Bits & Bytes Online Free Homework Help and More from Yahoo!

Now that school is back in session, a perennial problem of the ages is homework at all levels, from primary school through college. Another issue facing many families is selecting a school or college for their matriculating children. Still another issue in our highly competitive society are those standardized entrance exams, such as the SAT, ACT, GRE, LSAT, GMAT and others that hold so much influence over our future.

The popular internet portal Yahoo! Has created an educational portal to assist with the issues above, as well as other educational assistance. Education.yahoo.com may become a primary destination for those seeking homework help, sample standardized tests, or information on choosing a college or school.

The menu bar at the top of the page is divided into sections labeled K-12 Schools, College & Grad School, Courses & Degrees, Reference, and Homework Help. The K-12 page contains information and links on “Choosing Schools”, which includes parent reviews, and information on school visits. Also on that K-12 page is information on and about principals and school superintendents. A “Resource Center” allows parents to rate their children’s’ schools.

The “College & Grad School” tab leads to a page with comprehensive college information. Schools can be searched based on location, size, sports, tuition, and other factors. A “Graduate School Search” can be useful to locate Masters and Doctoral programs that may be suitable. A “Financial Aid Center” contains information on scholarships, grants, loans, and other financial sources for college expenses. Also on this page are links to sample entrance exams, including the SAT, ACT, GRE, LSAT, and GMAT. A PSAT review is also linked on this page. College rankings, from the popular U. S. News and World Report survey, are also available to indicate the best colleges, best law schools, best graduate programs, and best business schools.

Education.yahoo.com is also an excellent example of some of the positive benefits of the internet, in its resources to assist with homework. In the “Reference” section are a variety of online resources, including several of the traditional references commonly found in school and public libraries. What many students will find most helpful in an online format familiar to them are such popular references as The American Heritage Dictionary, The American Heritage Spanish Dictionary, Roget's New Thesaurus, the Columbia Encyclopedia, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body, The Oxford Shakespeare, World Factbook, and a Conversion Calculator. These respected references may be utilized by students of all ages and grades to assist with school projects, homework, and other educational pursuits.

In the short run, one of the most valuable resources on this website may be the “Homework Help” page. At the top of that page is a resource beloved by many students, and bemoaned by many teachers, the ever-popular “Cliff’s Notes”, which are available online. According to Yahoo, over 150 titles of the common black and yellow diagonal striped books are available online at the site. The Cliff’s Notes online are not the unabridged full-text retail versions, but a critical summary of the contents, including author information and summaries, commentaries and glossaries for each chapter or section. For many students, this abridged information may be the key to unlocking the mental processes of understanding the contents and stories of the titles.

Other homework assistance is also available at this site, such as the “Math Help” links. The math help is indexed by grade level and category, and includes elementary school and middle school math, pre-algebra, algebra 1 and 2, geometry, pre-calculus, and calculus. It is obvious that this help may be applicable to students in college as well as in the lower grades. Upon clicking on the link for the appropriate level of math, a standardized list of chapters is made available, that can readily be correlated to almost any relevant math book. The “math help” mostly works on a series of tutorials based on the individual level of the student. Within each chapter are a series of questions followed by interactive tutorials which include explanations, graphs, charts, tables, diagrams, or other apt information. By completing the listed questions, the student may be ready to proceed to the next chapter, utilizing the hundreds of interactive tutorials and questions.

While a free Yahoo! educational resource may lack the prestige and polish of more sophisticated and expensive commercial products, it is a quality resource befitting almost all students. With information such as is available at education. yahoo.com, today’s students should be able to find the homework assistance that mom and dad are sometimes incapable of providing, as well as information of future educational choices.