kids in high school, in my opinion the title needs to be changed to “What Ever Educator Needs” or something like that.
For example, at what grade level do kids learn that the order of adding doesn’t matter, such as 3 + 2 gives the same answer as 2 + 3?
The order of operations is so important in higher math, but it is an elementary math skill. I remember the phrase, “Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally,” which could be simplified by the acronym PEMDAS.
Both give the order of performing a math problem.
1. Parenthesis
2. Exponents
3. Multiplication or division (which ever comes first)
4. Adding or subtracting (which ever comes first)
For example math problems from Paul’s book, see PEMDAS.
More Later,
Janice