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Math is the easiest subject to master for the LET.  Yes!  If you learn how to solve Math problems in time for the LET, you’d have a handy source of no-miss points.  In Math, there will always be definite answers unlike other parts of the LET which are value-laden or sometimes very subjective.

Math comprises 20% of the General Education module. The following items may help you gauge how much preparation you need for it:

1. What are the next three terms in the progression 1, 4, 16 …?

A. 64, 256, 1024

B. 67, 259, 1027

C. 48, 198, 1026

D. 65, 257, 1025

2. A man is 3 times as old as his son now. Four years ago, the sum of their ages was 36. Find the man’s age now.

A. 33

B. 11

C. 29

D. 36

3. What is the least common multiple of 12, 24 and 72?

A. 12

B. 72

C. 144

D. 36

4. The hypotenuse of a right triangle is 25 feet. If one leg is 24 feet, what is the length of the other leg?

A. 6 ft.

B. 5 ft.

C. 20 ft.

D. 7 ft.

5. If two variables X and Y are directly related, which of these is NOT true?

A. When X is low, Y is also low.

B. As X increases, Y also increases.

C. When X increases, Y decreases.

D. A high Y is associated with a high X.

Answers to Day 4’s LET questions for Filipino:

1. C. Pagdarasal

2. C. Payak

3. B. kartung pang-editoryal

4. D. Pagtutulad

5. A. Kaibigan

(P.S.  We still have some slots for our March 2012 LET coaching which starts January 7; visit MindGym for FREE diagnostics.  Or, if you prefer an online LET review since you live or work far from Manila, get a taste of how it is to review online at our other site: www.myreviewcoach.com

Subukan niyo naman ang sample ng ilang Filipino items nagyon.

1. Alin ang paksa sa sumusunod na pangungusap? Ginagawa niya ang pagdarasal araw-araw.

A. Ginagawa

B. Araw-araw

C. Pagdarasal

D. Niya

2. Ano ang kayarian ng pangungusap na ito? Kulang daw tayo sa pagtutulungan at pagdadamayan bilang magkakabaranggay.

A. Hindi karaniwan

B. Karaniwan

C. Payak

D. Hugnayan

3. Alin sa mga sumusunod ang naglalaman ng posisyon o paniniwala ng isang pahayagan tungkol sa isang napapanahong isyu?

A. masthead

B. kartung pang-editoryal

C. balitang banner

D. larawan sa pangmukhang pahina

4. “Ang iyong mga mata ay waring mga bituin sa kalangitan.” Anong tayutay ang ginamit dito?

A. Pang-uyam

B. Personipikasyon

C. Pagwawangis

D. Pagtutulad

5. Alin ang kahulugan ng “kahiramang suklay”?

A. Kaibigan

B. Kakilala

C. Kalahi

D. Karibal
Higit bang madali ito kaysa sa English items kahapon, na nasa ibababa ang mga tamang sagot?

1. B. would

2. C. were

3. A. Simile

4. B. Without much persuading

5. D. Replace “death’s” with “deaths”.

Kung hindi ka pa nakakapili ng review center na makakatulong mo sa iyong pagiging licensed teacher, subukan ang FREE diagnostic test namin sa MindGym.  Sa January 7 na ang simula ng live coaching.  Pero kung nais mong makapag-review sa sariling oras at piling lugar, mag-register sa aming LET online sa www.myreviewcoach.com

Here’s a quick exercise you can do before you go out on a weekend gimmick.

Did you get these correctly in Day 2’s LET questions for Science:

1. D. Muro-ami

2. C. Stroke

3. A. Adequate intake of calcium and vitamin D

4. B. typhoons

5. D. Producers

English items in the LET comprise 20 percent of the General Education module. Give these items a try:

1. “No one was prepared for the oral examination. We _____ have read the exercises last night.”

A. ought

B. would

C. can

D. should

2. If I ________ your parent, I would ground you for a month for your misbehavior.

A. should be

B. am

C. were

D. was

3. What figure of speech is used in these lines from Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales? “His eyes rolled, they never seemed to settle, / And glittered like the flowers beneath a kettle”

A. Simile

B. Hyperbole

C. Metaphor

D. Personification

4. What is meant by “two pins” in this sentence? For two pins I could have hit him on the nose.

A. With a second course of action

B. Without much persuading

C. Given a second chance

D. With an alternative response

5. What correction should be made to this sentence? Most fire-related death’s result from household fires, yet many people do not have fire extinguishers in their homes.

A. Remove the comma after “fires”.

B. Change “have” to “has”.

C. Change “result” to “results”.

D. Replace “death’s” with “deaths”.

Watch out for more exercises to get you ready for March 11.

