Solving Systems By Substitution

Solving Systems By Substitution Substitution is a very useful method in mathematics. In the method of substitution one of the variable is substituted to find the other variables and vice versa. It helps reduce the given question or solution to a simpler form. Expressions can consist of one or more than one unknown variables with different coefficients and constant numbers. Example 1: Solve by substitution the set of equations x - 5y = 30 and x + y = 6? Solution: The given equations are x - 5y = 30 and x + y = 6. Here x, y are the unknown variables. Substitute the variable x. From one equation x = 30 + 5y, substituting in the other equation. This gives 30 + 5y + y = 6; 30 + 6y = 6; 6y = -24; y = -4. Now substitute y = -4 in x + y = 6; x = 10. Hence the solution is x = 10 and y = -4. Example 2: Solve by substitution the set of equations x - y = -2 and x + y = 2? Solution: The given equations are x - y = -2 and x + y = 2. Here x, y are the unknown variables. Substitute the variable x. From one equation x = -2 + y, substituting in the other equation. This gives -2+ y + y = 2; -2 + 2y = 2; 2y = 4; y = 2. Now substitute y = 2 in x + y = 2; x = 0. Hence the solution is x = 0 and y = 2.

10 Twitter Accounts Every Parent Should Follow

10 Twitter Accounts Every Parent Should Follow Social media is a fantastic way to stay current on educational news and trends. Twitter in particular is a great social media tool, as it allows you to consolidate all of your news updates into one place. Here are 10 Twitter accounts every parent should follow to stay informed about his or her childs education. 1. The College Board - @CollegeBoard The College Board posts information related to student success, college selection, and the transition from high school to college. This is a great Twitter account for your high school junior or senior to follow, as well. 2. The SAT Program - @OfficialSAT This official SAT Twitter page will help you keep track of all things SAT from test dates, to SAT test taking resources, to exam changes. As with The College Board, your high school student can benefit from following this account. 3. AP for Students - @APforStudents Get study tips, as well as test and curriculum information, for your student who is considering or participating in Advanced Placement (AP) courses. This is also a helpful page for your student. You may also want to consider these 5 questions before taking an AP course. 4. ACTStudent - @ACTStudent Find ACT test details and college admissions tips through this helpful Twitter page. Students on Twitter who plan to take the ACT should follow this account. 5. United States Department of Education - @usedgov Stay in the know on any education policy changes in the United States that may affect your childs schooling experience. 6. Federal Student Aid - @FAFSA Keep an eye on Federal Student Aid happenings, such as impending due dates, to help finance your childs education. You may also want to considering asking your college these three questions about financial aid. 7. Arne Duncan - @arneduncan Arne Duncan is the United States Secretary of Education. He maintains an active Twitter feed for updates on policy, trends, and accomplishments related to education. 8. U.S. News Education - @USNewsEducation The education section of U.S. News and World Report offers Tweets related to education news. Also, this publication frequently shares college and program rankings. 9. Gates Education - @gatesed The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation seeks to improve education in the United States by ensuring that every high school student graduates fully prepared for college. Follow this Twitter page for information on educational opportunities and programs related to the Gates Foundation. For instance, watch out for postings related to scholarships that your student may be eligible to apply for. 10. Your states Department of Education Visit your states Department of Education website to find its Twitter account. Many have a social media profile that you can follow. This is the go-to place for policy updates and proposals that directly impact you and your student. Following these Twitter accounts gives you immediate, mobile-friendly access to Tweets related to education all in one place. As you follow these pages, explore the other education accounts that they Retweet. These may also be applicable to your students path. Dont forget to Retweet helpful articles and posts so your own followers can get this content for their students, as well. And be sure to follow @varsitytutors on Twitter for more educational tips, academic updates, and scholarship opportunities. Happy Tweeting!

