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Advanced Higher maths - am I dumb?

hello,

doing AH maths this year and I do find it genuinely interesting. I got a B in my higher which was dissapointing so I figured I'd properly stick in this year and get a good grade for AH, but...

at the start of the course I was struggling, so behind everyone else, didn't know what was going on essentially. but I picked myself up, studied hard for our tracking assessment and unit 1 test and I got a decent percentage in both, one of the highest in the class, and I passed the unit test with flying colours and then some.

this was with other people in my class who got straight A's in their highers getting around 50%-60%! I was very confused because I wasn't very good at the beginning. i mention this because i hoped that they were also struggling just in different areas. i hoped that they were like me in the sense that they found things hard, and that the only reason i did well was because i studied every minute of the day up until before the test essentially.

I find myself so dumb in this class because I constantly make careless mistakes. ranging from missing out a negative or even copying down a question wrong!! and i even did this in my tests. i spent half an hour trying to figure out why i couldn't get a question right because i'd integrated sin wrong. and that's higher knowledge.

on that note also, I find myself forgetting basic algebra from n5 lmao. its so dissapointing to me. i want to be really good. I'm afraid I won't be good enough for uni, that i'll fall behind everyone else because i don't really *get* concepts. I can do the methods fine, well not really considering i make careless mistakes all the time. its as though im good at the basic stuff but when it actually gets into the "real" maths im lost.

Is this normal? will i get better? ive done past papers and there are questions i can do because ive learned them but i struggle so bad. i feel like i can only do the basics.
Reply 1
Avatar for ferm4t
ferm4t
11
Hi I got an A at adv higher last year and I can relate to the issues you are having.

Translation errors are not something that gets fixed with practice, you need to slow down - there is no other solution to this and to be honest if you are like me you'll probably always make these mistakes. Try not to get one step ahead of yourself when working through a question. Don't try and do multiple operations in one line. If you are stuck on a question redo the whole thing, don't just stare at it expecting something to pop out at you. It won't.

Your certainly able to do well in advanced higher. School level exams are passable for the vast majority of candidates its just a matter of putting the work in, if you can get a B at higher you can easily get an A/B at adv higher if you are committed to it.

If you don't understand a concept try and look for other resources which explain it in a different way than what you are being taught in class.

And yes you will get better. Its only November you have plenty of time. Maths is really just down to how much work you put in rather than "natural ability". Things start to come together nicely once you finish all the material and I recommend not doing any past papers until that point because otherwise you start to memorise the answers to questions through repetition which renders the question useless when you go back to it.
Original post by ferm4t
Hi I got an A at adv higher last year and I can relate to the issues you are having.

Translation errors are not something that gets fixed with practice, you need to slow down - there is no other solution to this and to be honest if you are like me you'll probably always make these mistakes. Try not to get one step ahead of yourself when working through a question. Don't try and do multiple operations in one line. If you are stuck on a question redo the whole thing, don't just stare at it expecting something to pop out at you. It won't.

Your certainly able to do well in advanced higher. School level exams are passable for the vast majority of candidates its just a matter of putting the work in, if you can get a B at higher you can easily get an A/B at adv higher if you are committed to it.

If you don't understand a concept try and look for other resources which explain it in a different way than what you are being taught in class.

And yes you will get better. Its only November you have plenty of time. Maths is really just down to how much work you put in rather than "natural ability". Things start to come together nicely once you finish all the material and I recommend not doing any past papers until that point because otherwise you start to memorise the answers to questions through repetition which renders the question useless when you go back to it.



thank you very much for your reply! i am glad to know i am not alone. :smile:

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