Yellow Sheets

No, they're not yellow (unless you printed them on that color paper.) The name refers to this project's history, from Lead Developer Jason C. McDonald's college days.

"Back when I was taking Pre-Calculus, I had a five subject notebook I used for my class notes. I would write especially important facts on the yellow divider pages, so I could find them easily later. Since then, I have frequently referenced those 'yellow sheets' while tutoring at our local community college, often copying them down for the student for keep.""

These Yellow Sheets are modeled after the charts Jason successfully used in tutoring. Thus, the name refers to the theory of content: these charts and graphs contain only that information which you would write on a notebook divider page in your class notes.

Using Yellow Sheets

These are intended to be learning tools. They are no substitution for one-on-one explanations, lectures, reading the textbook, or doing the work. Educators using Yellow Sheets should consider working the example problem with the student, explaining all the concepts contained therein.

In Case of Errors

We did our best to be accurate, but we can't make any guarantees. These are offered as-is, without warranty.

If you find an error, or want to suggest an improvement, contact us at yellowsheets@mousepawmedia.com

Download Yellow Sheets

(Click on a title to download in PDF format.)

Conic Sections

Shows the relationship between a conic section formula and its graph.

Concepts: Conic parabolas, ellipses, hyperbolas, asymptote equations.

Last Update: 8/28/14

Exponentials and Logarithms

Explains the relationship between exponential and logarithmic equations, and how to solve them.

Concepts: Working with exponents, exponential functions, logarithmic functions, properties of logs.

Last Update: 8/28/14

Factoring and Friends

Discusses various methods of factoring polynomials, even those with imaginary numbers.

Concepts: Factoring, completing the square, long division factoring, synthetic division.

Last Update: 9/3/14

Functions and Inverses

Discusses what functions are, and how to work with them and their inverses.

Concepts: Functions, combination, composition, inverses.

Last Update: 9/3/14

FAQs: Yellow Sheets

(Click a question to view the answer.)

Will you be adding more Yellow Sheets?

We hope so. However, since Jason left tutoring to focus on other things, this project is on the back burner.

What's with that little stunt where you find the asymptotes of the hyperbola? Isn't that cheating?

I (Jason) learned that method from my college math professor, Mary Jule Gabiou. She reportedly stumbled across that method in her own experimentation, at the request of some very confused students.

Some math purists dislike the method because they see it as "cheating." I don't agree. Working out the asymptotes the long way will always yield the exact same result as the short way, with considerably more work, and thus many more opportunities for mistakes.

You should defer, however, to your professor's own view on the topic; if the long way is required in homework or tests, you should only use the shortcut to cross-check your work. After you finish the class, you can use the short way to get the right answer in a reasonable time frame.

What software did you use to create these?

Yellow Sheets are created using Geogebra, LibreOffice, Glimpse, and MyPaint.

I've got some resources I think would make great Yellow Sheets. Can I send them to you?

Please do! You're welcome to email your ideas and/or content to yellowsheets@null>mousepawmedia.com. Please be sure to explicitly state that you're licensing your content under a Creative Commons license (preferably Attribution or Share-Alike) so we can redistribute in turn.