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Hey everyone, I'm at the tear-out-what-little-hair-I-have point with ALEKS. I'm doing great on everything but factoring.
Does anyone know where I can find a very basic, think middle-to-high-school level (lower than beginning algebra, because ALEKS explanations make no sense to me whatsoever) combination video lecture and textbook/workbook/list of problems to follow along? I knew I had a really bad grasp on it in high school, and the actual class I took for college went from A+ to B because I bombed factoring.
Please, I'll take any help whatsoever for this. And no, Mathways and Wolfram are not helping me understand it either, and I'm not going to use them just to pass the assessments when I don't understand what I'm doing. Kind of defeats the purpose, no?
Math (well, courses up to precal) was always one of my strongest subjects, I just never managed to make that intuitive leap/connection for factoring. Beyond that, I normally enjoy it. So this is killing me.
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I really like Khan Academy
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I really like That Tutor Guy. He is a mechanical engineer who has been tutoring for several years. He has a very no nonsense approach and his videos are very well done.
That Tutor Guy
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11-17-2014, 11:11 PM
(This post was last modified: 11-17-2014, 11:14 PM by cookderosa.)
hightecrebel Wrote:Hey everyone, I'm at the tear-out-what-little-hair-I-have point with ALEKS. I'm doing great on everything but factoring.
Does anyone know where I can find a very basic, think middle-to-high-school level (lower than beginning algebra, because ALEKS explanations make no sense to me whatsoever) combination video lecture and textbook/workbook/list of problems to follow along? I knew I had a really bad grasp on it in high school, and the actual class I took for college went from A+ to B because I bombed factoring.
Please, I'll take any help whatsoever for this. And no, Mathways and Wolfram are not helping me understand it either, and I'm not going to use them just to pass the assessments when I don't understand what I'm doing. Kind of defeats the purpose, no?
Math (well, courses up to precal) was always one of my strongest subjects, I just never managed to make that intuitive leap/connection for factoring. Beyond that, I normally enjoy it. So this is killing me.
So... if you were my kid (smile) I'd say go back a step BEFORE factoring. There must be something that is part of what creates factoring intuition that you missed. If you can follow what I'm saying, when people study algebra, they build skills that create intuition. No intuition in the next step means there is a bridge missing. For example, division is hard - you have to calculate every problem- until you learn that it is the opposite of multiplication (intuition) and then you simply use your existing multiplication skills to take you the rest of the way. For the kid who doesn't get it, he's doing every division problem as if it's his first (if I sound intimately tied to that example, I live it with one of my kids. In my house, if you can't divide, you need to practice multiplication).
So, I think you have a weak link somewhere before factoring, and I don't know what it is, but this is one of my fav homeschool math links Algebra Lessons Index -- Algebra.Help and go backwards until you find the gap.
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Also, you may think you are not getting it because you don't see the answer right away. Sometimes I can see the answer quickly, but most of the time I need to write down several possibilities and try all of the combinations. When I think I have the correct one, I always re-multiply it to check to make sure I have the original set again. For me, trial-and-error is the normal way to solve these.
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11-18-2014, 10:50 AM
(This post was last modified: 11-18-2014, 10:53 AM by bricabrac.)
simple method of finding factors of a number Finding Factors of a Number - YouTube
also factor trees (prime #s) http://youtu.be/PTncK8WhWvs
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bricabrac Wrote:simple method of finding factors of a number Finding Factors of a Number - YouTube
also factor trees (prime #s) Factor Trees - YouTube
I'm a nerd, but I love making factor trees. It's one of my favorite lessons in our math curriculum. 
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Thank you for all the resources and suggestions. I'll try to go back a step or two as well, and see what helps me understand it better.
Pursuing TESC BSBA CIS: ~100/120
CCAF Air & Space Operations Technology: April 2014
CLEP: Humanities, A&I Lit, SocSci & History, Intro Sociology, English Comp, Freshman College Comp, Principles of Management, History of the US I/II, Intro to Computing
DSST: InfoSys & Comp Apps, Intro to the Modern Middle East, Management Information Systems, Fundamentals of Cybersecurity, Human Resource Management, Principles of Supervision, Western Europe since 1945
AMU: Public Speaking, History of Explosive Ordnance Disposal, College Algebra
ALS (CCAF): Leadership/Management I, Managerial Communication I, Military Studies I
Sophia: Microeconomics
Straighterline: Accounting I/II
TECEP: English Comp I/II, Computer Concepts & Applications, Applied Liberal Arts Mathematics, Strategic Management (March 2017 Semester)
TESU OL: Python Programming (March 2017 Semester), Systems Analysis & Design I (March 2017 Semester)
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hightecrebel Wrote:Thank you for all the resources and suggestions. I'll try to go back a step or two as well, and see what helps me understand it better.
The other concept that you want to lookup is FOIL, since factoring is basically undoing the FOIL process.
Use FOIL (x+1)(x+6):
=x^2 + 6x + x + 6
= x^2 + 7x + 6
Notice that you MULTIPLIED First and Last to get x^2 and 6, but you multiplied and ADDED Outer and Inner to get 7x. This is important for factoring.
Now factor x^2 + 7x + 6:
1. Since 1 is in front of x^2, that can be ignored for now.
2. Look at last number (6). What 2 numbers do I need to MULTIPLY to get it?
1 x 6 or 2 x 3 (Note: These could both be negative as well.)
3. Look at middle number (7). What number set from step 2 do I need to ADD (or subtract) to get it?
1+6 = 7 or 2+3= 5
4. Combine steps 1-3 and check with FOIL to get (x+1)(x+6) and x^2 + 7x + 6.
Hope you get a helpful tutorial!
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