Dear troubled (or not) math student,
As someone who has taken an insane amount of math tests in the past 17 years and done...um decently well in them, I think I am somewhat qualified to answer your question. However, as of now, my abilities will be determined by you *imagine a finger pointing out of the screen right at you*. No pressure ;).
I have a few simple steps (that usually work for me) to help you study for your next math test, and get a score just like the score in the picture above!
STEP 1: ORGANIZE YOUR NOTES
This step is very crucial! While it may seem tempting to just jump straight into the review problems, you need to make sure you’ve consolidated all the information you’ve learned. Go through all the notes you’ve taken in previous classes (I assume you’ve been taking notes? 👀👀), and make one big pdf/word doc/paper/whatever you use of everything that will be included in the test.
After you’re done, identify a few areas that you struggle with and keep those in mind as you move onto step 2! IF YOU DON’T HAVE ANY, well...this applies to you too.
STEP 2: DO PROBLEMS
If you have an IB math test, then the most important thing to do is to FIND PAST PAPER PROBLEMS and DO THEM! Not only will this help you prepare for the similar types of questions that will appear on your test, but most importantly shhhh *whispers*, your teachers sometimes use past paper questions on your actual test ;).
If you’re not an IB student, that’s a bit tougher...However, there are plenttyyyyyyyyyy of resources on the internet. Yes, I know right, isn’t the internet great :).
Nevertheless, whether you’re an IB student or not, if your teacher has provided you with review problems, DO THEM! The review problems that are given to you are normally around the same level of difficulty as the problems on the test. Of course....there are a select few of teachers who either give insanely hard review questions and insanely easy tests OR (the eviler thing) insanely easy review questions and insanely hard tests. I won’t name them...but just be aware. Perhaps talk to an older student or two?
STEP 3: GRIND MORE PROBLEMS
Yes, I’m aware that this step is similar to step 2, but, I thought separating the steps was necessary. :) The key point here is the GRIND problems that are about concepts you find hard or just annoying (aka. Euler’s method, ugh). I know this is the last thing you want to do as it’s just so burdening on your mental state, BUT you don’t have a choice. Time is of the essence! (during a math test)
STEP 4: REVIEW
Finally yayyy last step! At this point, you should be fully confident in all the concepts and problem types that may appear, unless your teacher decides to give you a wildcard (just pray that doesn’t happen). If you aren’t confident, go back to STEP 3 and do more problems (sorry :( ).
To review, you should refer back to the big pdf/word doc/paper/whatever you use that you created in STEP 1. Make sure you haven’t left out any concepts and have reviewed everything! If you need to memorize any definitions or formulas, this is a good time to do so as well!
Well, that’s it for now. I hope this was helpful! GOOD LUCK ON YOUR TEST!
Best,
Your hopefully very successful math advice giver
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