Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Mathematics/2020 May 1

= May 1 =

Passing maths
How can you pass maths, it's my last year in school and my only obstacle from getting an A* in my exams is Maths?--RazorTheDJ (talk) 10:10, 1 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Love it. HiLo48 (talk) 11:15, 1 May 2020 (UTC)


 * Practice makes perfect. Reflect on what kind of mistakes you make, and learn from that how to avoid them. There is no Royal Road to mathematics. --Lambiam 11:31, 1 May 2020 (UTC)


 * You should study math and master it at a far higher level than the exam requirements. This works well because the level of math taught at school is way below the level schoolchildren are capable of mastering. It's completely analogous to physical education in school which is doable for the average couch potato. This means that everyone in school who is not a heart or lung patient can do way better. What then happens is that the average fitness of the school children will decline and then those couch potato level school exercises will feel like quite demanding. The same is true for math. If it looks like difficult, then that's because you've been dumbed down by the low level of math education. The solution is therefore to start to learn real math from real math books that are typically written for university students. Count Iblis (talk) 00:59, 3 May 2020 (UTC)


 * The remaining time to the exam may make this impractical. Depending on the type of exam questions and grading system, there may also be a risk. I have had low marks for solutions of maths tests, not because there was anything wrong with them, mathematically speaking, but because I had not used the method that we had been taught. --Lambiam 19:05, 3 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Mathematics teachers, of all people, should recognise that all valid solutions to a given problem are equally valid. One may be more or less elegant or efficient than another, but that ought to be of secondary importance, unless the test is specifically about the particular method. --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  20:17, 3 May 2020 (UTC)
 * In an ideal world, yes. The keyword here is "should". --Lambiam 09:34, 4 May 2020 (UTC)