Saturday, March 21, 2009
Regents Exam Preparation
I am a first year 9th grade Integrated Algebra math teacher. With the regents coming up in a few months I've began to think about how I want to review. Any suggestions? I plan on using a lot of the resources on jmap.org which has all of the exams and breaks them down into many useful categories. For instance, since I'm using the Pearson Prentice Hall Integrated Algebra textbook, jmap actually breaks the regents questions down into the corresponding chapter and section of the textbook. I know it does this for Amsco as well.
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The pearson set also comes with a test generator cd that has question banks that are formatted to be just like regents questions. The program has algorithm capabilities to allow you to make many versions of the same types of questions as well. I use the program to generate all of my exams so that they are similar to what the kids will see in June on the Regents.
ReplyDeleteThats a great idea. I also have that software and have been looking through it. I used it to make a few exams and I always use it to print out bubble sheets for multiple choice quizzes or exams. I've been meaning to look into it further but haven't had a chance... I'll have to get on that. How much time do you plan on spending on regents review? I'm thinking I'll start mid-May latest... What chapters have you covered so far? I'm starting Chapter 11 tomorrow but have skipped a few sections.
ReplyDeleteI had my students purchase the Barron's Regents Review Powerpack. I assign homework problems that cover a range of topics that we covered throughout the year. In addition, my tests are mostly cumulative so students are constantly forced to review/prep for the Regents.
ReplyDeleteI just started chapter 10, but i have been going through each chapter in order. My best guess would be that I would be finished with chapters 10 and 11 by the end of April and by mid May I should be done with the book. That should leave 3 weeks for regents review. I also believe there's several jeopardy regents review powerpoints online which might be fun!
ReplyDeleteMr. Alarcon: I've been thinking about having my students purchase the Barron's Regents Review Powerpack but I know the problem is that many of them won't do it. I'm going to tell them to get it and for those who do I'll tell them to use it as additional review for the exam. Some of my more motivated students will definitely purchase it and use it. I purchased it myself and will be using it as part of the review. I wish I would have made all my test cumulative as well. That was a great idea. I only had a midterm that was cumulative and I'll be giving a cumulative final as well.
ReplyDeleteMeridyth: I've been going through the chapters straight through too. Have you skipped any of the sections? I skipped a few because I could not find them on the standards and I skipped some others that I plan on saving for the end. For chapter 10 I only covered 10-1 through 10-4. I do not believe they are required to know completing the square, using the quadratic formula or therefore using the discriminant. I skipped 10-8, choosing a linear, quadratic or exponential model, but plan on going back to that during review. There are a few other sections in previous chapters that I skipped as well but I need to go back over my tests to see exactly which ones. I know I need to cover a few of those topics. After Chapter 12 I am also going to cover the Chapter NY New York Additional Topics. I think most of it is fair game for the regents. I should be done with everything by mid May as well. The jeopardy regents review powerpoints online is a great idea. Are you talking about software that came with the pearson products or a particular website?
The whole skipping chapters/sections is becoming an unfortunate reality with me. I have so much left to do with one of my classes that I think I'm going to have to skip some topics (probably some things in statistics). As long as we hit all the major topics, students should be in a good position.
ReplyDeleteMy school had students purchase small regents review booklets. They were only about $2 per student and few teachers had a problem collecting the money. I will try to find out where they got these booklets from but I'm sure someone at your schools will know what I am talking about.
ReplyDeleteHave you tried speaking with your principal and asking if there is money allocated in the budget for purchasing test prep materials? Or maybe your school might have some Regent Prep materials laying around somewhere.
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ReplyDeleteHonestly, I agree with the former post. Oftentimes, teachers, especially new teachers, are not alerted about materials that the school may have for test prep. So take a look in the coach's office, book room or the library. You can even ask your principal if there is money in the budget to offset purchases like that. If you don't ask no one knows that you need or want it. And if all else fails you can charge the students for items you provide for them, be it a pencil or paper or pen. Once you have achieved a certain amount you can buy the books. Perhaps, you can tell a few to buy it and they make the copies themselves. We did that in college. Remember?
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the great comments. Jeffrey Yanez, did you figure out where to get those books from? I contacted Steve Sibol, JMAP editor and publisher, asking him about any recent resources on JMAP. He mentioned that the latest January regents are all now available and that he has created "regents books" which are compilations of all the past 156 Integrated Algebra regents questions by date, performance indicator, type and at random.
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