The New and Improved Site

During the first week of April, our homework question and answer site--currently located at www.mathwarehouse.com/ask, is going to move to a brand new domain  (www.painfreehomework.com  )with a much better system for asking and answering questions. You can see a screen shot of the new home page below: 

What is the same:

• Anyone can ask math questions
• Anyone can answer homework questions
• There will still be a set of expert math teachers, tutors who answer questions 

What is different

• Answers are no longer free. You can buy the answers to your questions (for reasons explained here) .  
• If someone answers a question for you, then you can both rate their response and also leave a comment on their profile (this will help other users know how 'good' a tutor is)
• Before you buy a homework answer, you can first look at the ratings and comments left for the tutor

To re-iterate something that I wrote before, it 's just not possible to ensure that all (or almost  all) users' questions are answered and to do that for free .

Why You Should Try the New Site

Users of mathwarehouse.com/ask will need to create a new account...but you will also get a free coupon that gives you some 'virtual' money to spend on buying some homework help --our way of saying thanks for supporting the site and for trying the new one out!

Students Beware- Should you really take that AP Class?

Taking Advanced Placement classes has become more and more commonplace.  When I was in high school, taking an AP course was a rarity. Nowadays, it is much more common for students to take 3 or even 4 AP courses--and I am not talking about the valedictorian, but rather your 'Joe/Jill high school' type.


This has happened for a few reasons. First, students want to pad their own resumes, but, more disconcerting than that, this increase in AP enrollment is also, often, pushed upon students by schools--schools who are looking out for their own interests--sometimes at the expense of the actual student taking the exam!

Why the Increase Has Happened

This nationwide increase in AP course enrollment occurs for a few reasons. Students  are trying to differentiate themselves  in a competitive college admissions process--something that isn't bad. But, there is another reason that is less innocuous. Many high schools push or 'encourage' students to take all of the AP courses for reasons that, in the end, benefit the school : to increase their own district's rankings when, at the end of the year, Newsweek ranks all of the High School's in the US. You see, the greater percentage of students taking AP courses, the better a  school ranks.

Why Schools Do It

I would like to focus on the second reason--when schools pressure/push kids into AP courses. The way that some magazines like Newsweek  rank high schools is pretty complex and varies from year to year, but some of these rankings take into account the percentage of students enrolled in AP courses. This means that high schools can rank better simply by having more kids in "AP classes." "Enrolled" does not mean that students have to do well on the exams ...they just have to show up for the class. Now, some magazines do take the student AP performance into account, but Newsweek  has only cared about how many students are sitting in AP classes. From a school's perspective, this ranking factor is easy and cheap to manipulate. Administrators have a clear motive for increasing AP class enrollment-- improve their high schools' rankings  ....then they can brag to the community and the school board about how well their school is ranking! Think about it from the administrator's perspective--they can improve their rankings by 1) increasing student performance on state test and SAT exams 2) 'encouraging' kids to take AP courses 3) hiring more teachers and lowering the teacher/student ratio.  The easiest and most 'cost effective' solution is to just shift kids from regular classes to AP classes--after all you don't have to hire new teachers, spend more money...all you have to do is get kids to take different classes and...like magic you'll do better in the Newsweek rankings.

Pushing lots of kids into AP classes has lead, in some cases, to courses that are "AP in name only"(read here for more) or , if the school's AP teachers don't dilute the difficulty level of the classes, this trend has lead to many overwhelmed students whose high school transcripts have actually suffered!

Whatever happened to the Student's best Interest?

Unfortunately, no one is looking for the actual student in this case. So you can end up with an average student taking 2,3 or 4 AP classes, having a low GPA and not doing well on any of the AP exams.  In this case, an average student who could had some kind of B+ average now has, maybe, a C average and didn't do well on the AP exams--the kids just got in over their head. A friend of mine, who works in College Admissions, has said over and over again to me that colleges don't want to see a transcript of a student who took 4 AP classes with low grades and all 1's and 2's on the AP exams. Instead, they'd  rather see a student who got B's in non-AP classes and maybe took 1 or 2 AP exams total. Colleges, he said, often have GPA cut-off's  so if you're below a certain cumulative GPA, they probably won't even glance at your application--even if it's full of A

Since schools, ideally, should be looking out for their own students best interests, this one is really irksome.

