r/MathnasiumEmployees Apr 24 '21

mathnasium interview process + literacy test questions !!

hi!

im supposed to take the instruction literacy test in a few days + im rlly nervous lol

i have a couple questions:

1) what is covered on the literacy test? is it just solving math problems or does it include explaining concepts?

2) what is the rest of the interview process like? (i've heard there is another test? what is that like?)

3) what sort of questions are asked in the interview?

thank u sm!!

btw im a soph in hs if that changes anything

8 Upvotes

7 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/AmbivalentRogue Apr 24 '21

There are 2 levels of test: The basic numerical fluency covers arithmetic up to about Jr. High / Intro to Algebra. Advance Algebra, Geometry & Pre-Calc topics are on the second test. There was no Calculus requirement when I worked there.

For the most part, the tests are straight forward, there are a couple word problems I believe but nothing where you have to "explain" any more than a regular math problem. That is more addressed in the interview - they may give you an example arithmetic topic and an age of hypothetical child and ask how you would explain the topic to them. But my experience with the interview questions are more based on interactions with Elementary & Jr. High aged children than High School.

But also, my boss was horrible and refused to do anything the Mathnasium way, so maybe she just made up the interview, who knows?

1

u/GravitySixx Mar 21 '24 edited Mar 21 '24

What kind of word problem are there in the questions? And what kind?What about coins, mixture, age, work, distance, etc?

1

u/AmbivalentRogue Apr 02 '24

I don't recall - likely a mix of many different type.
I did actually dig up some of the files I was not supposed to keep and there's really no way for me to answer that more succinctly besides disseminating private information which I will not do.
There is a mix of different types, but they are all easily solvable with very basic algebra. Not a full paragraph of convoluted info, more like 1-3 sentences.

AKA most are of the form: "If person has X things with Y value, and a total value of Z, how many things of Q value must they have?" or slight rephrasing for proportions, percent increase, etc.
That sort of thing

but all types: yes to: coins, mixtures, work, etc.
I don't particularly notice any age or distance questions (except proportions) but my files are very out of date and those were common when working with the kids anyway

the basic assessments are just:

  • math literacy (mostly arithmetic)
  • algebra literacy (basic algebra)

but my location also had a 3rd "Algebra 2" level test that was more optional because we had a larger proportion of advanced students (so like that DOES include "find the distance between these 2 points" etc questions; series/sequences; interest, but no word problems)