Hinal Joshi | 
If kids were asked which subject do they struggle with the most, nine out of ten would say ‘math’. Many of us would have wished for there to be some magic potion that would help us become geniuses at math, even if it was just for the day of exam.
Believe me, I was one of them. Math was my weakest subject in school and somehow, it eventually ended up being my favorite subject.
From my own experience, math is not at all a difficult subject. Nobody is born with the special talent of being good with numbers, it’s something we all can learn.
In fact, research proved that every time we make a mistake, synapses in our brain fire and our brain experiences growth, which results in learning. Another interesting thing that researchers found was that people with a growth mindset, who believed that they had unlimited potential and they could learn anything, when they made a mistake, their brains grew more than the people who didn’t believe that they could learn anything. We need to know that our brains are so plastic that they could learn any level of math if we have a growth mindset.
Tips to Improve Math Skills
Here are some of the ways in which you can improve your math skills and will make you fall in love with the subject.
Strengthen your basics
Practice, Practice and Practice:
Review your mistakes:
Get some extra help:
No matter what class you are studying in, if you don’t have conceptual clarity in the basic math skills, you will struggle in solving higher level mathematics problems. For example, if a particular concept such as The Pythagoras’ Theorem isn’t clear to you, it will be difficult for you to solve trigonometry problems. Hence it is very important to that you understand the basic concepts and improve your basic math skills before solving problems of higher level of mathematics.
An easier way to strengthen your basic math skills is to grab your younger sibling’s math books and solve the problems in them.
Understand the why behind every math concept and not just how. Understand why circumference of a circle is measured using 2πr instead of mugging up the formula. When we understand the why behind any concept, it helps us remember them easily and we can apply those concepts in different situation. This way, we look at problems from different perspectives. Working on your basics will help you solve fifty percent of the problems.
Mathademy’s Learn By Concept page can help you in strengthening your basic math skills.
I cannot stress enough on how practicing math on a daily basis will help you improve your math skills to a great extent. Solving math problems is just like playing a sport or playing a musical instrument- it requires practice. The more you practice math, the stronger your muscle memory gets, which eventually makes solving problems a piece of cake.
It is also very important to make sure that you do not keep on practicing the same kind of sums every day. Once you master a particular concept, you need to move on and start solving higher level of problems. In this manner, by gradually increasing the difficulty level, you can grasp the concepts more easily.
It's obvious that you will make mistakes at first when solving math problems. And remember what I said earlier, mistakes help you learn faster.
There is nothing wrong with making mistakes. The more mistakes you make, the faster you learn. It is important that you observe the mistakes you made and make sure you do not repeat the same mistakes.
Instead of asking someone to help you or viewing the solutions in your guide after you attempt something, you should review your mistakes and discover the solutions yourself. Once you understand why the solution is wrong and you try to fix it, you create a deeper level of understanding for that problem rather than relying on readymade solutions.This understanding can be applied to other similar problems, allowing you to develop your own solutions to them. This can be a powerful tool to improve your maths skills, as it gives the opportunity to think critically and develop creative solutions.
There is no doubt that every kid’s brain is different. Some kids understand concepts faster while some need a bit of extra help to grasp the same concepts. There are such children as well who are great at math but lack the motivation to practice it every day. It is beneficial for such kids to have someone sitting beside them to provide personal attention and help them in case they get stuck.
Mathademy specializes in providing private math tutoring for kids who need personal attention and help them improve their math skills to a great extent. Book your FREE Demo with our expert tutors now and get the right math tutor for you.
Lastly, enjoy the process of learning math. There is no other subject that will improve your logical and analytical thinking more than math. Do not get intimidated by difficult problems. If you think you can’t solve it, it becomes much more difficult to solve. Remember, your mind has the ability to learn anything you want. You just have to believe in yourself and be confident about what you are doing.