How To-58: "How to Study for a Math Exam"

October 30, 2008 — suriyodayam

How to Study for a Math Exam

from wikiHow – The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Many people try to study for math in the same way they would study for a history exam: by simply memorizing formulas and equations the way they would memorize facts and dates. While knowing these is important, the best way to learn them is by using them. That’s the great thing about math – you can do math. You can’t “do history.”

Steps

  1. Go to class. The more exposure you have to the material, the easier it will be to recall the steps to doing a problem later. Most professors and teachers will do lots of example problems that mimic the problems that will be on exams.
  2. Read the text. Make sure to read all of the text and not just the examples. Text books often include proofs of the formulas that they expect you to know, which will be useful for truly understanding the material and why it works.If you have read the text and tried some of the problems, but still do not understand how to do them, see your professor or teacher. Not only will they show you how to do the problem, but a professor who has seen you before and knows who you are will be more willing to help you in the future, or cut you a little slack if your grade is borderline.
  3. Do homework problems. Most classes have assigned or at least suggested problems that the professor feels are most useful. Doing problems is the most valuable use of your study time. A lot of exam problems are extremely similar to homework problems; sometimes they are even exactly the same.

Tips

  • In all math tests, the toughest questions that you encounter while preparing are the ones asked in the test, prepare by reviewing study guides, other tests, homework, and other papers regarding the things covered before the test
  • Do not rely on your teacher to make you understand a concept or a problem. You will never get it and you might feel that the teacher is being rude by not bringing down the question to your level of understanding. Instead, do it all by yourself, start to finish. Some questions are so tricky, they almost always have to be memorized, so mark them and revise them again and again before an exam so that it is well set in your mind.
  • Start studying while you still have time to go to a professor or teacher for answers if you need to. If you start studying too late, you leave yourself with no options and opportunities to study.
  • It is often useful to understand how a formula is derived rather than just memorizing it. Things will make more sense, and it is often easier to remember just a few simple formulas and how to derive more complicated ones from them.
  • If you can, join a study group. Different people see concepts in different ways. Something that you have difficulty understanding may come easily to a study partner. Having his/her perspective on a concept may help you to comprehend it.
  • Solve problems. In this way, you have the tendency to understand and realize the formulas and the given problems. You can solve the problems that have been given to you. Solve some problems even if you don’t know the answer and let someone check it for you.

    • Warnings

    • Do not just try to find example problems that emulate homework problems. Try to understand why certain steps are taken. If the professor likes to be tricky (many do), knowing the example problems will not be very helpful, but truly understanding the material will.
    • Don’t look up the answer as soon as you get stuck on a problem. Struggling with it for some time will be much more beneficial, even if in the end you need to look up the answer anyway.

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