Math Tutoring Website of Michael Carlin

Tutoring in your home

I offer tutoring in:

I tutor at the student’s home.  I offer tutoring in the following areas of New Jersey

If you require tutoring and do not live in one of the above areas, I also tutor at the library on Symmes Road in Manalapan

Some information that you might want to know about me

My name is Michael Carlin.   My wife and I have lived in Marlboro, New Jersey for over 30 years.  My daughter graduated from Emerson College in Boston and my two sons graduated from Cornell University.  My youngest son recently received his PhD. in Computer Science from the University of Massachussetts.

I have a B.S. in Mathematics from Brooklyn College and an M.S. in Mathematics from New York University.  I am currently a mathematics professor at Mercer County Community College and Middlesex Community College. I have also taught mathematics at Long Island University and The City University of New York.

I have been tutoring SAT Mathematics and high school mathematics, in central New Jersey, since 2002.

Students that receive math tutoring from a qualified math tutor improve their grades.  I’ve raised many students two grade levels.

Students that receive SAT math tutoring from a qualified SAT math tutor improve their math scores.  It seems likely that some of the students that I’ve worked with that raised their scores significantly (100 – 200+ points) may have been accepted to the college that they’re now attending because they were able to increase their scores.   There are some students, however, that cannot afford tutoring and are at a considerable disadvantage when taking the SAT exam.  I teach free 1 1/2 hour SAT math classes on the two Fridays before every PSAT and SAT exam at the Library on Symmes Road in Manalapan, New Jersey.  Please feel free to contact me with regard to these classes if you need more information.

(more ……)

Some information that you need to know about SAT mathematics and SAT math tutoring

The easiest way to research what types of problems are included on the Mathematics part of the SAT exam is to go to www.collegeboard.org site that the Educational Testing Service publishes on the Internet (This is the official SAT website.)  There is no need for me to describe the mathematics on the exam because I cannot improve upon their presentation nor can I explore it to the depth that they do on their site.

However, if you’re reading what I write here, your problem is choosing the best tutor for the student taking the SAT.  There are no licenses or certificates that are available to certify that a math SAT tutor knows how or what to teach to prepare a student for the SAT exam.  That is currently a very large problem.  If you choose a tutor who does not know the difference between SAT mathematics and high school mathematics, then you will be  wasting your time and money.  High school mathematics is more like a cousin, to SAT mathematics, than a brother or sister.  It’s similar, but also very different.  Also please don’t believe for one minute that large organizations that spend a lot of money advertising actually provide adequate credentials or teaching ability.

(more ……)

The math sections of the SAT are timed so that the student that does problems slowly will not be able to finish all of the problems.   Every student needs to answer questions correctly and as quickly as possible.  The less time spent answering individual questions, the more time that is available to answer additional questions.

Here’s an example of one of the differences between how a problem is solved in high school mathematics and how it should be solved on the SAT.  Remember in high school all work must be shown, whereas on the SAT any work that is shown is discarded.   I call this type of problem a “Make it Look Like problem.”

If 6x – 4 = 91, What Is 6x + 4?

If this were a high school problem the student would solve for x and substitute into 6x + 4.

But this is not a high school problem, it’s an SAT problem, so instead:

Solution
Add 8 to 6x – 4, which gives 6x + 4
Add 8 to 91, hence, 99 is your answer and the total time spent in doing this problem is no more that a few seconds.

There are many SAT Math problems that can be solved using a general approach; that is beginning each problem that belongs to a set of problems in the exact same way. In this example, the student has to be taught to look at all one line problems as make it look like problems in which the given can be changed to what is being asked for.  I teach students to do this.