struggling badly with maths

i'm literally useless at maths. i don't get it. i've spent hours studying and going over every little bit of the whole curriculum but it does nothing. i pretty much fail everything in physics, and with chem and bio i'm alright until maths is involved. can't keep formulas in my head, no matter how many flashcards i make. everything just goes in one ear out the other. we don't have enough money to get a tutor. every bit of maths homework i do brings me to tears and i barely hold them back in maths lessons at school. i breakdown in maths exams and forget everything, even if i had been going over it just before the exam started. all the other subjects like english pe and religous im okay at, and im pretty good at geography until we have to do maths questions on exams, whch brings my overall grade down. i hate maths so much and the amount of anxiety and stress its caused me has probably taken 2 years off my lifespan lol. i wish i was like my friends in the top set who seem to do everything with ease, getting top grades on all their exams while i, 99% of the time fail and the other 1% barely scrape a pass.

Reply 1

Quadrinomial

19

Original post by clemalem

i'm literally useless at maths. i don't get it. i've spent hours studying and going over every little bit of the whole curriculum but it does nothing. i pretty much fail everything in physics, and with chem and bio i'm alright until maths is involved. can't keep formulas in my head, no matter how many flashcards i make. everything just goes in one ear out the other. we don't have enough money to get a tutor. every bit of maths homework i do brings me to tears and i barely hold them back in maths lessons at school. i breakdown in maths exams and forget everything, even if i had been going over it just before the exam started. all the other subjects like english pe and religous im okay at, and im pretty good at geography until we have to do maths questions on exams, whch brings my overall grade down. i hate maths so much and the amount of anxiety and stress its caused me has probably taken 2 years off my lifespan lol. i wish i was like my friends in the top set who seem to do everything with ease, getting top grades on all their exams while i, 99% of the time fail and the other 1% barely scrape a pass.

Hi, in maths you shouldn't be memorising how to do stuff. You should be doing practice questions so that you understand the ways to solve problems. It's not like bio or chem where you can just memorise stuff and write the same stuff from the textbook in the exam.

I'm not sure what year you're in but I assume you're doing GCSEs. If you don't already, use the textbook for your course and look at the examples, seeing how the methods work. Then just do practice question after practice question until you firmly understand how to do a certain type of question. Repetition will help you in the exam when the same style of question comes up, rather than memorising stuff.

Once you start understanding how to answer the questions you can try all the past papers from previous years and try and work your grade up slowly.

I hope everything goes well for you.

Reply 2

HannahTheSapling

4

there's a video i watched a few days ago called "how to suck at maths"- obviously it's satire but it brings up a lot of points about mindset. If you think that you can't do maths, then it'll be more difficult to improve then if you thought "I struggle with maths, but I will keep trying to improve". You already have a tutor in the form of your teacher. they won't mind if you email them and ask them to help with the homework, or explain something again. A revision guide with practice questions will help- For example I found trigonometry extremely hard since i couldn't figure out which one to use, but after multiple practice questions for each one I could soon spot where to use what.

Reply 3

Muttley79

20

Original post by clemalem

i'm literally useless at maths. i don't get it. i've spent hours studying and going over every little bit of the whole curriculum but it does nothing. i pretty much fail everything in physics, and with chem and bio i'm alright until maths is involved. can't keep formulas in my head, no matter how many flashcards i make. everything just goes in one ear out the other. we don't have enough money to get a tutor. every bit of maths homework i do brings me to tears and i barely hold them back in maths lessons at school. i breakdown in maths exams and forget everything, even if i had been going over it just before the exam started. all the other subjects like english pe and religous im okay at, and im pretty good at geography until we have to do maths questions on exams, whch brings my overall grade down. i hate maths so much and the amount of anxiety and stress its caused me has probably taken 2 years off my lifespan lol. i wish i was like my friends in the top set who seem to do everything with ease, getting top grades on all their exams while i, 99% of the time fail and the other 1% barely scrape a pass.

Have you ever been tested for dyscalculia?
[Here's a quick test: https://www.additudemag.com/self-test-for-dyscalculia-in-adults/]

A good resource to work through might be these: https://www.missbsresources.com/teaching-and-learning/mathspassports

Reply 4

Claydo66

20

Original post by clemalem

i'm literally useless at maths. i don't get it. i've spent hours studying and going over every little bit of the whole curriculum but it does nothing. i pretty much fail everything in physics, and with chem and bio i'm alright until maths is involved. can't keep formulas in my head, no matter how many flashcards i make. everything just goes in one ear out the other. we don't have enough money to get a tutor. every bit of maths homework i do brings me to tears and i barely hold them back in maths lessons at school. i breakdown in maths exams and forget everything, even if i had been going over it just before the exam started. all the other subjects like english pe and religous im okay at, and im pretty good at geography until we have to do maths questions on exams, whch brings my overall grade down. i hate maths so much and the amount of anxiety and stress its caused me has probably taken 2 years off my lifespan lol. i wish i was like my friends in the top set who seem to do everything with ease, getting top grades on all their exams while i, 99% of the time fail and the other 1% barely scrape a pass.

This used to be me in year 10. I was on track to do the higher paper but was getting grades 3/4 and would often cry with frustration when I didn’t understand something. By the end of GCSE I came out with a grade 6 and I am now doing A level maths, on track to get a grade A.
Nothing is impossible with hard work and figuring out what works for you.
What exam board is your maths exam?
What I did was get this revision guide for Edexcel maths. It was by pearson. Will dig it up to remember if you’re interested. I remember it had colourful visuals and practice questions. I started from the very beginning in order, since I was weak at everything so the first few things were index laws, fractions and basic factorising. I would take my time on each page, absolutely no rush. I would read the notes on the pages and try to make sense of it in my head, and when each concept eventually clicked, I would make my own colourful sheets of notes where I would right down my thought process where I had that ureka moment so I could look back and make sense of it again. I would also use the notes given in the revision guide to compile my notes better in my own words and when I was confident on one topic, I’d do the practice questions. I then repeat the process for all the fundamental topics and then if I had time, would go and and learn the more advanced pages. If I had started working harder sooner, I would probably be able to achieve at least a grade 7. I only got a 6 because I left my revision last minute in year 11 before. I am now doing it at A level and find it much easier to click with the concepts. I do take a little longer then my classmates to get there, but when I do I’ve got it. Working hard made me fall in love with the subject and the same might happen with you. Good luck!

(edited 3 years ago)

struggling badly with maths

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