What to do when you get stuck!
Math Lab & Tutor Training
Bethel University
3/16/07
It’s bound to happen – you are working with students and you get stuck on a problem…
Two Important Ideas:
1. Use the opportunity to model good problem solving skills (do what you do when you get stuck!).
2. Be honest and don’t give incorrect answers: giving incorrect answers leads students astray and often spreads like a disease (they tell someone else, the incorrect material ends up on an exam, etc.). It is much better to say “I don’t know the answer, but let’s work to find a solution” than to lead someone down the wrong path.
Some Strategies:
1. Have the student state the problem in their own words.
- Define any unknown terms (use index or current section in book if necessary)
- Write the problem in the form: Given:
Find:
2. Use the student's resources, ask lots of leading questions.
- Find out which pieces of the problem the student understands
- Write out any formulas or theorems that may apply
- See if there is a similar example in the book
- Use their class notes
- Ask them if they have done a similar problem before
3. Other Strategies
- Draw a picture or graph, make a model, or act it out
- Break the problem into smaller parts, solve an easier problem
- Make a numerical example that fits the problem, and solve it first (this is
especially helpful if the problem is full of parameters)
- If possible, estimate a solution, then check with this estimate
- Look for patterns
- Brainstorm - throw out all kinds of ideas
- Incubate! (let it sit for awhile)
4. If you still have not found a solution...
- Ask another student from the same class or another tutor to help.
- Check the answer key (if available)
- Refer the student to their instructor and follow up when you see them again!