Algebra 1
Student guide

Your path through Algebra 1

A self-paced path through Algebra 1, written for an adult who knows arithmetic and is meeting the rest of it for the first time. Read the textbook, work with the tutor, and practice — in order, or jump to whatever you need.

Start here

This course is built to be read on your own, at whatever pace suits you. Open the textbook and start with Lesson 1.1, or jump to the topic you need — each lesson explains itself, with worked examples to study and practice to try. There's no clock and nothing to keep up with.

When you want a hand, ask Claude, your tutor. It has the whole book in front of it, so you can lean on it the way you'd lean on a patient person sitting beside you. Asking for help is part of how this works, not a sign you're behind.

Get the tutor

The tutor is a free Claude skill. Download algebra-1-tutor.zip and upload it in the Claude app or on claude.ai, and Claude becomes your Algebra 1 teacher with the whole book in front of it. The how-to-use page walks through setup and a first session step by step, and it works on the free plan.

How the tutor helps

The tutor teaches one-on-one. A few things it's good for:

  • Working a problem with you, one line at a time, so you're doing the thinking instead of watching.
  • Checking every answer before it calls anything right or wrong — and assuming you might be the one who's right.
  • Explaining a different way when the first explanation doesn't land. A second picture often does it.
  • Reading a photo of your handwritten work. Snap a picture of what you wrote on paper; the tutor reads your steps back to confirm, then shows you where a line went sideways, if one did.
  • Giving you more practice when a skill is almost solid and you want a few more to lock it in.

Keeping your place: the Progress Card

Each conversation with the tutor starts fresh, so you carry your progress between sessions yourself. At a good stopping point, ask for a Progress Card — a short, readable note of where you are and what's next. Paste it back at the start of your next session and the tutor picks up right where you left off. Keep the Due for review line, too: it names a skill or two to mix back in, which is what keeps earlier work from fading.

Reference codes

Every worked example, practice problem, definition, and figure has a short code. A code reads as place-then-item: 12.5.w2 is worked example 2 in Lesson 12.5, 5.3.4 is practice problem 4 in Lesson 5.3, 1.2.f1 is a figure, and 1.1.d3 is a definition. You'll see them beside items in the textbook, where they double as deep links you can bookmark.

Their real use is pointing. Say "explain 12.5.w2" or "walk me through 5.3.4," and the tutor pulls that exact item up and works through it with you, re-checking the math as it goes. The tutor guide's extra problems use codes too, with a T in them, like 5.4.T1.

The roadmap

Thirteen units in a sensible order, from foundations to the quadratics capstone and a final unit on data and statistics. Each card opens it in the textbook — start at the top, or jump to what you need.