A Scottish novelist once said, “For success, attitude is equally as important as ability.” If you want to succeed in your math classes and earn an “A+” grade, keep an “A+” attitude by staying positive and being willing to work hard, even in challenging moments.
Conquering mathematics can be tough, but with a positive outlook and willingness to put forth your best effort, you can do well. As you prepare for your math class, consider the following:
- Math is not a spectator sport! To do well in math, you need to actively participate in EVERY class. You have to do ALL the homework. You have to ask questions, revise your mistakes, and solve problems upon problems upon EVEN MORE problems.
Practicing solving math problems is the only way you can learn to correctly solve math problems. Practice builds success, success builds confidence, and confidence conquers “math anxiety”.
- You have to understand the principles. Memorizing formulas and theorems is not enough. You have to understand HOW and WHY they work in order to use them appropriately. Math is not just numbers; you have to be able to explain the concepts in words, as well.
- Math builds upon math. In order to understand higher level math you have to understand basic math. You can’t understand algebra without prealgebra, or calculus without precalculus. Nor can you understand Thursday’s class if you skipped out on Tuesday’s.
Good luck!
You can do well in any math class if you
Attend every class and pay attention
Do all the homework
Get extra help when you need it and
Practice, practice, practice.
