Be mentally present.If you’re in a fast paced math class, they’ll probably only teach a concept once and move on. This means that if you don’t pay attention, you’ve just missed your one chance to learn it. Some students today take the lesson being discussed by the teacher for granted. Saying that they can easily comprehend the lesson once they’ve see the activities or exercises being given by the teacher. Wherein once you’ve missed a single step of a mathematical solution you might find it hard to follow the flow of a given lesson.
Do extra activities.This will help you understand the concepts more clearly. Your homework will probably be the only time you get to practice what you just learned before a test, so you need to make sure you do it! If you can’t attend the class for a day, ask your teacher to give you the homework you missed as soon as possible. Also be sure that you put much effort in completing a given assignment. Review your notes on how the topic of an assignment was done in the class.
A questions.A math class is not a class you want to onlythinkyou know what you’re doing. You need to absorb every bit of information that you can to full understand the lesson or topic being discussed by the teacher.
Learn the terms.Knowing what is asked of you is half the problem. Math is its own language (solve, expand, simplify, etc.). Becoming accustomed to this will really benefit you. Highlight key words in the question to ascertain what you need to find out. Attempting past exam papers will give you a feel of what to expect; many of these are available for download from the internet. Make sure that you have carefully read every word of a given problem for you to really grasp the way the problem is constructed and what proper formula or solution you can use to solve the given problem.
Buy a good calculator depending on the class you’re taking.If you’re taking a basic algebra class, a scientific calculator should suffice. If you’re taking a calculus class, a graphing calculator will probably be necessary. Your teacher or professor should have a good idea of what’s necessary as well, so asking them at the beginning of the term would be a good idea. Some though
Know how to use your calculator.It doesn’t matter if your calculator has lots of fancy functions; if you don’t even know how to add with it, you’re wasting all of its features.
Sit next to friendly, positive people.These should be people you can turn to when you have a question about something, or don’t know what to do for a certain problem. However, make sure they won’t just give you the answer.
Find extra learning materials.Oftentimes, different sources will be better explaining some things than others. If you can expose yourself to a different explanation of a concept, you may understand something a lot better. Only use “cheat books” to check your answer.
Show all your working.Most of the time, your teachers don’t care as much about what you put down as an answer as the working that you show. Many will only give partial credit for the correct answer; the rest must be earned by showing your working correctly.
Be organized.If you aren’t organized, doing all that homework will do nothing to help you. Many times, you think you’re organized but to gain a true perspective on whether you are organized or not, ask someone you know that will give you an honest opinion.
By: Haizle V. Romasanta
