11 Ways to Survive the Math Blues

“Math Blues”, in slang, refers to the state of sadness or anxiety caused by the rigorous requirement of the course due to which learner may feel frustrated and may go hard on himself in order to perform well. In the current high-tech world, mathematics is the course of necessity to excel as it has spread across other sciences and became a hallmark for efficacy in different fields.

• The following are some of the effective ways through which one can survive ‘math blues”.

1. Observe The Bigger Picture

Identify the purpose behind doing mathematics and how it is different or may sound interesting in comparison to other subjects such as science, English, geography etc. It is importance to find the knowledge base of mathematics as it holds universal value and is compulsory across a number of fields to be selected in future. Thus, establishing the strong foundation of its worth and necessity can help in refraining from a wrong judgment about the course that it is just ordinary requirement to be met.

2. Comprehensive Understanding

It is considered in the psychological knowledge that the best way to register the learned concepts in mind for the effective memory and recall is to study the given idea in detail from different sources. In this way, the neurons will spark and link up the ideas for the better recall as well as for conceptual understanding. Thus, mathematics is also one such field which requires strong grounds of prior knowledge to establish heaps of new concepts, otherwise it is easily unmemorable.

3. Use Multiple Resources

Sometimes, the explanation from teacher couldn’t be followed or the bookish knowledge may not be easily comprehendible by the learner. For this, it is recommended to consult a few other textbooks with similar concepts as originals’ and give it a read to find better material on the given topic. The textbooks which use visuals, sample examples, diagrams and test yourself exercise can help in grasping in-depth understanding and excellence.

4. Avoid Blame Game

Blaming is only initially easy; later it calls for a lot of troubles with unrecoverable consequences. Mathematics itself, is a rigorous course which is difficult to teach and requires extra hard work to learn and to attempt better in assessment. Therefore, blaming the external circumstances such as topic, teacher or personal choice may not help in dealing with its blues. Its better to take the responsibility of your behaviors and grades for the bright future ahead!

5. Practice, Practice and Practice!

No expertise could be ever developed in a newly learned skill without slogging away and practicing it frequently. It’s a journey of knowing, understanding, practicing, testing and repeat. Interestingly, mathematics can be done at any place, any time and does not require any controlled environment-free from any distractions. Practice makes a man skilled, better performer and more tolerant! This is what the course of mathematics require.

6. Time Management

It is wise to take the note of upcoming homework assignment beforehand to avoid time anxiety near the submission date. As it is said, “no one plans to fail, but some fail to plan”, this is quite evident in mathematics since students are habitual to piling up and procrastinating in doing the homework task, thinking; “these are a few questions, I can do them anytime”. Thus, again practice can help in managing time for homework tasks which will be useful in assessment too.

The assessment of the subject may cause poor time-management if there’s no or weakened practice of the concepts as well as to solve them in less time.

7. Never Give-up!

Mathematics could be overwhelming at some point, when all the calculations are going wrong, frequent attempts may not lead to right answers which can cause extreme state of stress and poor self-esteem. Here, it is wise to take a break, improve your energy through food or music and get back to it when you feel any better. Giving up is not the solution; therefore, give in to perform well in the school and field.

8. Avoid Missing Class

Missing the class of mathematics can aggravate your inability to handle the course. If one concept is missed by the learner, it gets difficult to quickly digest the next. It is because, sometimes, a single exercise may have a variety of problems to solve to tap the students’ brain to think out of the box. For mathematics, absents are like punishments because each brings mostly a huge loss of pace and confidence on one’s understanding and command on the concepts.

9. Choose a Study Partner

Choosing a study pattern who works hard and smart to learn mathematics can bring positive outcomes. Working on mutual needs to improve can help in building confidence on one’s knowledge and helps in reflecting onto the areas of strengths. Sharing, notes, discussions and textbooks can help in reciprocating the knowledge. Moreover, it has also observed that learning from another student could develop better understanding because they share same mental/intellectual level and can make sense of what could the other one may find difficult to understand.

10. Know Your Syllabus

It is crucial to give a read to the syllabus of mathematics course to establish an expectation regarding the learning outcomes. Read in the beginning as well as periodically during the semester. This may result in creating clarity about the nature of evaluation for the course such as class attendance, graded class participation, graded short quizzes, graded sessional tasks etc. Keeping the calendar fix according to these tasks and projects in order to avoid any inconvenience in future.

11. Accept and Analyze Mistakes

It is impossible to become perfect in any skill; therefore, ignoring the chance to mistake or letting other’s down over any petty mistake is not the solution. The idea of fixing the mistakes and produce the authentic solution to the given problem is appreciated. One should accept the mistakes in the homework tasks and prefer to analyze them to minimize the chance of repeating them.

For this, approach the teachers for the guidance as they are receptive to it and encourage the culture of questioning in classroom. Questions can help in resolving the confusion, if any, and may help those with similar query as these are the vehicles to lean better.