Math tutoring: hitting the basics
I was tutoring a student in algebra the other day, and she was struggling with some factoring and regrouping problems. It soon became evident that her problem was not the algebraic concepts, but operations with integers. Having these fundamentals down to the point of automatic is important in algebra, because students use these concepts throughout their math careers. If they have to stop and think about how to subtract two integers, it can derail them from the concept they are trying to learn just enough to fluster them and get the problem wrong (or give up). Learning a new concept is much more difficult when you throw in an old, sticky concept that has not been mastered. And it resurfaces again and again and again, making the student feel "dumb" in algebra, when the problem lies in arithmetic, not algebra.

Our tutors see this idea from students at every level of math. In pre-calculus, a student will struggle with factoring and the distributive property, both algebra 1 topics. Algebra 2 students will struggle with fraction operations. When trying to simplify square roots in algebra 2, students will forget how to factor a number and how to apply it to the problem.

Strong foundational elements are key to mastering math and moving up the math curriculum smoothly. Problems in fundamental areas can derail students and make the current material seem much much harder than it really is. This is where tutoring can help by giving a diagnosis of where the problem really lies: either in the current material or in fundamental concepts (or in both). Then, the tutor can focus on these that need help, allowing the student to improve faster. It is gratifying work, and it is relieving to the student when she finds out she is better at math than she thought!