Are You Up And Running With As Mathematics?

So, you`ve always quite enjoyed maths and it makes a nice change not to have essays to write or coursework to do ... and of course, lots of people told you it`s a really useful subject to study. The first few weeks went well, and quite a lot of the work looked familiar from what you learnt at GCSE.

But hang on a minute, what went wrong in that first proper test? You had expected to do so much better! And you had understood the theory in class! You had done some homework, although you have to admit that you`d skimmed over the basic practice because it looked easy, and your friend had helped you complete the tricky problems in the assignments so that you could hand them in on time.

This is a really common scenario, and it`s what you do next that will determmine whether ultimately you will succeed or fail to achieve your target.

People who fail a driving test generally don`t give up, but work on their weaknesses and have another go, and succeeding with maths is a lot like that. The best place to start is to take advice on your weaknesses, and to remedy those. Has your teacher given you some written feedback? Could you stay behind after a lesson and ask for some help? What about websites - does your school or college subscribe to Mymaths or Mathnetalevel or Integral? All these sites have a fantastic range of material and worked solutions to problems. What about your textbook? Does it have a CD with worked solutions? Now is the time to go back and complete the skills practice that you didn`t think you needed earlier on. You will find that test questions are likely to be exam questions from past papers, and textbooks usually have this type of question in a `Mixed Exercise` at the end of a chapter. To achieve a good grade (C and above), you need plenty of practice with these.

My advice is 1. Don`t panic! 2. Make a plan - allocate specific sessions per week for catch-up on the topics already covered, and for current work, bearing in mind that you probably need to increase your time allocation for the subject. 3. Ask for, and accept, help and advice - this needs to involve explanation of methods and techniques, not just an offer to see someone else`s solutions. 4. Don`t be disheartened when you meet a difficulty. You`ll keep improving if you practice, just like an athlete doing high jump, or a singer on The X Factor. 5. Think about what career you want, or what you want to study at uni; with a bit of research, you will have a grade target to aim for, and this should boost your motivation.

Good luck!