How To Be Good At Maths?

How many times, dealing with trigonometry and quadratic equations have you lamented, ‘Maths you will be the death of me’! We hope we would wake up with a superpower one day, just like Spiderman had got his Spidey Sense. But that power would be to find out angles and the value of x in a jiffy! Souls-like us go through different stages of depression, induced by maths. ‘I can’t do just this topic, so I’m unhappy’ stage, ‘I can’t solve problems from several topics, so I’m morose’ stage and finally ‘maths isn’t for dumb people like me’ stage. 

Maths though is not about depression but dedication and practice. If you realize and work on that thought your battle is half won. Read on to become familiar with ways to concentrate on maths and get useful tips to excel in maths. 

Absorb the Fundamentals

Maths is one of those subjects where you don’t have to learn lines and lines to know a concept. Formulas and theorems are your concepts. Pick one at a time. Turn it over. Play with it. Solve problems related to it to understand why and how it works? Take one principle at a time only. Get it right. Go back to it, again and again. You wouldn’t be good at maths at a later stage if you don’t understand the principles well. It is a subject to be done in a systematic way. Otherwise you will find your efforts wasted.

Analyse and Practice

Making mistakes means you are learning. So don’t let them bog you down. Go back to your mistakes, inspect like a teacher. Figure out why you made it and how to avoid it the next time. Embrace them and then conquer them!

And there is no denying the truth that practice and practice alone can get you better scores. Practice time can be allotted daily. Don’t slog for hours as that would make it stressful and your mind would not be able to handle it after a point. No mathematician was born as being amazing at the subject. Practice and accepting challenges while learning is what got them there. So pull up your socks, devise a schedule, and get to it at the allotted time daily.

Focus on Weak Areas

It is human nature to enjoy doing what you are good at and procrastinate things that aren’t your forte. But in maths, you can’t neglect a topic and work on the other. It is a field where one principle affects the other. An exam also will test you for all the topics and not just what you prefer. The more you find yourself averse to geometry the more you must work on it. No doubt, you will realize, the concept isn’t that difficult to like anymore. And you might even end up teaching it to others!

Avoid Distractions

Easy right? Nope, it isn’t. At the moment you decide to do it, you will have a number of distractions cropping up. It’s like the universe doesn’t want you to study! So what do you do? Put away that phone, better still keep it in silent mode. Switch off the TV and find a quiet corner for yourself. The lockout that annoying sibling from the room. You would be surprised how all this will go a long way in helping you.

Get Help

There is no shame in asking for assistance to decipher a rule or resolve doubts. Get help from your teacher, friend, family member, or neighbor. In today’s world of online education, there are many platforms offering help in mathematics. 

Edulyte, for one, is such a portal, where maths can be comprehended and mastered in innovative ways with the help of highly qualified and patient faculty. With in-house resources and the latest tech tools, maths is no longer boring on Edulyte.

Discover Mental Maths:

Yes, we were forced to do that in primary classes, but embrace it now. Scan through it and you will realize that mental maths tricks make calculations easy and not to forget, exciting. All the techniques can be practiced while you are taking a walk to the fridge for a snack or helping out around the house. There are many methods you can pick up like:

Multiplying 5 times any number

When multiplying the number 5 by an even number, there is a quick way to find the answer.

For example, 5 x 6 = ___________

• Step 1: Take the number being multiplied by 5 and cut it in half, this makes the number 6 become number 3.
• Step 2: Add a zero to the number to find the answer. In this case, the answer is 30.

5 x 6 = 30

When multiplying an odd number times 5, the formula is a bit different.

For instance, consider 5 x 7= __________

• Step 1: Subtract one from the number being multiplied by 5, in this instance the number 7 becomes the number 6.
• Step 2: Now halve the number 6, which makes it the number 3. Make 5 the last digit. The number produced is 35, which is the answer.

5 x 7 = 35

Work on your Attitude:

Psychologists have rightly said our attitudes and thoughts are not always changed by situational pressures, but they can be consciously altered by our own free will. Many of us do feel that maths isn’t for us, how we aren’t capable of doing it. But like any other skill in life, from playing football to cooking, it is the approach that matters. 

Negative thoughts of “I would not be able to understand it” should be replaced with “ I can do it”. Constant de-motivating thoughts will pull you back and not allow you to improve or work on your mistakes. A positive attitude will.

Look around… everything is influenced by maths. From the daily commute to school or work to monthly budget planning, from Google’s algorithm to get you your search results to calculate the path of a rocket.… it’s all numbers and calculations. Even those who suffer from maths-related anxiety or try to run from it cannot escape from the application of mathematics in their daily life. Scratch the surface and you will be in awe of maths. It is not just a school subject that you dread. Proficiency in maths can open many doors for you. Wrap your head around it and it is fun!

Without mathematics, there’s nothing you can do. Everything around you is mathematics. Everything around you is numbers–Shakuntala Devi was right when she said this.

If you want to assimilate maths and enjoy its applications, you can Register for free with Edulyte and benefit from its extensive experience in maths education. Join our online Maths classes today and you can avail yourself of special discounts!