Maths Exam Preparation | How to Score Better in Your Maths Exam?
If you dread mathematics and have an exam coming up, don’t worry! You have landed at the right place!
Mathematics is a complex subject. In fact, it has been associated with a learning disability called Dyscalculia. The disability affects around 5% to 10% of the population and makes it difficult to solve math problems for some students.
Although it has a reputation of being a difficult and mentally taxing subject, certain strategies prove helpful in getting better at maths. In this write-up, we bring you some of the tried and tested tips that will boost your conceptual understanding and help you ace your exams.
So, let’s get to it.
Effective Tips to Prepare for Maths Exam
Math is all about logic, numbers, and calculations. Unfortunately, a non-conducive learning environment and unavailability of personalized guidance often make it hard for students to score.
So, most often, you are not inherently bad at the subject. With proper guidance and effective ideas, you can study smart and ace your exam.
Make Flash Cards for Formulas
Teachers and experts are ardent advocates for flashcards as they tremendously help improve cognitive learning skills.
Math involves many complex formulas, and remembering all the a’s and b’s is quite a task. This is where flashcards come in.
They are an excellent self-testing tool and significantly reduce your study time.
The procedure of making them is a mental exercise on its own. First, you have to process the information. Then, you have to reduce it so that it delivers all the important points in the context.
You may also use digital flashcard apps like Anki to make the most of your screen time. Regularly going through them naturally helps you memorize, and repetition makes it easy to recall these at the time of the exam.
You can write a sum on one side of the card and calculate which formula applies to it. Look up the tutorials available online as guidance to prepare cards for maximum efficiency.
Leave the notebooks with lengthy texts behind, start using compact flashcards, and you’ll see how easy life gets.
Don’t Rote Learn Derivations and Theorems
If you can’t wrap your head around theorems and derivations, no need to worry, for you are not alone. For numerous reasons, students often find derivations hard to understand and hence resort to rote learning.
But relying on memory is not much of a help when it comes to math. Teachers love asking challenging questions that test the core concepts. Unfortunately, not knowing the foundation of theorems and derivations, in this case, is bound to land you in trouble.
That is why we would advise you to try grasping the fundamental idea behind each step of the derivation. See how one derivation relates to other formulas. Identify how and when a specific one applies, and you will start improving at them in no time.
In the case of theorems, illustrations help big time. Look for geometrical drawings in your textbook or online. The triangles and pentagons, LHS and RHS, all will start making sense.
As a result of concept building, you won’t just score better but will also start enjoying learning.
Practice for Perfection
Practicing a concept, again and again, is of paramount importance when it comes to math exam preparation. If you are introduced to a new concept, and you don’t revisit it, it is likely that you will forget it soon and will have to go through the basics all over again.
Therefore, practice is the key to math exam preparation. You ought to review your mistakes and understand why you were getting a sum wrong in the first place. Evaluation and self-assessment ensure that you don’t repeat the same mistake in the future.
Similarly, you will find many questions that test your understanding of a concept in various dimensions. Practicing different textbook problems and example questions will help you thoroughly understand the concept and improve your problem-solving skills. It also adds to the confidence that helps you through the exam.
In this era, you have all the knowledge at your disposal. The Internet gives you access to online lessons prepared by well-learned teachers from all around the world.
Other than that, there are various smart apps available to help you get better at math fast. Colorful illustrations, grade-apt problems, and clear and concise explanations of concepts make learning and practicing math fun.
Numerous video lectures are available, and you can easily navigate the Internet to find a teacher whose style of teaching you prefer. However, out of all the videos, we would suggest you go for whiteboard explanation videos as they stimulate mirror neurons, leading to longer memory retention.
Use the technology to its optimum potential and smartly prepare for your maths exam.
Get an Experienced Tutor for Individual Attention
One of the primary factors why most students find it difficult to perform well in math is sub-standard levels of teaching. Even if they are great at the subject themselves, some professors fail to deliver the knowledge effectively. As a result, students do not develop a strong foundation for the subject.
Although online tools are great, you still need someone to guide you through. Thus if you feel that your school environment lacks what you need to prepare for a math exam, hire an experienced math tutor.
That way, you will get individual attention in private tuition sessions that’ll help focus on your weak areas. Thus, you improve faster with a clear understanding of the core concepts.
So, that’s all there’s to it. You don’t have to be gifted to excel at math. With a few tips and tricks and adopting some strategies, you can pass your math exam with flying colors.
The tips provided in the article are bound to make learning a fun experience for you. Making flashcards, use of smart applications, and watching videos will assist you in mastering the subject.
We hope this article helped you gain perspective on how to prepare for your math exam better. Just give it your best, and success is sure to follow!