Mathematics is a frequently feared subject by students, and this fear is exactly what gets in their way of understanding it.
I started my DP1 Math course on rocky terms. I had false perceptions of it and was anxious whenever a new summative was announced. It felt like all the hard work I was putting into the subject wasn’t paying off, no matter how hard I tried.
Later on, however, I realized the duration of my study sessions didn’t matter if I wasn’t revising correctly.
Don’t let your fear of math get in the way of success. Consider a couple of revision techniques I’ve developed over my DP journey!
- Active recall
Math is one of those courses that’s easily forgettable without frequent revisions. Knowing all the concepts off the top of your head is crucial, as it’ll save you time and stress during exams!
The easiest way to practice active recall in math is to pick a day each month to revisit all the topics you’ve gone over so far. You can practice review sets, questions from your coursebook that you found difficult, etc.
Each month, you’ll have updated knowledge of math. This makes understanding past concepts even easier! Furthermore, this is an excellent way to keep your brain in shape and be ready for assignments without days of cramming and revision.
- Group work
When faced with a mathematical problem, there’s no one way of solving it. You can put a hundred people in a room, and all of them might give you different methods to solve it but the same answers!
Hence, collaborating with your classmates when faced with a difficult question is an excellent way of looking at a problem from different angles and figuring out which works best for you! Furthermore, it helps us understand concepts more easily. Oftentimes, hearing explanations from our peers might be more understandable than listening to professionals.
Therefore, forming study groups and working on challenging problems together is an excellent way to expand your views of math and make you acknowledge all the different ways to solve a problem!
- Practice papers and question bank problems are your best friends!
The biggest problem I faced at the beginning of DP1 was preparing for exams with my coursebook.
The coursebook offers excellent problems to deepen your understanding of concepts. However, similar questions are rarely going to be asked in exams. While the problems in your coursebook might seem easy, exam questions will test your knowledge indirectly and in more difficult ways.
Hence, I highly recommend checking out various IB question bank websites to get accustomed to those types of questions!
Revision Village, for instance, is an excellent platform to practice IB-style questions. It even offers mark schemes that give you helpful insights into what the examiners look for in your answers!
An alternative website is RevisionDojo, which has helpful resources like practice papers and flashcards in addition to question banks. Note that both Revision Village and RevisionDojo have restricted free access.
- Ask for help
Asking for help is an excellent way to understand and recall specific problems in math.
While this might sound like a cliché, being honest with your teacher and ensuring you fully understand problems is a must in the Math AA SL course. Don’t be embarrassed to ask for help, even if the rest of the class seems to get the concept. Oftentimes, our questions are helpful to others as well!
Additionally, don’t hold back on asking questions regarding your homework. You may think you’ll figure it out yourself later, but getting difficult questions out of your way is always better so they don’t pile up in the future!
Having a teacher explain a certain problem to me was extremely helpful during my revisions, as it made the problem more memorable and easier to solve!
Conclusion
It’s important to realize that math doesn’t have to be a difficult subject. With determination and correct study methods, it’s easy to succeed!
Don’t be too harsh on yourself. Experiment with different study and revision methods to see which works best for you.
Most importantly, remember not to burn yourself out. Set boundaries for the sake of your mental health. Oftentimes, having stress and anxiety management skills is what helps us the most during difficult exams!