Math Student’s Responsibilities
- Remember the three P's of mathematics:
- Practice: Work on your math daily to get better.
- Patience: It is rare that you will be able to understand a concept the first time you learn anything. Allow yourself the right to struggle while you are learning.
- Perseverance: Math can be frustrating. Remember that it takes time to learn new concepts well, and you can do it!
- Take pride in your work, and never let yourself fall into the trap of believing that you cannot do math.
- Be diligent in the completion of assignments.
- Be persistent and determined in your work.
- Be curious and inquisitive. Always look for relationships that will provide insight and understanding.
- Be willing to try various strategies and to make mistakes when solving problems.
- Be willing to share your understanding of math with others, as well as being open to the ideas of others.
- Recognize that learning the basics is necessary to any worthwhile activity.
- Come to class each day ready to work and learn.
- Bring the required materials to class. These might include textbook, notebook, binders, folders, pencils, and calculators.
- Respect yourself and others in and out of class.
- Behave properly, listen to and follow directions, and avoid disturbing others.
- Ask questions when you do not understand concepts discussed in class.
- Accept the challenge of working with classmates in learning the skills and concepts of mathematics.
Overcoming Math Anxiety
- Realize that boys and girls can do math equally well. The same is true for people of various ethnic groups.
- Keep your mind open and your emotions down. If you let yourself think that math is hard or impossible, it will be.
- Be persistent in working on your math. Remember that everyone makes mistakes and that they are part of the learning process.
- If you begin to feel overwhelmed, take a break and clear your mind. Tell yourself you can do it and try again.
- Make a commitment to study. Being prepared is one of the best ways to reduce anxiety.
- View overcoming math anxiety as just another problem you can solve.
- Do not be afraid or embarrassed to ask questions when you do not understand. Other students have the same questions.
- Keep notes and review them as necessary.
- Study with a friend. The companionship can make the worries easier to handle.
- Keep a sense of humor. If you make a mistake, it is not the end of the world. Consider getting a wrong answer as a step towards finding the correct one.
Test Anxiety
Many student feel anxious during math exams because they have not prepared for the exam. The best cure for this is making sure you do all work to understand the topics, not just to complete them. This is the best way to start preparing for an exam. However, there are student that, even when well prepared, suffer from test anxiety. This is a natural reaction learned through bad experiences. Exams are more difficult because you have to do all the work in a specified amount of time, with a limited amount of resources, for a, usually, large part of your grade. When anxiety starts to occur during a test, your body responds with the fight/flight/freeze response. Basically, this turns off your memory and ability to think in prep oration to run fight or hide. But this can be overcome through work and believing that you can do it! Below are some tips for taking a math test that can help reduce the anxiety.
- Before starting the test, make sure you have a set of organized notes (if allowed) or write down (if notes are not allowed) all formulas, rules, definitions and reminder you want for the test. This may include a note that you are capable of doing this!
- Read all parts of the test (especially the directions), marking the question you can easily do.
- Do the easiest problems first. This gives you a sense of accomplishment.
- Do the remaining problems in order of difficulty.
- Show all your work neatly. If you did make a mistake, this makes it easier to determine what type of error was made when grading.
- Make sure you include any units from the problem in your answer.
- Make sure your answer is reasonable in the context of the problem.
- If you get stuck on a problem, move on. A differ net problem later may jog your memory on how to do that problem later.
- Attempt every problem, even if you cannot solve it completely by:
- Showing how you would set the problem up.
- Listing the steps necessary to solve the problem.
- estimating the answer and explaining how you came up with the estimate.
When you start feeling anxious, take a short (mental) break. Close your eyes and picture yourself doing something you love and enjoy doing. For me that is riding my motorcycle. spend 20-30 seconds in your mind doing this activity. Then open your eyes, and continue to work. What this does is tricks your body out of the fight/flight/freeze response and allows you to use your thinking and memory. If you need to take your break every few questions, that is fine. If this is not helping, that find some time and talk with your teacher outside of class to discuss what other options there might be to help you with your test anxiety.