How to Succeed in Mathematics! (And any subject for that matter)
Mathematics is full of topic tests and exams and many students feel disappointed when they feel they have spent hours studying and not gotten the results they felt they deserved.
Below is an article written by the Librarian at Trinity College in Western Australia about Effective Study. The Trinity College Website has a fantastic section devoted to study in general and I highly reccommend anyone who is looking to improve their understanding in any subject (and therefore their results) to have a look at the site. Some specific links are also listed to the side of this page.
Study Smart : Effective Study
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Students can spend hours studying and still fail. Why?
Students sometimes have trouble studying
- Firstly they might be procrastinating and not actually be studying. They might be sharpening pencils or re-arranging books. Time Management
- Secondly, they might not be concentrating. Tips to Improve Concentration
- Thirdly, they might not have an idea of ways to read. Reading Techniques
However,
- Students might think they are studying, and spend hours going through books.
- They go to a huge effort and spend hours writing down notes or highlighting most of the text.
- But they often do very poorly on tests which require a genuine understanding of the material.
Instead
- Read the material slowly and carefully, trying to understand the underlying ideas.
- Close the book.
- Self-test. Answer a question or explain what you’ve read aloud, or tell someone else. (Mum, Dad, brother, fellow student…help each other) If you can’t explain adequately what you’ve learnt. Try these:
- Go back, re-read, try to understand
- Ask your teacher to explain what you don’t understand.
- Write out in another graphic form. (not just notes) Notemaking and Notetaking
- Read something else related.
- Self-test again. Answer aloud or explain to someone what you’ve learnt.
- Explain it aloud again the next day.
- Teach someone the next week.
- Success comes from comprehension, not memorisation. You have to understand ideas. This means building something new in your brain. The way to find out if you can "construct" an idea is to require yourself to produce it, by explaining it aloud.
Rosemary Horton Teacher Librarian
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