Geniuses, Lennon needs your help!

[john lennon]

So for the past couple months I've been trying to obtain a grade in this math course that I need to get a grade in, right? Shit is, math and I don't really go well together. Even when I manage to understand the principles behind something, I'm pretty much a ball of confusion. I lose track of numbers, of letters, exponents, all that shit, you know? Pretty much everything. 

Tomorrow is my final exam. We get four hours to complete it. One single equation takes me two hours to complete because I have to start over over and over again due to mixing up numbers or forgetting what it is that I'm doing. I think my brain decides to fuck me over by basically imitate dementia every time I have to do math.

Any advice, you geniuses out there? 

Edited December 12, 2017 by john lennon
spelling error

[KiraMPD]

Can you give any specific examples of problems you need help with?

Key to a mathematics exam is "practice, practice, PRACTICE!". If you have example papers or past exam papers, do those again and again till you get used to those types of problems and you will find that you are quicker at getting through them.

As far as mixing variables up and getting confused is concerned - don't try to skip or combine multiple steps and write everything down. I don't know what the mark scheme for your course is like but in my experience even if you don't complete the problem you might still score some points for demonstration of theory.

[classicrawker]

I am going through this with my 13 year old who is taking 8th grade Algebra. She understands the concepts but makes simple mistakes because she tries to skip steps when solving her problems. I concur with Kira in that you should write down every step as there is less chance you will miss something and it is easier to go back and check your work.

Also agree with practice. I have an Engineering degree but always sucked a Math until I got to college and spent most of my out of class time doing math problems.  Once I realized Math is very logical and just learning rules things clicked for me......... Ended up with A's in Calc and Differential Equations but it was hard work and practice.  There are awesome free tutorial resources on the internet to help if you don't understand a concept. I am trying to teach my daughter to try this first before I help her and the internet has really helped her figure stuff out.

Also recommend not spending a lot of time on any one problem on your test. If you get stuck move on to the next and come back later to try to figure out what you did wrong. 

Good luck on your test and try not to stress....when you start to stress you need to WOOSAH!! 

 

[john lennon]

Thanks! Failed my exam today but I'm retaking it in march so now all I've got to do is study hard. 

[CHRISSY]

all great advice, keep at it until you just suddenly 'get it'

That's what happened with me, one day it just all clicked, it's learning the rules

good luck

[KiraMPD]

That's unfortunate... For the resit in March - start doing one mock exam a day, 3 weeks before the exam. That should give you enough time to revise and it'll still be fresh in your mind.

Edited December 13, 2017 by KiraMPD
grammar - I was obviously drunk when I wrote this...