The Department of Mathematical and Physical Sciences is offering free weekend review sessions for students interested in taking the math portion of the TExES exam.
These sessions are designed to prepare students for the TExES Mathematics grades 4-8 and/or the TExES Mathematics grades 8-12 tests.
Students interested in becoming math teachers are encouraged to attend.
“We want to give students the opportunity to review the content, so that they can go ahead and take the exams,” Dr. Rohitha Goonatilake, associate professor of Mathematics, said.
To help students have the information fresh in their minds, the sessions have been strategically scheduled on the weekends before the TExES exams are administered, which are offered on Fridays. Students practice for two straight Saturdays and take the exam on the third, said Dr. Abe Terutake, assistant professor of Mathematics.
The sessions are divided into four blocks where different professors focus on the main areas the exam covers, which are probability/statistics, number concepts, patterns/algebra, and geometry/measurement.
The sessions conclude with a practice test where students are able to see what their strengths and weaknesses are.
The sessions have proved beneficial to students, Goonatilake said.
Through an e-mail interview, student Shawn Humphreys, who attended several sessions, explained how they helped her.
“These sessions give you the advantage of refreshing your memory without the cost of taking additional classes to brush up. You get to be in a classroom setting where everyone in the class is there because they want to be there, so the dynamics of the learning is heightened. I recently took the TExES test for math for middle school and I felt that the sessions really prepared me for the extent of the questions that were asked on the test. I would really endorse the sessions for anyone that wants to take the test for mathematics or really for anyone that wants to brush up on their mathematics skills,” said Goonatilake.?
Plans exist to have on-line sessions to accommodate students who cannot make the weekend sessions for any reason.