Here’s more for Math majors from Glenn Gilongos.  Other majors can learn by doing these drills, too.  Answers below.

1.  How many minutes after 2:07 pm will the hands of the clock form 126 degrees for the first time?

2.  A can do a job in 8 hrs while B can do the same in 10 hrs. A has already worked for 1 hr when B came and together they worked for another 40 mins. A left B, how many more minutes will B finish the remaining work?

3.  Find the equation of the line that passes thru pt (8,6) that will make the triangle (formed by the line and the positive x and y axes) with the minimum area.

4.  Find the domain and range: y = sqrt(12 + x – x^2)

5.  What is the area bounded by y = x^2 + 4 and y = 20?

Answers to September 18 drills:

1.  42
2.  117/125
3.  22
4.  (2x^4 – 3y^6 + 5x^2y^3)(2x^4 – 3y^6 – 5x^2y^3)
5.  4 2/3 days

Answers to the above drills:

1.  26 9/11 mins
2.  435 mins
3.  x/16 + y/12 = 1
4.  domain is [-3, 4] and range is [0, 7/2]
5.  256/3 sq units

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We’re now offering an online-based LET review. Click here to know more.

For Math majors, this should be easy.  Glenn compiled these for you.

1.  How many ways can you rearrange the letters of the word wizards if the consonants should be arranged alphabetically but not necessarily together?

2.  If sin x = 3/5 and x is in Q2, find the value of sin 3x

3.  What is the maximum possible number of regions of the circle formed by 6 intersecting lines in a circle?

4.  Factor: 4x^8 – 37x^4y^6 + 9y^12

5.  12 kgms of rice can be consumed by 4 persons in 2 days. At the start, there are 20 kgms of rice and 4 persons. After 1 day, 2 persons leave, how many more days will the remaining kgms or rice last?

Answers to September 17 drills:

1.   5/16
2.   (x^2 + 2 + 2x)(x^2 + 2 – 2x)
3.   y is not equal to -2/3
4.   15 + 5sqrt3 cm
5.   6 and 28

Here’s another set of Math questions to work with:

For September 2010 LET takers and other readers,  see how well you remembered your rules on subject-verb agreement with these exercises. Simply choose the correct verb.

1.  Everyone (has, have) done his/her homework.

2.  Many a child (dream, dreams) about becoming famous one day.

3.  Some of the water in the jug (is/are) gone.

4.  A number of people (grow, grows) tomatoes in their backyard.

5.  None of the students (has, have) done their Set B drills in Math.

6.  The number of flood relief volunteers (increase, increases) each day.

7.  There (is, are) two main reasons why they broke off.

8.  Aleli (is, are) one of those who (enjoy, enjoys) reading comic books.

9.  My glasses (was, were) on the bed.

10.  The pair of scissors (is, are) on the table.

11.  Our thanks (go, goes) to the MindGym coaches who unselfishli helped us review.

12.  Mumps (is, are) a contagious disease.

13.  Four and four (is, are) eight.

14.  The jury members (has, have) been arguing for three days.

15.  Thirty per cent of the students (is, are) in favor of attending classes at night.

16.  How (is, are) the neighbors taking the disturbing news?

17.  The teacher, together with her students, (has, have) prevented the fire from spreading throughout the building.

18.  Neither the actors nor the director (is, are) coming on time for taping.

19.  Some of the books (was, were) scattered on the floor when we arrived.

20.  Both (do, does) a good deal of work around the office.

Easy?

Here are the answers to the drills last 3 July:

1.  C

2.  D

3.  A

4.  D

5.  A

Today, give some literature-related items a try. Here’s an easy starter.

1. “Nothing happens in this world by chance, it is all part of a grand design.” The author speaks of one’s _________.
A. ambition
B. luck
C. destiny
D. dream

2. The Master said:
“Only one who bursts with eagerness do I instruct. Only one who bubbles with excitement do I enlighten.”

These lines give one the idea that true learning ________.

A. makes man a disciple of instruction
B. involves patience and a dash of lethargy
C. is capable of making man
D. comes with commitment and passion

3. Which of the following line is a simile?

A. “Holding wonder like a cup”
B. “Eyes that love you, arms that hold”
C. “Life has loneliness to sell”
D. “Buy it and never count the cost”

4. Read the following lines:

“Midnight, not a sound from the pavement
Has the moon lost its memory
She is smiling alone
In the lamp light the withered leaves
Collect at my feet
And the wind begins to moan.

These lines means:

A. Confusion
B. Optimism
C. Eagerness
D. Loneliness

5. “Life is but a walking shadow, a pun player that struts and frets… And is heard no more.”

