I had an interesting experience with grade 7 this week. I had given them a test in which many performed poorly. I then gave them a repeat test (same structure, same questions, slightly altered numbers) and many still did poorly. When I asked for feedback, many said they studied, reviewed the notes and exercises. But simple questions revealed a lack of knowledge. So my next question was “how do you study maths?” Clearly, browsing over notes and exercises did not help.
Here are my tips to studying maths:
- learning is an active process. Browsing over notes doesn’t cut it.
- learn terminology and process. (memorise, quiz a fellow student, explain to someone else, or write it down) If you can’t explain (verbally) the steps in a process or use the terminology, then you don’t know it!.
- write – do problems by actively writing solutions. Do many as is needed to understand a concept.
- do different levels of problems (easy – difficult). See it as a challenge. You can do this!
- complete classwork in class – many students think that they can do this later and “relax” in class when they should be working. This has two downsides:
- they forget to do the work later
- they lose the opportunity to ask the teacher questions if they struggle with problems. (the teacher doesn’t have time later when you decide to work…)
Any subject is “easy” if you work smart. But you have to WORK.