How to study math and not get angry all the time
1. Read everything and don’t just assume that task A is asking you the same thing as task B you’ve just solved. Don’t skim tasks, or you may end up answering the wrong question.
2. If you have time, write down strategy or formula. It helps a lot to have a reminder in front of your eyes. For instance, sometimes I forget to take the square root out of variance to get standard deviation which I was asked to find - but when I actually take time and write things down, no rushing, I can answer these questions it with ease.
3. If you made a mistake, try to write down every step you have taken instead of checking what you have done wrong. Not only you find the miscalculation faster, you’ll remember the right approach to these types of problems.
4. Double check the units of measurement (e.g., the task was about mL, but you need to give answer in L).
5. Check the logic (can you get the negative number or the whole number as the answer?).
6. Once again: read everything very, very carefully! DO NOT TRY TO ANSWER THE QUESTION IMMEDIATELY.
7. On exam: if you get stuck, skip and try to return to the task later.
8. Stay confident. You may get angry and sad, and call yourself stupid, but after some time, you’ll start to get this stuff and feel pure happiness. Trust me.
9. Do little comments on the margins when you are dealing with formulas and strategy, like # this is important for ____ ; # check the page XX;
10. Youtube is your friend if you have no one to ask for help / you do not want to ask for help. I had a course during my MA which was far too math intense for me, so I watched a lot of videos on calculations behind programming.
11. Do your homework. I stopped doing homework after 5th grade. Now I am almost always get angry at myself when I try to study math for my thesis work, as I don’t remember the simplest things. Don’t be like me.
12. As soon as new formula is introduced, try to remember it.
13. KhanAcademy are the best. Lessons are free, feedback is instant, and everything is structured by topic or grade, which is very helpful.