A Day in the Life at Brigham Young University

A Day in the Life at Brigham Young University The tutors behind Varsity Tutors are not just here to teach theyre sharing their college experiences as well. Lia is a New York City tutor specializing in ACT prep tutoring, Reading tutoring, Biology tutoring, and more. She is a 2009 graduate of Brigham Young University with Bachelors degrees in both Visual Art and Physiology Developmental Biology. See what she had to say about her alma mater: VT: Describe the campus setting and transportation options.How urban or safe is the campus?Are there buses or do you need a car/bike? Lia: Brigham Young Universitys campus is set in a archetypically picturesque location, with looming overhead mountains grandly displaying the seasons, and nearby Sundance serving as the perfect vista for winter or summer past-times. The surrounding town, Provo, is small and extraordinarily friendly. A stroll down University Ave toward Center Street acquaints you with many of the small businesses and locals. After freshman year, most students live off campus, with many commuting mostly by bike or by foot. South of campus is full of BYU-approved housing, including apartment complexes and multiple-room houses; large apartment complexes and resulting communities abound all around the edge of campus as well. VT: How available are the professors, academic advisers, and teaching assistants? Lia: Depending on the program, of course, almost every professor, TA, and adviser is as available as you proactively seek them to be. Every professor and TA holds office hours, and some classes hold regular extra labs or office hours during which TAs guide you through difficult problem sets or offer other coaching. English and writing tutoring is regularly available in the library through the English department. VT: How would you describe the dorm life rooms, dining options, location, socialization opportunities with other students? Lia: The dorms mostly consist of freshmen, and many of these freshmen form strong groups, usually within their church ward, that last throughout college. Every dorm building has its own culture, with some offering more socialization than others (for example, those that include six students per unit and have individual kitchens usually have less social functions; those that include 1-2 students per unit, without individual units, usually have more). VT: Which majors/programs are best represented and supported?What did you study and why? Did the university do a good job supporting your particular area of study? Lia: I double majored in Visual Arts: Studio Art and Physiology Developmental Biology, with a minor in Chemistry. I began college intending to apply to medical school, but decided to join the Visual Arts program my junior year and fulfill both degrees. I found that the programs were incredibly different; where the Physiology Developmental Biology program (underneath the Biology department) circulated a large number of students every year and had lectures with student bodies ranging from 50-200, the Visual Arts Department was extremely intimate with classes ranging from 5-20 students. As a result, I was able to get a lot more support in my Visual Arts classes than I was in my science classes, as well as develop stronger mentor relationships. While BYU has an excellent variety of programs and support is available when asked for, its good to do research on class and program sizes to gauge what would best meet ones needs. VT: How easy or difficult was it for you to meet people and make friends as a freshman? Does Greek life play a significant role in the campus social life? Lia: There arent any sororities or fraternities on campus, but church wards often provide a lot of social structure. As a freshman, its almost essential to live in the dorms and attend an assigned ward to really live out the social experience. There are also a lot of campus functions and activities, often specifically geared toward freshmen, but these are also often attended by ward groups. VT: How helpful is the Career Centerand other student support services?Do many reputable companies recruit on campus? Lia: BYU has a top ranking business school and thus attracts a lot of attention. The Career Center is available as a general support, but usually refer students to specific departments for more specific advice and support. VT: How are the various study areas such aslibraries, the student union, and dorm lounges? Are they over-crowded, easily available, spacious? Lia: The Harold B. Lee Library is an enormous resource with an incredible selection of books, periodicals, and digital resources. Because the H.B.L.L. is so enormous, there are many different rooms for students to reserve for study groups and areas to study individually, as well as computers for use. The student center and dorm lounges are also spacious and comfortable, but most students group in the library. VT: Describe the surrounding town. What kinds of outside establishments / things to do are there that make it fun, boring, or somewhere in between?To what extent do students go to the downtown area of the city versus staying near campus? Lia: Provo, Utah is a small town with several larger, settled businesses and many small businesses. While campus is situated just a half mile or so from the center street of downtown Provo, many students congregate mostly on or within campus. Downtown Provo is a rich, cultural community, however, with great gallery strolls, small businesses, and a thriving music scene, and the students that explore it often integrate into it quickly. Other than the downtown area, which is easily traversable by foot, many students enjoy hikes, bike rides around Utah Lake, weekend trips to Southern Utah, and shopping in Salt Lake City, which is an hours drive north. VT: How big or small is the student body? Were you generally pleased or displeased with the typical class sizes? Lia: BYU has approximately 30,000 in its student body, lending to large class sizes in most general courses. While the class sizes werent always frustrating, it was also a high priority for me to find courses that offered smaller group sizes for purposes of discussion and stronger support. VT: Describe one memorable experience with a professor and/or class. Perhaps one you loved the most or one youregretthe most. Lia: My favorite class at BYU came in my last semester there: Special Problems in Art. In the midst of this course, I was able to make proposals for art exhibits that were particularly experimental and receive approval to install them. One such experience involved a sound art installation, in which a fellow student and I placed recordings of various familiar sounds in ceiling tiles, and set the recordings to play at an interval of four minutes or so. It was amazing watching casually as passersby heard lawn mowers, scrapes, and breaking glass as they walked to class! Check out Lias tutoring profile. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the views of Varsity Tutors.

