How to Use Foundations Of Math (FOM)?

[rdjaye]

I took the Quant Assessment and scored above 75%, but I can tell that my general foundations of math are pretty rusty (e.g. I struggle to remember how to combine exponents and what to do with negative exponents; I am pretty rusty with long division with decimals and other middle school math; etc. etc.). I can tell that all I need is a little reminder of the concepts.

I am only in the second week of my course. Should I try to review FOM before we start diving deeper in to the class, or should I wait to review the sections as they are covered in the syllabus or homework? I want to be smart and efficient with my time and study approach. [Keep in mind that I'm already spending 2.5 hours (week days) and 4 hours (weekend days) prepping.]

If I were to attach FOM before we got further into the course, I was considering doing the FOM workshop recordings first, rather than read the FOM book (to mix it up). Thoughts? Suggestions? All are appreciated! Thanks!!

[StaceyKoprince]

Great question!

If you hadn't already started the course, I'd say go through the book or workshops in their entirety. But you've got a bunch of other stuff going on too, so do this instead:
Each week, see what the quant topics are and look up just that chapter / those chapters in FoM. If you already know you're rusty on that topic, start working through the material. You can speed up whenever you hit anything that you do remember or find easy.

If you're not sure whether you're rusty, go to the end of the chapter and try some of the problems. Skip around a little. If you do fine on them, you don't need that chapter. If you don't, then start working through the chapter as described above.

Only do what you need to do - if you find certain material really easy, don't sit there reading it all and doing all of the practice problems. But if you're struggling to do exponent drills in FoM, then you're *really* going to struggle in the main guide, so stick with FoM till it gets easier.

Let us know if you have any more questions (and tell us how class is going!). Feel free to talk to your teacher(s) as well. S/he/they will be able to help you better if you give them an idea of your strengths and weaknesses.

[rdjaye]

Thank you, Stacey!

[StaceyKoprince]

you're welcome!