CTCMath Review

We have been using CTCMath for a while. This year we have chosen it again because its a great program.  We have received a 12-month Family Membership, for up to 5 students. This year I have a 5th grader and a 7th grader. Since I have talked about the 5th grade level in the past I am going to focus on 7th grade level. Which is called Basic Math and Pre-Algebra it has approximately 186 lessons. If you do one lesson per day you should be able to finish all the lessons in a school year. How ever I found that my daughters tend to need more than one day on a lesson to truly grasp and remember how to do the concept. I have been having them work and practice one assignment for an hour a day. The girls will start with the video lesson they watch it usually 2 times. Then they do the online practice questions. From there I have them print the printable worksheet. Once they complete the worksheet they go in and enter the answers to the work page in the worksheet tab so that the answers and grade can be recorded in the CTC program.

Taking a look at the topics and lessons that are covered in CTC compared with others that I have looked at I feel like it covers most everything that should be covered for 7th grade. A few of the topics that your child will go through during the course of a school year are:

Scientific Notation: Using a calculator

length conversions

significant figures

perimeter of a sector

divided bar graphs

The median

probability trees

travel graphs

frequency distribution table

fractional powers

introduction to exponents

finding a shorter side

problem questions

and many more

Both of the girls love the video lessons but they do find some videos confusing or a little short on explanation. They would like to see them create a chat type system where they would be able to ask questions when they get stuck and Mom's explanation is not working. I am in love in with the worksheets. Last year we didn't use them very much they just didn't work great for the girls. But this year they are really helping them score better on the diagnostic test  that I have them take at the end of each section. 

For each lesson the girls will click on a topic they need to work on. We do the topics in order for the most part because its just easier to see if they have done all the topics. They will watch the lesson video first. Some times they watch it more than once if they are having trouble understanding the lesson. If they have any questions the will ask me for help. They then click the question tab at the top of the page which takes them to the practice questions for that lesson. These are the questions that they do on the computer its self. It offers manipulatives for some of the questions so they can measure etc. right on the screen. The girls print out a printable worksheet which they will work out the problems with pen and paper. Once they complete the worksheet they will enter the answers into CTC and the program then gives them a grade on the work sheet. Showing them which ones they did right and wrong. I then have them work out the wrong answers a second time to see if they can find the mistake. If they are unable to find the mistake I sit down and go over the missed problems with them.

You have the ability to set up how your grades are calculated and what percentage is required to pass a topic. I have the girls set a little high so they are required to have a 80% to pass a topic. Once they have completed the questions and they feel they have a  good grasp on the topic they will complete on of the diagnostic test for the unit. There are both a long diagnostic test and a short diagnostic test. I typically use the short as a pre-test and the long as an end of course assessment. 

Some bonus items that CTC offers are the speed skills game and the times table shoot em up game. Both of these are great supplemental items that work well to get in some extra practice. the girls favorite out of the two games is the times table shoot em up game. In this game they are given a multiplication problem across the bottom of the screen, they then use a space ship to blast away the answers and earn points. Its fun and it makes practicing those dreaded multiplication tables less like class work and more like play time.

Over all I am still very pleased with CTCMath. So far everything is working out great for us and I hope you will click the banner below and see what the other Crew Members are saying about all the different grade levels in CTCMath.