Mad-Math Connection: Math Placement Test Drives Colleges and Students Crazy

May 27, 2012 - PRLog -- Every term, college math classes across the nation suffer an average 50% retention rate.  Math instructors and departmental administrators address this puzzling dilemma with great ferver in their staff meetings, as if it were some Gordian knot; however, they rarely survey their students for input.

According to Dezra L. Guthrie, CEO and innovator of REFRESH Skills Refreshers (refreshskills.com), new math students could provide some very insightful feedback on the matter.  "During my years as a college instructor, I was often privy to students complaining about their math classes.  Many expressed aggravation over their poor test scores in math, when they had been good math students in high school.  Most of their frustration was directed at the college's lack of skills refreshing resources and that those available did not link well with what was on the math placement test," stated Guthrie and further adding, "that was one of the reasons why I wanted to develop REFRESH -- to help students score their best so that they would feel they were placed properly and want to stay in their math classes."

But why does it matter whether one has refreshed math skills or not -- I mean doesn't it just come back to you, like riding a bicycle?  "Actually, that's the problem," Guthrie explains, "usually a student's recall of math does return several weeks to a month into the course they placed into.  After that, the student becomes bored, restless and feels he or she is in too easy of a class.  And that's when instructors notice a dramatic drop in student retention."  

So, what's the solution to this math retention issue?  "For test takers to refresh their math skills prior to taking the math placement test.  If they do so, their scores will more closely represent their true placement level.  And that, will remove a great deal of negativity from the get-go of a student's college experience," adds Guthrie.

Having the proper tools for doing your best on the math placement test, leads to scoring one's best and with that, comes placement into the right math class.  That, alone, can help take the "mad" out of math.