In this line, life is portrayed as:

A. Passing
B. Goes by stages
C. Has its end
D. eternal

Answers to yesterday’s (July 3) drills:
1. D
2. A
3. A
4. B
5. C
6. C
7. D
8. D
9. C
10. C

After the warm up drills in English, here’ s another round of multiple choice items to keep you going in your review for LET.

1. Wise people can _________ with frustrations.
A. cope up
B. cope on
C. cope in
D. cope

2. My grandpa had some “lucid moments” before he died. He was ____________.
A. thinking clearly
B. sad
C. confused
D. ambiguous

3. The measure of choosing well is whether or not a man likes what he __________.
A. has chosen
B. is choosing
D. choose
C. chose

4. All except this one word sounds like the “wh” in “when”?
A. While
B. Whole
D. Whiz
C. Whine

5. Which does not belong?
A. Foot
B. Kilometer
C. Centigrade
D. Mile

6. I saw a nasty _______ between two cars this morning.
A. happening
B. damage
C. accident
D. danger

7. What correction should be made to this sentence?

Most fire-related death’s result from household fires, yet many people do not have fire extinguishers in their homes.

A. Remove the comma after fires
B. Change result to results
C. Change have to has
D. Replace death’s with deaths

8. Which passage is expressed effectively and without structural error/s?
A. Having called the other students and they, the secretary went home.
B. Having called the other students and ourselves the secretary went home.
C. Having called the other students and we, the secretary went home.
D. Having called the other students and us, the secretary went home.

9. ________ not making the most of _____ opportunities.
A. You’re – you’re
B. You – your
C. You’re – your
D. You’re – you

10. The seatwork is difficult for Alfonso and _____
A. Myself
B. I
C. Me
D. Himself

Answers to yesterday’s (July 1) drills:
1. c
2. c
3. d
4. b
5. c

Are you taking the LET this September? How do you plan to go about reviewing? Are you reviewing by yourself? with a study partner? or with your college chums? Or are you currently attending a review class at MindGym or another center?

Do you know what specific topics to cover in your review? Which topics are your strengths? or weaknesses? Have you allocated time for a daily or weekly review? What review materials are accessible to you? Are these materials adequate and reliable?

It’s barely 3 months or 87 days to go before the 26 September 2010 LET (Licensure Examination for Teachers). By this time, you would have thought about or done your LET review plans. You may probably have started refreshing your stock knowledge with the use of a commercial reviewer, your old university references and notes or MindGym’s intensive coaching materials (if you’ve joined us last May 15). You may have received hand me down LET reviewers and study tips from family and friends. So the ball is in your hands.

The coaches at MindGym still have 2 groups of reviewees to coach starting July 17 and 18. Our reviewees would surely find reviewing effective, meaningful and fun — with us. Although we want to enable as many entry-level teachers aiming to pass the LET, we can not yet reach as far nor accommodate as much in our La Casa MIA center. We have yet to gather enough resources to meet varying demands of LET takers. We have yet to make our reviewers more attuned to a bigger and more heterogeneous group. We have yet to “clone” ourselves to make sure that our LET reviewers are cared for by equally committed newer and younger coaches.

In the meantime, we want to share what we have on hand, through this series of FREE online LET work outs — mainly for the benefit of the many aspiring teachers all over the country whose only means to hurdle the LET would be to self review and get a little guidance from their remote kapamilya at MindGym. May these workouts also serve all others reviewing for the LET in their journey towards becoming professional teachers.

This July 1, we’ll start what is supposedly the easiest subject for many LET takers: English.

For the LET, English would comprise 20% of the General Education (GenEd) competency or roughly 30 items. Based on the Professional Regulatory Commission Board of Professional Teachers — Table of Specifications for the LET), English would cover and have weights relative to total GenEd items as follows:

Study and thinking skills 6%

Writing in the discipline 5%

Speech and oral communication 3%

Philippine literature 4%

Master works of the world 2%

So, here’s the English quickie for today.

1. Your mother is paying for your plane ticket, ___________?

A. isn’t it C. isn’t she

B. is she D. aren’t you

2. The words “inappropriate, illegal, irresponsible, and unaware” have prefixes which are classified as _________.

A. positive C. negative

B. common D. neutral

3. Which among these words has the “z” end sound?

A. Maps C. Laughs

B. Jokes D. Buys

4. What figure of speech is in the following line from the poem “The Brook”?

The second time it was a tiny snake.”

A. Personification C. Simile

B. Metaphor D. Apostrophe

5. The person in the lines below could be characterized as __________.

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rage at close of day;

Raged, against the dying of the light.

-Dylan Thomas

A. pessimistic C. courageous

B. violent D. strong

We hope you find these exercises a good warm up for the succeeding MindGym work outs you’ll have to accomplish. Answers will be posted tomorrow.

What can you say about these warm up items in English?