• feel NERVOUS before a math test?
• PANIC and freeze while taking math tests?
• feel HELPLESS doing your homework?
• think that it’s HOPELESS – you just don’t get math, never will, so there’s no sense even trying?

I read everything, now what?

Nervous Nights  Stomach-churning head-spinning sleepless nights can be a sign of math anxiety. Try these simple ideas to help you relax and wake up feeling in charge.

1. Study – OK, that sounds dumb. Of course you should study. Check out these study tips. But look at #2…

2. Don’t study too much! Spending too much time going over and over the same stuff won’t help and will just overwhelm you.

3. Calm those fears by treating yourself with calmness. Try to have a set routine – knowing that you ALWAYS eat oatmeal on test days might just help. Go to bed on time. In the morning, eat breakfast, put on your lucky sweater (really! it works!), and pack yourself a treat for lunch.

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Test… Brain… Freeze… Panic OK – you studied, got a good nights sleep and are wearing the lucky sweater. You get to class and forget your name. What to do now?

1. Remember your name. No, really – just think of something that you DO know is the first step in remembering all those lost formulas.

2. Unfreeze your mind by unfreezing your body. Give yourself a quick stretch (don’t get up and do jumping jacks, OK?) and tell yourself you are OK. Take a deep breath and try to break the cycle of the panic.

3. Work around the panic by finding something on the test that you can do. Gain confidence and then go back and finish the rest of the problems. Keep going on the ones you can do, then go back and try the others. You might be surprised to find that you can now tackle them with ease.

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Where are the Homework Elves? Yes, we agree, it would be nice if the homework elves came in the middle of the night to do your homework, but that hasn’t happened yet (to us, anyway). So try these tips when you find yourself wishing for them.

1. Draw a picture. Try a new way. Talk it out. Sometimes just telling someone else about the problem can help break that mental block. Drawing and talking use different parts of your brain than the math-oriented parts – let your brain help you out!

2. Jump on it. If you are leaving your math homework until last you may be too tired to tackle it. Do it first, even if it isn’t your favorite.

3. Totally stuck? Take a break – then go back to work (funny how we forget the last part…). Even doing a different problem can help you get the gears moving again.

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1. Ask for help. There are lots of people around who can help if you just ask. Find a tutor or ask your teacher.

2. If the help isn’t working, change it! It’s OK to try a different way.

3. Try to remember if there was a particular incident related to math that was unpleasant. Sometimes a bad early experience can lead to a general feeling of anxiety about all math, which can lead to stronger feelings without realizing the cause. Sometimes just recalling and talking about the first incident can help you deal with the anxiety.

Now what? Math anxiety can be overcome. It’s a matter of admitting that it is something you want to get over and working on it. Here are two more suggestions:

1. Check out Ask Dr. Math. Dr. Math has been busy answering questions from students just like you about all sorts of subjects. Looking at these questions might help you feel a little less alone in the universe!

2. Math isn’t all tests and problems, either. Finding things you like about math can help make you feel better, too. Check out the Wonders of Math and Puzzles sections for the amazing math found in art, puzzles, and games.

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Don’t just work out a problem. Draw pictures and diagrams of a process and make up stories to go along with them. If you are an auditory learner you may want to make brief recordings of yourself defining some terms or processes.

• Auditory Learning Tips
• Tactile Learning Tips
• Visual Learning Tips

Read actively.

Use sticky note flags to mark important things in your chapter or things you need to ask about in class. If you have a sample problem that you’ve worked out and you’d like to have similar problems for additional practice, mark it with a flag and ask the teacher in class.

Read the end of your assigned chapter first. Take a look at the problems you’ll be solving to get a preview of your goals. This gives your brain a framework to work with.

Make flashcards for terms.

Flashcards are good for visual and tactile learners. They reinforce information as you see it and as you create it with your own hand.

Use college prep study guides.

If you can’t find an old textbook to use in addition to your class text, try using an SAT, ACT, or CLEP study guide. They often provide great explanations and sample problems. You can also find free online study guides for these tests.

Take breaks.

If you come across a problem that you don’t understand, read it over a few times and try—but then walk away from it and make a sandwich or do some other small task (not other homework). Your brain will continue to work on the problem subconsciously.

Study Tips for Math In Class

Review yesterday’s notes before class.

In the minutes before class starts, look over notes from yesterday. Determine if there are any sample problems or concepts you should ask about.

Record lectures.

If the teacher allows it, record your class. You will often find that you miss small steps in your notes or you don’t quite pick up on an explanation that the teacher gives. A class recording will pick up everything. Auditory learners will really benefit from listening.

Remember, just because your math class lasts 45 minutes, don’t think you’re going to end up with 45 minutes of lecture to listen to. You’ll find that the actual talking time is about 15 minutes.

Ask for extra sample problems.

Ask your teacher to solve sample problems. That’s a teacher’s job! Don’t let a topic go by if you don’t get it. Don’t be shy.

Draw anything the teacher draws.

If the teacher makes a drawing on the board, you should always copy it. Even if you don’t think it’s important at the time or you don’t understand it at the time. You will!

Study Tips for Math Tests

Review old tests.

Old tests are the best clues to future tests. They are good for establishing a strong foundation for the newer information, but the also provide insight as to how the teacher thinks.

Practice neatness.

How unfortunate would it be to miss a test question out of sloppiness? It’s important to make sure you can line up problems neatly so you don’t confuse yourself, and also to make sure you can tell your sevens from your ones.

Find a study partner.

