academic weapon zone

Well played Merriam-Webster.

hello!!!! thanks for the ask, for credibility of my tips, I was the kid who was never good at math, actively hated it, wanted to drop it when I was in year 6. I was a like 30% - 40% scoring math student [in year 8 & 9], who moved to the high 80%s - 90%s in my last years of high school [year 12 & 13] - to the point I was regularly topping my class, I scored the highest in math out of all my subjects, and I am dreaming of pursuing physics. I did get a wonderful tutor, who helped me a ton in getting better, this is what I learned:

math is seriously mostly just practice & consistency

study 4 hours a week above what you do in school

do not ever give up on a question without attempting it at least thrice - in revision, not an exam of course

the whole point is getting so good at the methods of solving they come naturally to you

as well as analysing what method of solving helps in certain criteria

building math is like building a muscle, it takes consistent effort, you have to build math skills like you would build a muscle in the body, repeatedly, until it feels normal

if you struggle with a topic, give it the most time, - I am not particularly great at mental math, but I have been working on memorising my timetables (yes I am 19 years old) because my brain muddles up the numbers a lot

take your time solving questions, practice the motion of solving it, before trying to go fast - you will naturally speed up the better you get

meditate - staying mindful when doing math helps see clearly & think clearly. mindfulness has helped my problem solving tenfold.

also, it does not matter if you are bad at math, because you can always get better, being bad at something is impermanent, and can always be changed.

you aren't stupid, or dumb for not being as good at math as your peers (this was me, for quite a while). you're just struggling with a subject, which is normal - and you can get better if you work on it!