I should have said "best way to torture students", but either would work.

So our school has a program called A+. Very simple program to understand. You take a computerized test over various math formulas to determine what your strong and weak points are. The test will then determine which area of math you have trouble on (as in, specifics. Fractions, dividing fractions, etc etc). Each induvidual math lesson comes with three steps: Study guide, practice test, mastery test. Both tests are 10 questions long, and you have to get at least 80% to pass. Once you pass the mastery, you can move onto another lesson. Simple.

I have been on the Quadratic Equations lesson for three months. To say I'm sick and tired of it would be the understatement of the century. My math teacher is not helping at all, as he is an insistant git, but moving on. I ask him for help on the aspects I have trouble with and he refuses to help me. He points to my notes and tells me to figure it out myself. I am one very desperate person right now. If I don't pass the other lessons I won't get the math credit, and therefore, might not graduate.

I can SOLVE the problems. I don't have trouble with that. What I do have trouble with, however, is figuring out wtf the answers would be..positive or negative? He's explained it to me and I simply don't understand. And I feel really dumb because I already learned this in 7th grade. As you can tell, math is not my forte. So here's a random Quadratic Equation:

2x + 4 - 30 = 0

First problem: When writing the factors, what would come first? The positive or the negative sign? (x + a)(x - a)? or (x - a)(x + a)? And once I DO find the factors, how do I know which one would be positive and which one negative? -x and x? Also, which factor would go in the negative space? Augh. Any help on this would be lovely. Thanks.