Most students cringe at the thought of studying maths or a math-centered course. This is primarily because of the misconceptions around the field.
However, when you think about it, math is applicable in our everyday lives, not just for specific careers. Think about preparing taxes, running a business, your home budget, taking a mortgage, shopping, and so on.
How can you read and understand your math courses? Here are six tips.
1. Eliminate Your Mental Block
When you perceive something as tricky, you immediately program your brain to see the complexities in it. These can be real or imagined.
No, studying math will not be a breeze, but then again, what is? Everything you endeavor to do and so well in life will take some hard work and dedication. Excelling at math is no exception.
Think about something you find straightforward. Some people can’t hack it or fail at it. This tells you that many people excel at math as there are who perform dismally at it. Focusing on positive outcomes sets you on the right foot.
2. Pay Attention to Your Progress
Good students track their progress from time to time. Doing this tells you where you are, what you need to work harder at, and your strengths.
Knowing where you fall short is extremely important as you do not want to have too many topics you are not well-versed in.
Whenever you identify problem areas, the best thing you can do for yourself is to get help. If you are unsure about where to get help, your instructors and bright students in your class are an excellent place to start. Check out this site for specialized help as well.
3. Keep the Pace
Think of your math courses as a marathon. If you do not keep pace with the leader (your lecturer), it becomes easier and easier to fall behind and even give up altogether.
It would help if you did everything you can to ensure that this does not happen.
Some of the ways to do this are attending every lecture, completing all your homework, and noting assignment deadlines.
4. Study Progressively
Curriculums are designed with a lot of thought. You find that each textbook begins with the most straightforward concepts and builds on them gradually.
Chapters are arranged similarly as well, starting with basic information and building up to more complex topics.
The best way to read and understand maths is by studying each topic chapter by chapter and exhausting all content before moving on to the next topic.
You should know you are okay to move forward when you can answer questions and solve math problems at the end of each topic effortlessly and accurately.
5. Make Things Your Own
They say to understand math; you need to read it, understand it, write it down, and then teach it.
With math, this also extends to teaching someone how to solve a problem.
To do this effectively, utilize solo study to read, understand, and write concepts and formulas down. After this, consider joining study groups where you can teach a concept and problem-solving.
Every time you complete these steps, you are internalizing your knowledge, not just studying superficially.
6. Practice, Practice, Practice
Math is best studied practically. While it has theoretical concepts, these are aimed at helping you understand applications.
To read and understand math, aim at testing your knowledge by solving as many problems as possible. Ideally, it would help if you used a workbook with problems to solve and that provides answers to check your accuracy.
The more you solve, the better you become at it.