You’ve heard it before, but it’s worth repeating. A study partner can test you and help you understand things you can’t get on your own.

Understand the process.

You sometimes hear that it doesn’t matter how you come up with the right answer, just as long as you get there. This is not always true. You should always strive to understand an equation or a process.

Is it logical?

As you work out a story problem, always give your answer the logic test. For example, if you are asked to find the speed of a car traveling between two distances, you are probably in trouble if your answer is 750 mph.

Apply the logic test as you study so you don’t repeat a faulty process during your test.

1. Read what the instructor will be lecturing on before you go to class.

   Read slowly. Reading mathematics is not like reading a novel or even history. Speed reading techniques are not appropriate. Every word and symbol is important to the meaning. Do not skip the symbolic part of the text. This is often the most important part. If you do not understand a symbol, look in the glossary or in the earlier part of the text. Symbols are often explained when they are first introduced. If you still can not find out what a symbol means, ASK!

   Read with a pencil in hand. Every time the author does a problem, do it on your own—either before or after you read his or her explanation. This makes sure you know what steps have been shown and, more importantly, which ones were omitted.

   If there is something you do not understand, try to formulate a question about it. Often if you can ask a specific question, you can answer it yourself. If you can’t answer it, you know what part of the instructor’s lecture requires your complete attention. Your question is ready if the lecture does not clear up your misunderstanding.

2. Understand the concepts.

   Don’t be satisfied with vague ideas about how to work problems. Do the examples yourself, understand the concept illustrated, then try making up your own examples. Keep in mind that the questions on the exam may be very different from the example in the book.

3. Practice.
   
   Be sure you understand the concepts before you practice. Then practice will help you remember and give you confidence in your mastery. Force yourself to remember the methods as you work problems; don’t look back in the book.

4. Keep up with assignments (whether they are graded or not).

   The pace is much faster in college and keeping up to date with assignments helps you to better understand what is going on in class.

   Mathematics is not a spectator sport. The only way you can learn mathematics is by doing it. Following are some suggestions for getting the most out of the time you spend on homework.

   1. Understand the purpose of homework. Homework in mathematics classes is assigned to help you understand certain concepts and to help you build certain skills. Homework is not assigned to you because it is important to get the right answers. Your instructor already knows the answers.
   2. Try to understand the process, not the specific problem. Classify problems in the assignment by problem type. Although this is often done for you by the directions, it is not always. Do each assigned problem and then check it in the back of the book. Try to figure out why you missed the ones you did instead of just working toward the answer. A similar problem may be on a test or quiz.
   3. Mark homework problems you still do not understand and get help with them before the next class. The next lecture may build on a concept or skill you did not understand in the homework. When you do get help, make notes on what you learned, so that you can study them for the test.
   4. Before closing the book, look back over the assignment and try to explain to yourself what the assignment was about, what each kind of problem was asking, how you got the answers and what the answers tell you. This process will help you understand the material and will help you discover what you don’t understand.

   5. Keep your homework in a convenient and neat notebook so that you will be able to find questions or difficulties you have quickly and easily. This will also provide an invaluable study guide for tests.

5. Ask questions.

   Do not hesitate to ask questions. Ask your instructor for help after you have tried to pull class notes and textbook explanations together for review and still don’t understand. Write down specific problems so you have them ready; don’t be vague and say you just don’t understand.

6. Don’t hesitate.

   Get help right away. Tutoring and help sessions are available. The longer you wait before getting help, the harder it will be to get caught up. Most of the time when you feel lost, it is just one concept that you are missing, so get help quickly. One missed concept in a math class will make the rest of your math career a hardship. Don’t feel embarrassed to ask questions and get help; even the best mathematicians have felt completely lost at some point.

Suggestions for Preparing for and Taking Math Tests

1. Keep a list of things to remember – problems stressed by the instructor, definitions, terms, diagrams and graphs, formulas.

2. Keep up with the work – some courses can be passed by cramming, but math isn’t one of them. Skills in math, as in sports, must be practiced.

3. Study copies of old exams, chapter tests from the book, or make up your own. Then practice them with the same limits as the real exam.

4. Get a good night’s sleep before the test so that you are rested and alert; a quick review before the test should be a summary only.

5. Arrive at the test early so that you can be relaxed when the exam begins.

6. Quickly look over the test and budget your time – don’t spend too much time on any single problem or section of the test.

7. Do some work on each problem – try to work at least part of each problem because partial credit is better than none.

8. Check your answers and look for careless mistakes during the last few minutes of your test time (budget this important time).

    

   Suggestions for Word Problems

Solving problems is a practical art, like swimming or playing the piano; you can only learn it by imitation and practice. There is no magic key that opens all doors and solves all problems. The major goal in solving word problems is to translate the written words into a mathematical equation that we know how to solve.

1. Read the problem for a general sense of what it is about; sometimes putting it into your own words will help.

2. Then reread it to pick out specific information:

   1. What you are asked to find? Usually you choose a variable to represent one unknown and other unknowns will be represented in terms of the first.

   2. What information is given? Make a list, then organize it into a diagram, picture, or chart.

   3. What are the relationships among the information given and the information to be found? Sometimes it helps to think of similar problems from arithmetic and the formulas needed there.

3. Translate the information into an equation – get into the habit of doing this for easy problems. The longer problems will not seem as difficult.

4. Solve the equation you have written and label your answer – then find any other quantities to be found.

5. Return to the original problem and check your answer(s). Do they make sense in the original problem and answer the question posed in the problem.