Q. My husband and I are up to our ears in trying to get our 15-year-old daughter to improve her grades. She is a very intelligent and beautiful young girl, but being "Miss Popularity" seems to be more important than turning in her assignments on time. In our school system, you can go online and find out everything about your child when it comes to homework, assignments, absences and tardies. Even my checking this on a daily basis doesn't motivate our child to keep on top of her studies. So my husband brought up the idea of the homework contract you wrote about some time ago. Is it still available? We'd like to try it and see if it helps. - Desperate A. Hopefully, the study contract will help put your daughter back on track academically. It should help her develop a consistent pattern of studying every day that will soon result in better grades, provided that she is truly able to do her assignments. Basically, the contract is an agreement between parent and child that the child will do schoolwork for a certain amount of time each day. If the child has no assignments, the time should be used for review or working on future projects. The contract can contain a section on benefits for following it or penalties such as no phone calls or computer time for not following it. Readers can send a stamped, self-addressed envelope to the address below to obtain a free contract. While good grades are important and are definitely necessary for high-school graduation and college admission, learning is more important. We suggest that you deflect the conversation at home away from grades and popularity and toward: "What did you learn in school today?" and "Knowing that will help you later on in some particular endeavor." What you want to do is help your daughter become eager to learn. Q. We have learned some mental math tricks at my school. Could you give me some tricks that would help me stand out at school? - For Math Fun A. Last year, we discovered a great book, "Secrets of Mental Math" by Arthur Benjamin, a professor of mathematics at Harvey Mudd College. You would probably enjoy reading this book. We also talked to him and discovered that you can actually learn to do some calculations faster in your head than by using a calculator. One of his favorite feats of mental math is to multiply any two-digit number by 11. It is amazingly easy. For example, consider multiplying 45 x 11. All you have to do is add the digits 4 plus 5 and put the answer (9) between the 4 and 5. So 45 x 11 is equal to 495. However, you need to know more. If the sum of the digits is more than one digit, as it is in 47 x 11, you have another step. Add 4 plus 11. Put the last 1 in the middle and then add the other 1 to the 4, getting an answer of 517. Send questions to Dear Teacher, in care of this newspaper, Box 395, Carmel, IN 46082-0395; or e-mail: DearTeach@aol.com.