self-drive

When it comes to maths,your own initiative plays a key role in learning new concepts.A self-driven person who is curious and adventurous and more so an inquisitive person can gain a lot from the world wide web.Though skill of research is crucial.The world will be at the tips of your fingers.

Difference between permutation and combination

The difference is that permutation is an arrangement where order is important while combination is a selection and order is not important. Think of a sandwich made from a slice of bread, an omelette and salad. You can arrange the three ingredients in the following order (assume you are laying the sandwich on the plate); a) bread, omelette,salad b) bread, salad, omelette c) salad,bread, omelette d) salad, omelette, bread e) omelette, bread, salad f) omelette,salad, bread The above is 6 arrangements (permutations). Now, assume 6 people ordered (a) to (f) sandwiches for breakfast, would they be right to say they ate 6 different types of sandwiches? of course NOT!It is just one COMBINATION (selection) of sandwich.

Solving system of linear equations

One can solve a system of linear equations using substitution method, elimination method, graphical method, crammer's rule among others. Some websites offer applications/solver that show you how to work out the sum.  One can get a variety of resourceful sites if you are good in research skills. As long as you know exactly what you are searching for,and you are patient, inquisitive and curious enough,and also you do not have a phobia for computers, then you have no problem as long as you can make use of the google search engine.For the time being, it basically has enough for you.

'Stop passing the buck'

'Do you like what you are doing now? If not, then stop doing it now. It is said that, ‘if you find yourself digging a hole, then the best thing you should do, is simply stop digging’. If you find yourself complaining about a situation you are in and expecting somebody else to come and better the situation for you, then brace yourself for future frustrations. Learn to manage your environment. Your environment is both intrinsic and extrinsic. You are like a plant. For you to thrive, you need the right nutrients and the right environment. Unlike the plant, you can control all these. Your thoughts reflect you. The thoughts you entertain form your environment that influence you. It is you to act on the right environment'. An excerpt from, 'Reflections'by kahenya,np

Conics

Circles, parabolas, ellipses and Hyperbolas are collectively called conic sections.The general equation of conic sections is Ax^2+By^2+Cxy+Dx+Ey+F=0. You can google and get valuable links on conic sections.

Solving Linear Systems

In your previous classes at primary and high school levels, you came across linear equations i.e. equations whose functions if plotted on a plane or graph paper you will end up getting straight lines. Linear equations may have one or more unknowns. For instance; x=3;y=-5;x+y=5;x+y+2z=6;2a+3b+3c-6d=7 and so on. Solving linear equations with 1 unknown and 4 or more unknowns will not be discussed here. Our interest is to solve linear equations with 2 and 3 unknowns. Some quantities in real life may be expressed in linear form, but in reality it is rare to have linear relationships because of the many parameters that are in play. Linear equations are used in real life to explain situations while holding some variables constant. For instance price p of a commodity say a phone may partly depend on demand q of the phones and partly constant. Note, the price cannot go down to zero even if the demand is zero. This may be written as p=bq+k.

Solving Quadratic Equations by factoring

Example
solve x2+7x+12=0
The above equation is of the form ax2+bx+c=0 i.e. the general form of a quadratic equation.
what you need to do is find two numbers or factors, which we shall call T1 and T2. These two
terms are such that; i) their sum is b i.e. T1+T2=b , and ii) their product is ac i.e. T1×T
2=ac .
After gettoing the two terms, replace the term bx in the equation, with T1x and T2x ,to get
ax2+T1x +T2x+ c=0 . Then carry out group factorization i.e. you first factorize ax2+ T1x and
then +T2x+c.
So in our case, T1+T2=7 and T1×T
2=12. clearly our two terms are 3 and 4.
hence we replace 7x with 3x and 4x to get x2+3x+4x+12=0
then we apply group factorization to get x(x+3)+4(x+3)=0
note that (x+3) is a common factor.
so we have, (x+3)(x+4)=0
for the next step think of two numbers A and B and their product is zero i.e.AB=0. This imply
that either A or B is zero.
Hence in our case (x + 3)(x + 4) = 0, it implies either (x + 3) = 0 .(i) or (x + 4) =
0 (ii)
From (i) x=−3 and from (ii) x=−4
-3 and - 4 are called the roots of the equation x2+7x+12=0 or the solutins of the equation.
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Videos on Set - Venn Diagrams

please visit the following sites for more information;
http://www.onlinemathlearning.com/math-sets.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AUCdsmBGmA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfdcH5bcymo&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnomhsnSOuo&feature=related

Time Management

Everybody complains that time is not enough. I have long realized time will never be enough. How do we manage the time we have? it is a difficult question to answer. But what i know is that we got plenty of time. please visit this site and you may get some insight in time management. http://www.studygs.net/timman.htm

OnlineTutorials

Are you finding it difficult to understand certain concepts?do you know somebody who is desperate looking for someone to help him/her understand maths?then do not look any further!leave your details for further information.

Who is in Control of your learning?

Who is in control of your learning?Is it the lecturer, sponsor, guardian, friend, the community or you? tough question! Think about it as we start the trimester! Meditate on the following quotation: 'imagine yourself on a ship sailing across an unknown sea, to an unknown destination. An adult would be desperate to know where he is going. But a child only knows he is going to school...The chart is neither available nor understandable to him... Very quickly, the daily life on board ship becomes all important ... The daily chores, the demands, the inspections, become the reality, not the voyage, nor the destination' (Mary Alice White, 1971) .

Weak students and Choice of Question

Over time i have noted that, weak students in mathematics ALWAYS attempt the least popular questions in the exams?These questions, unfortunately, are always the tricky ones! What make the students attempt such questions?

Importance of Dialogue

dialogue is important in learning. 'a word is a bridge thrown between myself and another' (Bakhtin,2001). Exploratory talk in mathematics group discussions enhance learning. Learn to encourage yourself to dialogue in your groups.

Anxiety to Perform

Being anxious to perform better may lead to failure. Anxiety clogs the brain and make one lose focus. imagine in a marathon hundreds of people start with the aim of winning the first prize despite knowing clearly that the chance is one in a thousand but they do their best even going to finish. This is because most compete against themselves. They have a target or own record to break. So, set your own target and aim to achieve it.

Fear of Exam: Think Positively

Most people do not want to be tested. In fact very few if none would prefer to go through a test. As a student, this is one of the highly dreaded experience. Our society judge us, judge our worthy, our potential, on how we fair in the exams. This is very unfortunate. A simple tip is to try to understand two out of three concepts taught daily and stop worrying whether the third concept that you did not understand will be in the exam. instead rejoice that you learnt at most two concepts and then focus on this positive note. How can it transform your life for the better? 'Words are like seeds. They have creative power' (Osteen, 2007: 109). If you are always talking of how difficulty life is, then things will be difficult. 'Change the way you speak and think about yourself and you can change your life', (Osteen, 2007: 112). Positivity bleeds positiveness and negativity bleeds negativeness.