Learning Styles - Private Tutoring

Learning Styles BobbiM Mar 26, 2014 Now lets talk about different learning styles. Learning styles? Yep. The different ways people learn. For me personally I learn easier by seeing things visually. Read these descriptions of each learning style and decide how you learn best. Visual learners: those who learn best by watching or seeing. Visual learners like to be shown how to do things and often learn best through diagrams or by using imagery. If you are a visual learner,(like me!) if someone asks you how to spell a word, you probably have to write it down yourself first, rather than simply trying to spell the word in your head or out loud. Are you a visual learner? Auditory learners: those who learn best by listening or speaking. Auditory learners can learn easily through listening to lectures or by talking information over with a peer. If you are an auditory learner, you probably rarely miss a class lecture and you may participate in study groups for many of your courses. You may rehearse information by saying it over, either to yourself or out loud. Are you an auditory learner? Kinesthetic learners: those who learn best by touching or movement. Kinesthetic learners generally learn best through writing or even typing things out. If you are a Kinesthetic learner, you may rehearse information by writing it several times. You also may enjoy lab courses where there is a hands-on approach to learning. Are you a Kinesthetic learner? Excerpt from College Success Strategies by Sherrie L. Nist and Jodi Patrick Holschuh.

SAT Math Solving Impossible Math Problems

SAT Math Solving Impossible Math Problems ACT SAT Prep and College Admissions Blog The SAT sometimes approaches math a bit differently than we’re used to in math class. One of these differences in approach is in the way some SAT math problems ask us to solve for relationships between variables, rather than the value of one particular variable. These problems can seem very challenging, or even downright impossible, at first glance, because they often give us multiple variables but only one equation. One thing we learn in math class when studying systems of equations is that in order to solve for 2 variables, we usually need 2 separate equations; to solve for 3 variables, we need 3 separate equations; and so on. Certain SAT math problems will appear to violate that general rule and ask us to do something that’s supposed to be impossible, like solving for 2 variables with only 1 equation. When we look more closely at such problems, though, we realize that the SAT is not really asking for the value of each individual variable involved. Instead, we’re asked to find the value of the sum, product, or some other relationship involving 2 or more variables. Let’s look at an example of such a problem: If 4x + 7y + 1 = y â€" 2, What is the value of 2x + 3y? A. -2 B. -1.5 C. -0.5 D. 2 E. 4.5 Explanation and solution: We’re given only one equation, but it involves 2 unknowns: x and y. We really don’t have enough information to solve for the value of x and/or the value of y, but fortunately, that’s not what the question asks us to do. Instead, we are asked to find the value of a sort of relationship that involves both x and y together: 2x + 3y. To do this, we algebraically manipulate the equation that’s given. Instead of trying to isolate x or isolate y, we try to isolate the quantity “2x + 3y”. To do this, we can first subtract y from both sides of the equation, and then subtract 1 from both sides, so that the equation now looks like: 4x + 6y = -3. To finish isolating “2x + 3y”, we divide both sides of the equation by 2 and obtain: 2x + 3y = -1.5. So the correct answer choice is “B”. Let’s look at another example: If the average of x, y, and z is 12, what is the value of 3(x + y + z)? A. 12 B. 24 C. 36 D. 72 E. 108 Explanation and solution: To obtain the average of x, y, and z, we would need to add the 3 numbers together and then divide the resulting sum by 3. Since we are told that their average equals 12, we can express the information as an equation: (x + y + z)/3 = 12. Multiplying both sides of the equation by 3, we obtain: (x + y + z) = 36. To find the value of 3(x + y + z), we can again multiply both sides of the equation by 3 and find that 3(x + y + z) = 108. The correct answer choice is “E”. Notice that in the problem we just solved, we did not solve for the individual values of x, y, or z; that would have required more information than we were given.

