Tuesday, May 26 — Day 9
Week 3 starts. New topics, new shape.
The deal today
- 9:30 to 12:30, two 20-minute breaks. ~2 hours of real work.
- That's an hour less than weeks 1 and 2. We expect more focus per minute. The point is to remember more and need notes less.
- 20 questions instead of 22.
Today's new things
Math — times tables 2 through 9
Just the memorized facts. 7×8, 6×9, 9×9, etc. These should be under-two-seconds-each by Friday. If they're not yet, drill them on paper now until they are.
One bonus question uses the break-it-down trick we'll lean on all week:
12 × 6 = (10 + 2) × 6 = 60 + 12 = 72.
Same idea will scale to 17 × 25 by Thursday. Don't try it yet — just see the move.
Science — valence (outer-shell electrons)
For rows 1-2 today: how many electrons does the outermost shell hold? It tells you how the atom bonds.
| Element | Valence |
|---|---|
| H | 1 |
| He | 2 (full K shell — noble) |
| Li | 1 |
| Be | 2 |
| B | 3 |
| C | 4 |
| N | 5 |
| O | 6 |
| F | 7 |
| Ne | 8 |
Pattern: across row 2, it goes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Same pattern in row 3 tomorrow. Group number = valence for the first 18 elements.
History — peace, not war
We're done with the war list. Today's three accords:
| Treaty | Year | Why we care |
|---|---|---|
| Peace of Westphalia | 1648 | Invented the modern country. |
| Treaty of Paris | 1783 | Britain admitted the US was independent. |
| Congress of Vienna | 1815 | Reset Europe after Napoleon — held for ~100 years. |
Tolerance is ±2 years (a treaty is a process, not a moment).
Today's exam (20 questions)
- 8 multiplication (7 times-table + 1 distributive warmup)
- 1 GCF + 1 fraction-add (keep-alive)
- 3 valence (rows 1-2)
- 4 peace accords (the three above, one repeated)
- 3 evolution review (Big Bang, Earth, first life)
Warm-up
- 20 times-table problems on paper. Mix any two numbers 2-10.
- Read the valence table out loud once.
- Read the three accord years once.
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