Using the Bottomless Worksheets

As you may have noticed, many of our math and math-related Cramlets (such as Simple Linear Inequalities) have Bottomless Worksheets to go with them. Bottomless Worksheets are special Cramlets that randomly generate ten problems for you to solve, and provide an answer sheet too.

The best way to tackle these topics is to check out the original Cramlet to learn the problem-solving skills, then try them out with the Bottomless Worksheets, then go back to the original Cramlet to work out the ones you get wrong.

While many of the original Cramlets are only available to Premium Upgrade subscribers, the Bottomless Worksheets are available to all subscribers -- Premium Upgrade and Free Registration subscribers alike.

Good to the Last Drop!
Professor Cram

Tweak a Little Here and There...

It has been a few days since we launched the new site and like all things we have been tweaking. We appreciate your feedback; let us know what you think and how we can improve.

One of the first issues we've dealt with is the restriction of an .edu email address for the free registration. College-Cram.com is designed for University/College Students. We are working toward the development of tools to enhance the student's experience and build individual campus communities for academic success. This is why we are requiring an .edu e-mail address, to keep out those who want to take advantage of students.

If your university does not issue an e-mail account with the .edu exchange, e-mail us to set-up your school's e-mail exchange.

Keep Trucking!
Professor Cram

Algebra, Algebra, Why Algebra?

I was reading through the daily news relating to education, specifically concerning Algebra. It seems Algebra has become a major hurdle to college students even though it is considered to be developmental math. Students are struggling to understand the basic concepts and arithmetic necessary for the mastery of Algebra.

I am in no way a math major. I struggled some with math in college, mainly with Pre-Calculus. Honestly the first time I took the course I made a "D" by the skin of my teeth. I immediately re-took the course during summer school. It was a five-credit course that met during both summer terms. It was all I did that summer. I slept, ate, and lived math that summer. I would work problems late into the night, wake up and go to the study lab and continue to work problems until class started. By the end of the summer I had earned an "A" in the class. The other students thought I was a math genius, which I wasn't, I just worked hard and practiced that summer, it required time.

The following article excerpt written from the perspective of a community college math instructor, sheds some light on the problem in that we are not allowing students the time to digest and understand the concepts. A student’s time can be fragmented with extracurricular activities or even work leaving little practice time to understand the concepts and become proficient. Again, I am not a math guru but I did learn one thing that summer, math requires practice just like anything else.

Math anxiety plus overbooked kids equals no solution
The Free Lance-Star, Date published: 9/18/2005
What is important to understand is that mastery of algebra is critical to advancement--in both math and the sciences.

At the same time, syllabi in Algebra I and II--and other courses--are overburdened with extraneous material that is simply not essential to the next level. America's math textbooks are much too fat. Although teachers may admit that there is much in their textbooks they do not cover, many--in the attempt to keep pace with a required curriculum--feel rushed.

As a result, they talk fast and expect students to learn fast. A lot of impatience gets conveyed, resulting in frustrated students with unanswered questions.

What is being ignored in the attempt to cover material is that concept-laden mathematics needs time to be digested--time no one seems to acknowledge.

The problem, however, does not lie only with syllabi and teachers. Parents and students must bear their share of the problem. Students are overscheduled, and have been for at least one generation. Extracurricular activities have significantly diminished study time and personal time.

Many of today's students lack both the time and commitment to make math happen. Band practice, sports practice, and after-school jobs often absorb up to three to four hours of after-school time.

Unfortunately, this leaves fewer and fewer hours to make sense of those simultaneous linear equations, logarithms, and proofs. (Copyright 2005 The Free Lance-Star Publishing Company.)

It's this struggle student's have with Algebra that motivated us at college-cram.com to complete the College Algebra library first. We honestly want to help students to become successful in their academic endeavors.

A Study Management Site for College Students

We have been thinking hard at the College-Cram headquarters, which involves a lot of spade playing, about what we can build to help students beyond our Cramlets. We are entertaining ideas about building some of the following:

• quizzing and testing for basic content
• text-book swap
• academic calendar for students
• study group functionality
• quick reference guides

The list goes on and on, but we are open to ideas you might have. So, make a suggestion and let us know what would help you the most for getting through school by posting a comment.

It's a New Site!

We have been working hard the last three months, listening to students and subscribers to learn more about what would benefit students the most. After all the research and learning new programming languages we are happy to present College-Cram.com New and Improved!

There are a couple of site philosophy changes -

• The site is designed for university students only. We now require a university e-mail (.edu) address to register
• Each user has a customizable launching page

We have further plans for enhancement of the site. This is only phase one. The future design will include more capabilities for student customization, interaction, and test preparation. Our hopes are to see individual College-Cram.com communities by campus where students are empowered with their own academic management system.

Stay Tuned For More!

...and now a word from our sponsor

Can textbook publishers learn from television’s history?

In the early days of television, broadcasters turned to vaudeville and theater producers to create their programming. These producers simply created vaudeville and theater shows, and stuck a camera in the audience as an afterthought. They didn’t understand the capabilities of the new medium, and so did a minimal job incorporating it into their more familiar works. Eventually, it took an outside industry – Hollywood – to produce shows specifically for television, introducing techniques familiar to today’s viewers that made for a more effective medium.

College textbook publishers are experiencing a similar situation regarding the Internet. Like the early TV producers, today’s publishers continue to make textbooks, and convert them in some fashion into Internet components as an afterthought – vaudeville and theater are replaced by E-books and web sites that offer static illustrations and text. None of these are specifically produced for the Internet, and deviate only slightly from the traditional publishing paradigm.

By its very nature, the Internet is capable of providing far better (and less expensive) learning tools than those currently provided. College students are clamoring for these tools, but the textbook publishers have been inadequate to this task. Clearly, it is up to someone else to deliver on the Internet’s promise.

The Smartacus Corporation of Fort Worth, Texas is one company that delivers the goods. Their College-Cram.com website features a library of study programs covering college-level math, business, science, and languages. In many ways, these study programs are more effective learning tools than traditional textbooks.

• Lower cost – College students spend $120 or more on each new textbook. Publishers, who get no revenue from “used” book sales, regularly publish new editions every three years to force more “new” book purchases; often these new editions are little changed from the preceding edition. College-Cram.com offers its entire library of study programs for only $15 per month, with further discounts for longer subscriptions.



• Focused learning – Every study program in College-Cram.com’s library focuses on a single concept, such as calculating sales tax or the structure of the human heart. Students know which concepts they need to study, and need a way to get to them quickly without slogging through other concepts in the chapter that they already understand.



• Effective teaching techniques – Study programs in the College-Cram.com library are presented in ways that best convey the intended concept, often addressing multiple learning styles to ensure the best learning experience. For example, tab-tutor programs include a labeled illustration (for the visual learner), two different ways to work the formula (for the hands-on learner), and a glossary of terms (for reading-oriented learners).
  
  In addition, resources that are typically static are presented more effectively in this library. The Periodic Table and Logarithm Tables, for instance, come with instructions on how to use them, while financial statements provide explanations for each line item that are usually buried within the textbook, if provided at all.



• True interactivity – Unlike the E-books and such offered by textbook publishers, College-Cram.com’s study programs are truly interactive. Formula-solvers, for example, accept numbers from the student and walk them through the steps required to solve math and science problems. Similarly, financial ratio solvers show the steps and also where to find the proper values on financial statements.

Those early vaudeville and theater producers ended up being replaced by their more effective film producer counterparts, who went on to transform the industry. Will the textbook publishers learn from television’s early history, and change their ways before it’s too late? Tune in next week…