5 Awesome SAT Apps - by TutorNerds

5 Awesome SAT Apps - by TutorNerds A Smartphone Makes a Smart Student With These 5 SAT Apps Right now it’s sunny and 85 degrees outside, the Pacific Ocean is calling to you and the thought of school is far, far away. Believe it or not it’s only about a month until school starts up again in the fall and the SAT is right around the corner (READ: 8 SAT Essay Tips). You have signed up for the October SAT, right? Whether you are taking the SAT in October or December, August is the right time to be working on your SAT test prep study (CLICK: SAT Registration). Now, as a disclaimer, apps, youtube videos, and books are all helpful, but nothing prepares you better than an in-home Orange County SAT tutor. Our private tutors have taken the SAT, gone to college, and tutored many students to success. Its about reaching your potential and growing confidence. Ready to score high? Back to the post, I often see people on their phones, even at the beach, so why not spend some of your technology time studying your way into college? Check out these 5 fantastic SAT apps to help you get started on your summer SAT journey (READ: Summer Spent Well: What Are Colleges Looking For?). 1. IntelliVacab lite for SAT Okay, so have you ever had someone like me show up at your door for SAT tutoring and they ask you, “so how many vocab words have you learned so far?”. And you think to yourself, “Um none”. This is totally normal and actually very common. Although I strongly recommend that the best way to learn new vocab is in-context (Your Irvine SAT tutor will help explain this to you), the reality is that some vocab words found on the SAT are words that you will never, ever use again (unless you become an SAT tutor or go work for the College Board). For those words you just have to sit down and learn them. You could make 3,500 flash cards (no thanks) or you could try this app. IntelliVocab lite for SAT is designed to learn your patterns of weakness and which words trip you up time and time again and then focuses on them. That’s pretty smart huh? As an added bonus it’s FREE. 2. Edupath SAT Prep and College Search This app helps you track your progress as you study. It would make a great companion study tool to your tutoring sessions. Edupath SAT Prep will tell you which areas that you need to focus on and then you can tell your tutor what your weaknesses are and you can work on them together. As an extra feature, this app helps you find colleges that might fit your goals and career needs. So many students are overwhelmed with the hundreds of choices of colleges and universities. Most students don’t know which schools will accept their current SAT scores. Also, knowing where you want to go to college can help you figure out the specific SAT scores that you need.Pretty cool! Also FREE. 3. SAT Up SAT Up can actually help you correct the problems that you answered incorrectly. This app will take you through the process step by step. For many math students, missing even one step can mean the difference between up to 100 points. This is also a great companion study tool. FREE! 4. SATLadder SATLadder allows users to compete and challenge other real life test prep students. This is a great way to see how you stack up to other students taking the SAT this fall. Let’s face it, colleges will be doing the same. 5. Vocab Ahead This app, Vocab Ahead, features videos where the vocabulary word is pronounced for you. Users also get a definition and hear the word used in a sentence. Hearing a word in context makes it easier to remember and it never hurts to hear new words pronounced out loud. The reality is that students who are taking the SAT in October should be well into their summer study program but if you haven’t started yet now is definitely the time. Even 25 minutes a day can really help you get closer to your college goals. I recommend that you use these apps on the days that you don’t see your SAT tutor. If you are planning to start tutoring this fall (for the December SAT) then get started with these apps now to give you that competitive edge when you start regular study sessions in September. All blog entries, with the exception of guest bloggers, are written by Tutor Nerds. Are you an education professional? If so, email us at info@tutornerds.com for guest blogging and collaborations. We want to make this the best free education resource in SoCal, so feel free to suggest what you would like to see us post about. Teach.com

