We have written many study and revision tips for studying Mathematics, today we collate ALL the powerful ways you can do Math revision effectively. Here are 14 ways on how to do math revision effectively.
Maths Revision: 14 Proven Ways to Improve Your Grades
- 1. Plan ahead and schedule your revision session
- 2. Use of effective scientific study methods
- 3. Do past year papers
- 4. Do past papers under timed conditions and examination settings
- 5. Review your past year papers in chapters instead of as a whole
- 6. Familiarize yourself with the Formula Sheet
- 7. Knowing what your calculator is capable of doing
- 8. Understanding derivation of certain formulas
- 9. Review your mistakes, understand them and correct them
- 10. Aim for mastery
- 11. Focus on Weaker Topics
- 12. Getting ample rest
- 13. Knowing when to seek help from teachers and friends
- 14. Work through questions with your friends
1. Plan ahead and schedule your revision session
Having a plan will help you to better visualize the amount of study and revision you need to complete. Aim to cover one to three chapters (or more) depending on your time and schedule per study session. Make sure to have a clear plan of what you are intending to study in your next study session. Is it going over your mistakes? Are you starting revision for a new chapter? Are you making notes for the chapter?
“Good Planning is half the battle”.
Tutopiya has designed and created our own study planner printables for students to use digitally or print out as a physical copy. Click here to find all the study planner designs!
2. Use of effective scientific study methods
There are several proven scientific study methods that are recommended by experts and they are namely the Active Recall and Spaced Repetition study methods.
Active Recall is essentially the ability to retrieve information from your brain without any referring. This method is useful because it helps students to analyze and train their brains to spot cues in the questions and retrieve the necessary formulas. A good example would be seeing a question that is asking you to find the volume of a cylinder. You should be able to easily retrieve the formula in your head and that is an example of active recall.
Students can practice active recall when doing practices and limiting themselves from referring to the answers.
Spaced Repetition is timing your revision and study sessions to help your brain organize and build muscle memory around the information.
Read more here: 9 Most Powerful Study Techniques For Exams & How To Choose What Fits You Best
3. Do past year papers
Past year papers are a great way to test your current knowledge and understanding. It also provides insight into how the exam paper format is like. Additionally, past year papers serve as a practice.
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4. Do past papers under timed conditions and examination settings
When you are done doing 2 or 3 past year papers, you can start to do the rest in timed conditions and examination settings. This helps to familiarize yourself with the examination mood and when accustomed, it is less unlikely that you will panic during the examination day itself.
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Doing past year papers under timed conditions also helps students to gauge their speed of answering questions, find out how much time they usually spend working on different sections, and find out if you need to quicken your pace to have sufficient time to complete and check the paper.
5. Review your past year papers in chapters instead of as a whole
When you are done going through all your past year’s papers, review them again but this time in chapters sequence. Meaning, find all the questions that for example related to speed, time, and distance and practice them again. This way you will be able to see if you have grasped the concept of the topic or not. You will be able to find the topics and concepts that you are confident and strong in as well as topics that you are weaker in.
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Then, you can spend the next few revision sessions focusing on your weaker concepts and quickly close up your knowledge gap.
6. Familiarize yourself with the Formula Sheet
In any math examinations, there will be at least some sort of formula sheet for students to refer to. The formula sheet is the only thing that students have access to outside of the examination hall, which is why students should make full use of it.
Learn More – SAT Math: Comprehensive Formula Sheet
Learn to refer to the formula sheet when doing practice and if you want, you can even make notes on the formula sheet. You can write formulas that are not given. After a long time of referring to your formula sheet, you may remember what you have written on the formula sheet and replicate it when you are in the examination hall which is a total life savior!
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7. Knowing what your calculator is capable of doing
As we advance into higher education, we are allowed to bring in more advanced calculators. More often than not, we do not actually know how to use its advanced features which can be really helpful and beneficial during examinations. One example would be using calculators to do matrix calculations. Imagine having to work out a 3 by 3 matrix multiplication!
Know more – 7 Maths Calculator Skills You Didn’t Know Your Calculator Can Do!
You can learn how to make use of your calculator by searching the model of your calculator on YouTube, there are plenty of tutorials to teach you these useful functions.
Here are a few calculator tutorials:
8. Understanding derivation of certain formulas
It may seem tedious and challenging as the majority of us simply find it easy to apply formulas instead of learning them. However, learning the derivation or even the gist of the formula can give you an upper hand. You can ask your teachers or tutor to explain the derivation or search it up on YouTube.
9. Review your mistakes, understand them and correct them
The mathematics subject requires a lot of practice to master. Hence, only by doing problems and seeking out your mistakes, you will be able to learn. Do not be afraid of your mistakes, you should try to understand them and correct them as soon as possible. Look at sample problems and understand how they solve the question. Alternatively, you can always seek help from your fellow friends or teachers when stuck.
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10. Aim for mastery
The mathematics subject is more than just knowing the steps to solve a particular problem, it is fundamental for many other subjects. The concepts that we learn in mathematics are universal and applicable to subjects like Physics and Chemistry. Hence, we need to have a strong foundation to excel in other subjects.
Additionally, the concepts in Maths are usually built on previously learned knowledge. In other words, having a strong foundation at the beginning will help you to better transition to other future topics and concepts.
This way, you can not only do your math revision effectively, you are essentially preparing and building a sturdy foundation for what lies ahead.
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11. Focus on weaker topics
Knowing where your weakness lies is a great advantage. You should not fear your weaker topics but embrace them and work on them more often. Working on weaker topics is often dreadful as it requires more brain muscles to work through the problems. Whereas our stronger topics are often light as a feather as we have already built up enough muscle memory to do with ease.
Hence, to overcome your weaker topics in maths, you should work through your mistakes, be curious and ask questions. And most importantly, you should keep practicing and doing questions to get better at it.
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12. Getting ample rest
Our brains need the rest to better store information and perform during the day. Without good rest, it causes students to be restless and hence causes the inefficiency of storing information. Additionally, a student’s attention span will be compromised due to the lack of good rest. Secondly, sleeping helps the brain to consolidate the information you have processed during the day which is crucial for learning new information.
Recommended Read – 9 Hidden and Effective Study Hacks That Nobody Would Tell You!
13. Knowing when to seek help from teachers and friends
If you feel that you are struggling and lagging behind, it is okay to speak up about it and seek help. Whether you are lagging behind academically or not feeling well emotionally, always know that you can seek help and help will always be there for you.
If you are struggling academically, you can consider getting help from an experienced teacher or tutor. They will know how to help you and get you back on track as soon as possible. At Tutopiya, our tutors have been screened and trained to provide our students with the best learning experiences. Contact our experts today to find out more!
If you are struggling emotionally, always know that you are not alone and it is okay to feel those emotions. Reach out to anybody (which includes us!) if you ever need somebody. BetterHelp is also a great platform for those who are struggling.
Learn More from Tutopiya Learning Platform
14. Work through questions with your friends
Doing practice papers can be tedious and dreadful alone, a good way to enrich your learning is to practice and work through questions with your friends. This way, you will be able to receive help and give a helping hand to your struggling friends. It will be fun and enriching for you and your friends.
In a nutshell, these are some powerful ways every student can learn to adopt to do math revision effectively.
