Entrance Questions

I'm resurrecting the index card entrance questions.  I print out questions all related to the same topic from a test generator, tape them to index cards, and then laminate them.  Every day as the students walk into class I hand them an index card.  Because each index card has a unique problem on it, I avoid this issue of one student blurting out the answer.  Also, I'm able to use the cards over and over again.

It all sparked from this article (click for the link).

In a very small nutshell, it states that the best two ways for students to study is to self-test and study often (no more cramming).  These entrance questions take care of both those ideas.

I am concerned with the of the downtime that these will create.  If a student is struggling with a problem and I am helping him with it, there will be students with nothing to do.  I will need to find a solution to this.  Perhaps on ongoing class problem like 4 fours will solve this dilemma.

I don't know why I stopped doing these in the first place.  In any case, they are back.

For the above set of cards, I created 24 2-step equations.  They each have a unique solution (the numbers 1 - 24).  For these I could either have the students line up in order, or just simply solve them at their seats.  To check their answers, I put a letter on the top of each index card so I know which one it is, then on a separate index card I wrote my answer key.

An example of one of the student cards.

Answer Key in numerical order.

Answer Key in alphabetical order.

Here are the equations if you are interested:

U --> 4x - 5 = -1 (x = 1)

O --> x/2 + 6 = 7 (x = 2)

B --> 2 = 4x - 10  (x = 3)

G --> -4 = x/2 - 6 (x = 4)

N --> 8x + 5 = 45 (x = 5)

T --> 4 + 3x = 22 (x = 6)

L --> 32 = 5x - 3 (x = 7)

F --> 7 + x/4 = 9 (x = 8)

V --> x/3 - 11 = -8 (x = 9)

P  --> 5 = 3 + x/5 (x = 10)

K --> 2 + 8x = 90 (x = 11)

M --> x/6 + 4 = 6 (x = 12)

R --> 2x -26 = 0 (x = 13)

A --> -10 + x/7 = -8 (x = 14)

H --> 9 = x/3 + 4 (x = 15)

E --> 6 = 4 + x/8 (x = 16)

C --> 1 = 3x - 50 (x = 17)

I --> x/3 - 12 = -6 (x = 18)

J --> 40 = 2x + 2 (x = 19)

Q --> x/5 - 6 = -2 (x = 20)

X --> x/3 - 10 = -3 (x = 21)

S --> -60 + 3x = 6 (x = 22)

D --> 36 = 2x - 10 (x = 23)

W --> 13 = 9 + x/6 (x = 24)