I'm going into 6th year and need help studying maths!

Odrevan · 28-08-2013 07:24PM #1

Hi, so as the title suggests, I require some assistance from you guys. It's not that I'm a slacker or anything; quite the contrary is true really, I've been getting consistent "A" grades in maths, but for this year I've decided to refocus my method of studying and just do exam papers instead of reading the book and doing questions from that. I have found it easy to make study plans with this approach for every other subject. An example would be Applied maths where I spend 90 minutes a week doing exam questions. One 90 minute slot would have 2 questions from a particular topic, and then spend time correcting them and seeing where I went wrong. For example, for all of September I will be doing Linear Accelerated Motion. I would like to use the same study methods for Maths, but what with project maths and all this I'm finding it had to bunch things together and form this simplistic plan I like to adopt! If anybody could help me I would greatly appreciate it, and I mean it as I love maths but can't adapt to this new system

KeithTS · 30-08-2013 08:17AM

Your old system seems to be working if you're getting consistent A's, why would you change that?

sigmundv · 30-08-2013 12:03PM

I agree with KeithTS, why not use the convential method if it worked. In my opinion there are no shortcuts to becoming a good mathematician.

eoins23456 · 30-08-2013 01:00PM

Odrevan wrote: »

Hi, so as the title suggests, I require some assistance from you guys. It's not that I'm a slacker or anything; quite the contrary is true really, I've been getting consistent "A" grades in maths, but for this year I've decided to refocus my method of studying and just do exam papers instead of reading the book and doing questions from that. I have found it easy to make study plans with this approach for every other subject. An example would be Applied maths where I spend 90 minutes a week doing exam questions. One 90 minute slot would have 2 questions from a particular topic, and then spend time correcting them and seeing where I went wrong. For example, for all of September I will be doing Linear Accelerated Motion. I would like to use the same study methods for Maths, but what with project maths and all this I'm finding it had to bunch things together and form this simplistic plan I like to adopt! If anybody could help me I would greatly appreciate it, and I mean it as I love maths but can't adapt to this new system

Read your book , do the questions in the book and then move on to exam papers. I can understand your new approach might work with applied maths because the syllabus hasn't changed in years and there are a massive amount of exam papers but the maths syllabus is completely new so you are shooting yourself in the foot by limiting yourself to a couple of exam papers .
Do as many questions as you can from a few books and exam papers. This is how you will develop your problem solving skills and will give you a better chance of conquering problems on the final day .

Odrevan · 30-08-2013 09:04PM

Wow, thanks for the feedback guys! I've been asking a few people and my dad had the same response as you 3, I guess I was changing my approach for everything else so I felt it was kind of obligatory almost to change my approach, as stupid as that sounds! However, just to address the comment on this method being a "shortcut" to being a good mathematician; that wasn't my intention at all, I was going to spend the same amount of time studying, just in a different way in the hopes it'll help me maintain my "A" or even help me to get an "A1". Still, thanks for your input guys, it helps more than you can imagine in these stressful times!

breadmonkey · 31-08-2013 11:51PM

I read your applied maths thread as well. You seem to be lacking in confidence despite a successful track record to date. I reckon you're over-thinking it. Just do what Eoin says below and you'll be fine.

eoins23456 wrote: »

Read your book , do the questions in the book and then move on to exam papers. I can understand your new approach might work with applied maths because the syllabus hasn't changed in years and there are a massive amount of exam papers but the maths syllabus is completely new so you are shooting yourself in the foot by limiting yourself to a couple of exam papers .
Do as many questions as you can from a few books and exam papers. This is how you will develop your problem solving skills and will give you a better chance of conquering problems on the final day .

Odrevan · 01-09-2013 11:22AM

Thanks, you're right I guess, it's just all a bit overwhelming knowing the LC is just around the corner!

I'm going into 6th year and need help studying maths!

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