Mathematics is an intriguing subject that is very essential in our daily lives. It is also crucial for your exams. Unlike subjects like English, Hindi, and Urdu, you can easily score perfect marks in Mathematics. Unfortunately, several students either have Mathophobia or are so intimidated by Mathematics that they think of it as a boring and burdensome subject. Consequently, they do not make the necessary efforts to excel in Maths.
What if we were to tell you that regardless of your previous performance in Maths, you can still master the subject using a few essential guidelines? As Carol S Dweck explains in her book “Mindset” that no one is a born genius, it is your efforts, practice, and determination to achieve something that lets you achieve it. According to her, anyone can learn to be good at anything with the correct approach. So let us see where our approach has been faulty and what new strategies can we apply to our modus operandi to study Maths easily and effectively.
- Have the correct mindset:
If you approach mathematics with a positive mindset, consider half your battle won. Being scared and intimidated is not going to get you anywhere. Do not have a fixed mindset that tells you that you need to be a genius to be good at mathematics. Have a growth mindset and tell yourself that Maths is just a subject that you need to learn for several essential purposes in life. This is the first step that you need to get over to begin your studies. Do not be overwhelmed. Let go of the fear and you will be able to conquer the subject that you might have dreaded till now.
- Have the right resources:
Another important thing is to have good quality resources at hand. You do not need a ton of thick books to be able to master a mathematical concept. All you need are a few selected top-notch resources at your disposal and focus on them instead of cluelessly going through several books. The first main resource should be your main coursebook. Secondly invest in one notable reference book. Thankfully, you can download these books or their chapter-wise solutions online. For instance, you can easily download RS Aggarwal Class 9 Maths Chapter 14 Solutions. So you do not need to have the entire book. Just download the chapter-wise solutions as you go. Another important tool to have handy while studying mathematics is lots of sample papers and previous years’ question papers. These provide you with an idea of how textbook questions can be asked in examinations. Also, you will understand how some application-based and tricky questions are often asked in the examination, and then you can work on solving them. If you have these many resources, you are sorted for the entire year.
- Invest in extra study aids:
Flashcards, handwritten notes, post-its, etc are really helpful study aids that can be beneficial in remembering formulas. Formulas form an essential part of studying mathematics. As you progress in higher grades, you will have to learn more and more formulas. Also, you will need to remember the formulas you have learned till now. So maintain a separate notebook that can act as your formula bank. Keep on adding formulas to this notebook as you advance in your studies. Also, have a list of formulas that you are learning stuck at 2-3 different places in your room. Having a look at these formulas multiple times a day will help you remember these formulas for a longer time.
- Evaluate your focus:
For studying mathematics you need to have perfect focus. As Barbara Oakley mentions in her book “A Mind for Numbers,” you should have a focus mode and a diffuse mode. When you are in your focus mode you need to put all your focus on one concept and give it all that you have got. Look at that problem closely and try to solve just that one particular concept. You also need to have a diffuse mode when you step back a little bit and look at the entire chapter as a whole. The diffuse mode is to focus on the bigger picture. She also mentions a sleep mode wherein she explains the importance of sleeping and having a good rest time so that your mind can work with its full capacity. As per Barbara Oakley, all three modes are important for understanding Maths.
- Understand:
Put all your efforts to understand the concepts mentioned in your textbook. Explore all the resources that you can to understand a problem. Ask your teachers and benefit from their experience. Do not hesitate to ask any doubts that you have. The teachers are your biggest support system and they are there to mentor you along the way. You can also visit websites, refer to conceptual videos that help you understand mathematical problems through varied lenses. Whichever kind of learner you are, different videos and websites can help you deepen your understanding of a particular concept. You cannot cram and be excellent at Maths. You need to have strong basics and a firm foundation. So if you think that certain foundational concepts of yours are weak, go back to them whether they are from 3rd or 4th grade. Refer to your old notes and make sure that the foundational concepts needed for a particular chapter are understood well by you.
- Visualize:
Many of us are visual learners and research has shown that visualizing certain mathematical concepts can help your problem-solving skills. Mathematics is all about brushing up your reasoning and logical skills. When you visualize concepts through animations, flowcharts, diagrams, mind maps, tables, etc, you are more likely to understand the problem and solve it better than by just writing down the numbers on paper. If you come across a problem of finding areas, try to draw the figure of what the question is implying. These figures do not need to be perfect they are just for your personal use.
- Apply:
Once you get the hang of a certain concept, the next step is to be able to apply that concept to a problem on paper. Look at the question multiple times. Focus all your cognition on that particular question. Think about what the question is asking you to find and evaluate the concept that you can apply to that particular problem and the formula that you will need for that question. Also, try to relate these concepts to the real-world problems around you. Many times we consider Maths as a subject that has no use in real life. Students often ask when they will apply these formulas in real life. If you are uncertain about a particular concept, go on the Internet and look for its real-time applications. You will find several applications that will help you understand why to learn that concept. Once you understand why you need to learn a certain concept, you will be able to apply it to the questions in examinations more profoundly.
- In-depth practice:
Everyone will tell you about the importance of practicing to excel in Mathematics. However, many people take this to mean that they need to practice one particular question multiple times to ace that concept. This is not true. Daniel Coyle explains in his book “The Talent Code” three basic steps to practice something. The first is to make mistakes. The second is to evaluate them and then lastly try again. So the correct way to practice a particular question is to go at it till you get it right. If you are not able to crack a particular question, take a rest, do something else and come back to it later. This will give you a different perspective and refresh your mind to solve that question. In her book “Mindset,” Carol S Dweck mentions a great example of this. She talks about George Dantzig, who was a graduate student in Mathematics. One day he got late for his Maths class and he copied two homework problems from the blackboard. The problems seemed too difficult to him and he could not complete them in one day. It took him several days to be able to finally solve them. He kept coming to these problems and did not give up and was finally able to solve them. As it turned out, these were not homework problems at all. In fact, these were examples of two infamous Math problems that had never been solved before by anyone. So you see, having the correct mindset and practicing over and over again can get you to solve the most seemingly difficult questions.
Follow these tips and see how you improve in Mathematics.
