how to get better at maths

Does anyone have any advice for those struggling with doing well at maths on how to get better? The normal method of going through worked examples and doing questions isn't quite working.

Reply 1

mqb2766

21

Original post by lesgo21

Does anyone have any advice for those struggling with doing well at maths on how to get better? The normal method of going through worked examples and doing questions isn't quite working.

A Level, maths/further/...? Are you looking to get A/A* but getting ...? What do you find difficult / what mistakes are you making ...? Do you read the textbook, watch ...., ask your teacher ...?

Reply 2

lesgo21

OP

16

Original post by mqb2766

A Level, maths/further/...? Are you looking to get A/A* but getting ...? What do you find difficult / what mistakes are you making ...? Do you read the textbook, watch ...., ask your teacher ...?

A level maths
Getting low scores
Silly errors, not knowing how to start questions sometimes, concepts aren't fully clear perhaps.
Read the textbook, do the textbook questions and then exam style questions. If stuck, ask for help/ watch videos.

Reply 3

mqb2766

21

Original post by lesgo21

A level maths
Getting low scores
Silly errors, not knowing how to start questions sometimes, concepts aren't fully clear perhaps.
Read the textbook, do the textbook questions and then exam style questions. If stuck, ask for help/ watch videos.

There are probably a few things so

•

Silly errors can sometimes be caught if you get in the habit of validating your answer (so guestimate the value, or check by subbing back into the original "equation" or ...).

•

Getting started / understanding what the question is asking is obv important and can easily be overlooked when doing textbook questions. Sometimes sketching the info in the question can help or take a step back and try to identify what sort of a question/topic its asking about and write down the general info for that topic or ...

•

I guess understanding the concept / topic is a/the key thing though. Often the best thing to do is to try and discuss it with someone, so a classmate or teacher or ask on here. Its easy to chug through the syllabus and learn about trig identities, binomials, ... without understanding why theyre key and how theyre used, and what properties are important.

It will probably take some time to skill up but Id get in the habit of asking some questions on here for instance and make clear about what you understand/are confused about and work though the problems. Try and sort out the problems as they occur, dont let them mount up.

THere are a few youtube videos for stuff like this. I stumbled across
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJEkjuN9qJ4&ab_channel=SmileWithSola
recently and while its gcse, the advice is fairly generic. There are probably better ones, but its decent.

Reply 4

lesgo21

OP

16

Original post by mqb2766

There are probably a few things so

•

Silly errors can sometimes be caught if you get in the habit of validating your answer (so guestimate the value, or check by subbing back into the original "equation" or ...).

•

Getting started / understanding what the question is asking is obv important and can easily be overlooked when doing textbook questions. Sometimes sketching the info in the question can help or take a step back and try to identify what sort of a question/topic its asking about and write down the general info for that topic or ...

•

I guess understanding the concept / topic is a/the key thing though. Often the best thing to do is to try and discuss it with someone, so a classmate or teacher or ask on here. Its easy to chug through the syllabus and learn about trig identities, binomials, ... without understanding why theyre key and how theyre used, and what properties are important.

It will probably take some time to skill up but Id get in the habit of asking some questions on here for instance and make clear about what you understand/are confused about and work though the problems. Try and sort out the problems as they occur, dont let them mount up.

THere are a few youtube videos for stuff like this. I stumbled across
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJEkjuN9qJ4&ab_channel=SmileWithSola
recently and while its gcse, the advice is fairly generic. There are probably better ones, but its decent.

yes that makes sense, it is too easy to just learn formulas for the sake of it but then get confused when trying to solve a question that is not that straightforward.

how to get better at maths

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