Question

emtb2rn, BSN, RN, EMT-B · Nov 14, 2006

Go out and get a book like "Calculate with Confidence" or check out these websites and just hammer away:

Welcome to Maag Nursing - basic math related to ns.

Algebra.help -- Calculators, Lessons, and Worksheets - basic algebra, not ns related.

Math.com Formulas & Tables - basic math, not ns related.

S.O.S. Math - basic math, not ns related.

Good luck.

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Nov 14, 2006

hi, jessica27. . .emtb2rn gave you some good links, but it sounds like you need some practice. i have two sites that you can get that. i highly recommend that you use interact math.com and i'm printing the instructions for how to access the site. it is an online tutor that goes with a number of math textbooks where you can work, re-work and call up new problems to work in the same area of problems you want. the trick is to get into the right textbook, which, for you, would be pre-algebra.

fractions, fractions, fractions http://www.sweethaven.com/sweethaven/math/fractions/fracs03.asp for those of you who need practice with working with fractions. unfortunately, these do not give you any direction on how to work the fraction problems, only the correct answers, so are much like flash cards.

here are instructions for accessing http://www.interactmath.com/ . once you are on the site, click the "enter" button. the next page to come up asks you to select an author and textbook title from a drop down menu. there are many titles there. i would look for martin-gay: prealgebra: 4e, enhanced - the 4e stands for the 4th edition of the book. you always want to chose the enhanced versions of the software on this site because they are the newest and most updated programs. after choosing your book title, click the "submit" button. at this point, an installation wizard window pops up. you need to install the mathxl player (it's free). you may have to first install an active x driver, but the installation wizard will tell you that. just follow the instructions of the wizard to download what you need. it is all free. once the mathxl player is downloaded and installed, you will be given access to the practice problems for the textbook you chose. [every time you go onto this site, the installation wizard will appear and check to see that you have the proper software installed in order to use the software.] you will first see a page of drop down menus for chapters, sections, and objectives contained within the textbook you chose. by expanding the chapters menu, you can see how the chapters of the book are organized. pick one. the appropriate sections and objectives for that particular chapter will appear as well as a list of exercises that are links to the problems within that chapter. click on an exercise link and you will be taken to that particular problem. it takes some time to become familiar with using this program. when you go to a problem (exercise) screen you will find active buttons on all sides of the screen that you need to check out and learn what they do for you. buttons at the top allow you to go back and forth between the previous and next math problem so you don't have to keep going back to that fist page with all the drop down menus. as you progress through the problems they become more advanced and increase in difficulty. you can ask the program to show you the step-by-step solution for every single problem it presents to you by clicking on a button on the right side of the page that says "help me solve this". a button below it, "view an example", will show you a sample problem of the same type already solved in a step-by-step fashion. you can also print out a step-by-step solution using the "print" button. you have three tries to get the correct response or answer that the program seeks. once either occurs a new button appears at the bottom of the page: "similar exercise". clicking on this button will bring up another problem of the same type exactly like the one you just solved, but with different numbers. all the same buttons on the right side will still work and you can still ask for step-by-step help if you still need it. that is another great feature about this program. buttons on the left help you to enter things like fractions, radicals and powers. play around with them to see how they work. i could not find a help button or a set of instructions to help in using the program, so you are kind of left on your own to play around with the buttons on the left side to figure out how they work for you.

when i was taking higher levels of algebra and trigonometry i used the interact math site for hours and hours to practice and work problems. you can hit the "similar exercise" button a hundred times if you want just to get the same kind of problem over and over and over. this continuous working of the same kinds of problems is how we learn to master math problems and how you will learn to work fraction problems successfully.

good luck!