Maths is a weird subject to study for. Notes and memorization just don’t seem to help that much, and as my main method of revision has always been writing notes, that’s a problem. Before I continue: Practice questions and past papers are probably always going to be the most effective way to study for maths. However, I have found the following study guide method to be super helpful in revision as a support to doing past papers.
The thing I found super hard about keeping on top of my maths revision is the fact that whilst I might have been on top of a particular topic when we originally studied it in March, by October I was struggling to remember formulae/methods for my exams. Making a personal study guide can help with that, not only because the process of making it serves as consolidation, but it’ll make revision that much quicker.
1. Get a notebook. The one I used came with dividers which were useful for dividing the book into topics and only cost a few dollars from Kmart.
2. Start by creating a heading with the name of the topic, or alternatively, as I did, just label a divider.
3. Write the question type. For example, in the main topic of Series and Sequence, you could group some of the questions into Finding the nth Term of an Arithmetic Series.
4. Write down any applicable formulae and explain them. For example, Tn=a+(n-1)d where a is the first term and d is the common difference. 5. Write down an example of each possible question type with a full solution. I often included ones straight from the textbook and if the question was a difficult one, I’d annotate the solution with tips for solving the question. Include any applicable diagrams which helped you solve the question.
I would recommend creating the guide as you learn the content - you could use it as a form of weekly revision to update your maths guide. Now, once revision comes around, you’ll have a concise revision guide with full solutions to the questions you found most difficult, without having to search through textbooks and class notes.
Oh and quick disclaimer - the photos I’ve included are of notes I took two years ago when I was doing year 12 maths and I haven’t checked if my solutions are accurate, it’s just as an example of how I used my notes :)
Other study tips: Revising using Reading/Writing What I Learned about how to Study in Year 12
