Not sure what to do about HL maths

chatterboxxx95

Okay did my maths paper 1 mock yesterday, and it was a disaster. I wasn't hugely surprised, I've been finding maths harder and harder this year but I think (hopefully) scraped a D in the paper. I actually used to love maths and really get it but I've gone the complete opposite now. My results are steadily getting worse and worse, I went from getting 100% in my 5th year summer test to a B3 in my pre mock in october and have been dropping steadily ever since. I'm trying to revise all the things we've covered and do exam questions but no matter what I do at the moment its not making sense to me. I don't want to say too much on here but the way our maths teacher teaches I can't learn like that, I know for a fact the vast majority of the class are in grinds.

Basically my question is does anyone have any advice, how can I improve or what can I do to improve my maths grade? I can do most of the easy questions in the book but the long questions in the exam paper have me gone. I don't understand what they are asking for and no matter how many times I go through worked solutions and try to do more questions, I don't get any better.

Any help/advice appreciated

spurious

If I were you, I would get grinds on the basics. May only take a couple of classes, but specifically on the basic concepts, not how to do exam questions. Once you have the knowledge yourself, you can deal with any question.

Calvin

Yeah, im in the same boat as you. Only this year have I begun to find HL maths insanely difficult. Barely scraped through the mock paper i'd say, if im lucky, a D3. I'm going to be getting grinds after the mid-term though, so i can get back to grasps with it.

chatterboxxx95

I think I'm just going to have to give in and join the rest of my class for grinds :pac: it bothers me a little though because maths used to be my best subject and I also begrudge the time I'd spend travelling to and from grinds , taking away time from my weaker subjects and also the money.

Glad I'm not the only person in this situation :pac: Personally, I just see the wordy bits of the questions and panic. If someone explains to me what they're asking I can do it but a lot of time I have trouble deciphering the questions to be honest if I continued the way I'm going until june I'd probably pass the paper as our maths teacher told us that basically they're trying to give everyone D's in project maths but my pride won't let me :pac:

Calvin

Good luck! Even if these grinds bring me up to a C3 I will be over the moon.

ProjectManager

100% in your 5th year summer test? I would love to know how much of the course you were examined on in 5th year. It isn't possible to get 100% in a maths test without knowing the basics. It sounds like you are one of these students who is getting caught up in the hype of project maths and how it is 'English Based'.

Remember that the theory of trigonometry (for example) has existed for thousand of years. Just because they add the word 'Project' to the course title and throw in a few english sentences, doesn't change the fact that you use three trigonometric ratios and Pythagoras theorem to solve a right angled triangle. Same principle applies to every other section.

Assuming that you do know the basics, then you learn how to extract from the question the information required to solve the problem. I know that sounds obvious but I have seen straight A students not being able to do this because they weren't taught how to do it in school. Once they are taught how to do this, they were then able to solve most of what was thrown at them.

You shouldn't fret about the time taken to travel to grinds - it sounds like you need some help so it may be time well spent. There are also good online resources available some free and some paid - might save you travel time. My sone attended some free on line lectures on how to approach project maths questions with positivemaths.ie last year and found them very helpful.

Good Luck