How We Work

At the Math Emporium, our goal is to enable students to learn through supported self-paced practice. Much like you cannot learn to play the piano by watching someone play, you cannot learn math without putting in the work.

We know that students enter Virginia Tech with a wide variety of math backgrounds. For some students a unit might be a review of what they learned their senior year of high school.

For others it might be completely new. Therefore we have developed a curriculum that enables students to learn at their own pace, while supported with targeted help from their Peer Tutors, who are available at the Tutoring Lab 4 days a week (and virtually through the Practice Problem System), as well as their instructors who hold regular Zoom help sessions and Zoom office hours.

Students are encouraged to explore the textbook and examples on their own, then attempt practice problems. Then they should bring their questions to their instructor or to the tutorial staff.

You will not be on your own: our team of tutors and instructors will answer your questions on demand and your instructor is happy to offer guidance when you request it.

The key to succeed in your course is to follow the steps below on a weekly basis:

1. Check the class schedule for what sections will be covered in the text.
2. Read the text and work through the examples to get a basic understanding of the material.
3. Attempt practice problems. This is typically where a student will realize areas where they still lack understanding.
4. Get help from the tutorial staff on problems you are struggling with.
5. Get help from the course instructor in areas where you still need help.
6. Repeat 3 through 5 until they feel confident with all the problems.
7. Take a quiz built entirely of questions from the practice problem system.