5 things to know before teaching in Korea

5 things to know before teaching in Korea Experienced ESL teacher, Adrian, at Teach Away shares some essential insight into living and teaching in South Korea.1. Learn some basics of the Korean language. Even a few key phrases can go a long way when it comes to carrying out basic tasks and getting around. Take the time to study correct pronunciation. You wouldn't want to end up confusing a hot pepper for a part of the male anatomy. Trust me.2. Don't expect students, especially younger ones, to behave as they do in Western countries. Students are well-disciplined and friendly - not to say that they aren't in Western schools. But you may see students of the same gender sitting on each other's laps outside of class, or holding hands down the halls; a little friendlier than my school days I'd say.3. Take your job seriously and you’ll be rewarded. You may find some foreign teachers are in Korea just for fun and not really focusing on student needs. Don't be phased by them. Korea is known for it's strong work ethic. Follow suit and your experience will flourish with your employers.4. Make the most of your free time. Anytime you're off from teaching, you should be taking advantage of the beautiful sites around Korea. Travel is cheap and easy. Whether visiting Jeju island for it's famous views and oranges, or a day trip into Seoul for late night shopping, there's never an excuse to be a shut in.  5. Mild food is still spicy. Better yet, there is no mild option in Korea. You'll either learn to love the spiciness of food in Korea, or quickly learn to, as I did. Not everything is spicy, but just be warned. Korean food is delicious, so don’t be afraid to be adventurous.Find out more about teaching in Korea here and search for our current teaching positions in Korea here.

7 Tips for Connecting to Reading Material

7 Tips for Connecting to Reading Material We've all been there: you read a passage, put the book down, and can't remember a single thing you just read. Unfortunately, not all academic texts are as exciting and accessible as the newest Stephen King novel, but you still need to get through them in order to succeed in school. So what's a bleary-eyed, foggy-brained student to do? Try these seven tips for connecting with your reading material. 1. Think small You don't have to read an entire chapter or journal article in one sitting. Instead, set moderate goals for reading material. Make sure to take advantage of all resources along the way, such as chapter introductions and summaries. If there are accompanying reading questions, take time to answer them - even before you do the reading. These questions provide a framework for what's to come. 2. Eyes up Reading the same words over and over and over again can be discouraging and counter-productive - neither of which are components in an effective study routine. Rather than burying your head in a book, look up and away from the text every now and then. Ask yourself questions about the text, and respond in your own words. This not only tests what you're absorbing, but also helps reinforce basic ideas and concepts. 3. Understand, don't memorise There are some times in life when memorising is necessary. Reading comprehension is not one of them. If you encounter words you don't understand, stop and look them up. While some definitions can be discerned from context, others cannot, and failure to understand them can obstruct your ability to comprehend a particular concept. In addition to the words themselves, pay attention to concepts and how they connect with each other. 4. Forge through It's easy to get distracted and put down a book that's difficult or boring. Resist the temptation. Instead, set a goal to read through to the end of the passage or chapter. Some ideas will become clearer as you read. If you stop reading, however, it will be that much harder when you return to the text. 5. Think outside the box While note-taking in words is helpful to reinforce ideas, it's not the only way. Many people find that using abstract representations, colors, and graphics can help them visualize concepts. Not everyone learns the same way. The key is in finding the methods that work best for you. 6. Take a break Some advanced concepts are hard. But just because you don't understand them today doesn't mean you won't understand them tomorrow. When your brain becomes too tired or you start to panic, set the text aside. Return to it the next day and reread the material. Your brain may have done some heavy lifting while you were sleeping! 7. Seek help Sometimes you need a little extra help. If you've tried these tips and are still struggling, talk with your teacher or an academic counsellor. Additionally, a tutor can teach you valuable tools to improve your reading comprehension, as well as help you through more challenging concepts. While some texts can be frustrating, don't let yourself get psyched out. With a little patience and perseverance you can overcome the obstacles and learn to absorb complex reading materials in a meaningful way.