Elementary algebra is essentially the basis for all of advanced mathematics.  It is a course that is normally taught under the title of simply “algebra” and introduces many new concepts to freshman college students.  It is essentially the first real college course that a student will encounter, and in fact, it only retains on average a passing rate of about 36% because of the jump in difficulty.  Students aren’t used to the concept of having to solve certain arithmetical operations and variables, and the textbook tends to be simply a base point for your practice. 

The first tip for budding college students in College Algebra would be to always remember your order of operations.  PEMDAS or “Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally” is essential to completing the in depth deep computation problems.  Especially when it comes to multiple variable problems, you must remember the correct order to do your operations, parenthesis, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, and finally subtraction. 

Linear equations is one of the main focuses of elementary algebra. It revolves around the equation of y= mx+b, where X is the x intercept, m is the slope, and b is the y intercept. 

Spawning off this equation are other such as the midpoint formula of (x1+x2) / 2 , (y1+y2) / 2. 

A tip I would have is getting used to graphing your equation.  Save for instance our linear equation is as follows:
y= 3x + 2 

The easiest way to graph this equation, since it is a straight line, is simply to find your X and Y intercept and plot them.  Remember b represents our y intercept of 2
and our x intercept is solved by plugging in 0 to y.

0= 3x + 2
-2=3x
x= -2/3

So our 2 points to plot would simply be (-.6667, 0) , (0,2)

Quadratic equations are the next topic discussed in elementary algebra and it can be simple, or very complicated.  There are several techniques to solve the equations, but I am going to give tips on the most commonly used one, factorization. 

Say for example this is our problem-
x^2 + 3x – 10= 0

Solve for X.

The major tip that I would give for this is to simply write down all the factors of 10.
1, 2, 5, 10. 

Now which two of these if subtracted would give us our middle number of 3?  Easy, 5 – 2 =3!

Put them into your equation like so:
(x _ 5) (x_2)

Now all you need to do is see if 3 is positive or negative, if positive make the larger number positive, if negative make the larger number negative.
(x+5)(x-2)

Therefore our answers are
x= -5 and x= 2.

My final tip for elementary statistics is memorizing the quadratic equation as fast as you can.  For all the problems where factorization is not possible, the quadratic equation can be used to find your answer.  It is a little more tedious but if you set it up correctly, it will give you the correct answer every time:

-b +- sqrt (b^2 – 4(a)(c)) / 2a

Where A, B, and C are simply the numbers in the order as they come in the equation:
ax^2 + bx + c = 0