So what is a student to do?

You need to look out for yourself, since your guidance counselor might not be.T his means, use your common sense. How many AP courses can you really handle? By "handle" I mean, how many AP courses can you take and still maintain a respectable GPA. The answer to that question should guide your decision making. 

What if you are already stuck in too many tough AP classes?

First off, if you find yourself overwhelmed, meet your guidance counselor and try to change your schedule. If it's too late and you are stuck with your schedule,  try find a good tutor  at school or  get help online --at homework help site or at other good educational sites. Lastly, you can always try to make study groups with your peers.

Related Links
How Newsweek Ranks High Schools
NY Times article on "AP Courses in Name Only"

How Questions are Asked and Answered on the New Site

The new site is in the final testing stages and we are going to launch the site within the next 2 weeks! Check out the screen shot at the top.

I wanted to write a post about the way an 'expert' can be paid. I am quoting expert because anyone can try to be an expert--ie anyone can try to answer a math question . However, we are using an algorithm that will pretty quickly identify which users provide the best answers to your questions . This happens in a few ways. First off, we are going to get a little help from students.

Here's how it will work.

1) Suppose you have the following question : What is a derivative? . After all, who hasn't had this question at some point in their life;)

2) You post the question on our site, along with how money you would be willing to pay for the answer to your question (all of the current site users at www.mathwarehouse.com are going to get a coupon so you'll be able to ask a question or two for free!) .

It is completely free to ask any question.

3) Other users including some math experts that we have hired. ( I will write a post about who the experts are and how we identify certain, regular site users as 'experts' in certain areas) will answer your question and will send you previews of their answers. If you think that a preview looks good, then you can purchase the full response. Before purchasing answer, you can look at the tutor's profile and see how he/she has been rated.

4) After buying the answer to your question, read over the answer and ask the tutor any clarifying questions (Hopefully, you do not want to have someone simply do your math homework but rather actually want to understand the answer to your question.)

5) Rate the tutor's answer and ...the process continues!

Top 10 Homeschooling Websites and Apps

Below is a list of 10 outstanding websites for homeschoolers. We've been using these resources for years and wanted to share them with you.



1. Khan Academy - Sal Khan has taken a new groundbreaking approach to education. He began by tutoring his niece via YouTube videos and has since revolutionized education. His site has grown tremendously and now includes thousands of educational videos. Khan Academy includes a map of knowledge and was recently featured on 60 Minutes.

2. Homeschool Math - This educational site is a wonderful resource for math games, puzzles and worksheets for kids of all ages.

3. Let's Homeschool - Kindergarten through 12th grade homeschooling resources including curriculum, standards, organization and a wide variety of subjects.

4. Math Game Time - Educational website featuring free math games, worksheets, homework help and videos from Pre-K through 7th grade.

5. Internet 4 Classrooms - Susan has created a comprehensive educational website with a myriad of resources for Pre-K through

12th grade students. This site offers a plethora of links, tutorials and grade level help.

6. Homeschool Helper Online - Dedicated to homeschoolers who want to help each other. Includes unit studies, worksheets, phonics, computer lessors and record keeping.

7. Word Game Time - Free word games for teachers, parents and students. Features free games, word worksheets,

videos and homework help covering subjects like Language Arts, Geography, Vocabulary and Spelling.











8. Mr Nussbaum - Greg Nussbaum has taken his teachings and created a wide variety of educational games. His games are creative, fun and cover a variety of topics.

9. BrainPop - Covers Health, Science, Technology, Math, Social Studies, Arts & Music and English movies, quizzes, activity pages and school homework help for K-12 students.

10. The Homeschool Mom - Serving homeschool moms for over a decade. Helpful info on curriculum, high school, college and teacher resources.

In addition, here are 5 great homeschool iPhone and iPad apps worth downloading:

1. Fraction Monkey
2. Math Evolve
3. Pinterest
4. Math Monkey
5. Stack the States



We hope you enjoy these primarily free homeschooling sites and apps. For more homeschooling resources, check out this list of 5 tips for Homeschoolers.