How to minimise silly errors (1 Viewer)

[xibu34]

How do you make sure that you don't make heaps of silly errors ? I've been losing about 15-20 marks on every paper because I write a number or sign wrong even when I've done the entire process correctly with full working.

 

[AsuTeksu]

Is this under timed conditions? How long does it take you to finish a paper? How much time is there left on the clock?

 

[xibu34]

Is this under timed conditions? How long does it take you to finish a paper? How much time is there left on the clock?

Under timed conditions, I usually finish a paper on the dot

 

[AsuTeksu]

Under timed conditions, I usually finish a paper on the dot

Does that mean you don't have time to go over your working?

 

[JiffyVFX]

going trough ur working is the best to minimise silly mistakes and when u do practice papers see if theres a common silly mistake that u make and focus on that. setting out your working neatly is also important so u dont accidently confuse yourself. breaking it down into smaller steps in your working can also help

 

[carrotsss]

Make a mistakes book, consciously acknowledge each mistake you make and then write every single one in there (even duplicates)

 

[xibu34]

the best way to minimise mistake is to write every single step in detail, usually mistakes occur when you do calculations in your head to skip a couple lines of working, there's no harm in writing out each line. At every step you should also do a really quick mental check/calculation that does the step you've made from the previous line to the current line make sense.

For example this question: Find the derivative of 3x(x^2 + 5x + 6)

I'm going to write something like this:

y = 3x(x^2) + 3x(5x) + 3x(6)

y = 3x^4 + 15x^2 + 18x <- at this step you should now reflect that does this step make sense when I do it in my head, the numbers look right but uh oh I added an extra power when I shouldn't have

y = 3x^3 + 15x^2 + 18x <- rectified step

y' = 9x^2 + 15x + 18 <- now I'm derivating, I'm going to do a mental calculation in my head, does 3x3 = 9?, yes it does, does 15 x 2 = 15?, oh no it doesn't oops, I'll need to fix that

y' = 9x^2 + 30x + 18 <- rectified step

Do you ever run out of time when writing all of the working ?

 

[xibu34]

Make a mistakes book, consciously acknowledge each mistake you make and then write every single one in there (even duplicates)

I have been doing this a lot recently for every paper I do and it has helped for some errors on specific types of questions, but it seems in general I just zone out and make stupid mistakes

 

[xibu34]

Does that mean you don't have time to go over your working?

I do sometimes, but I have this obsession where I'll read my working over and over again even though I know it's right which leads to me wasting time on easy questions

 

[AsuTeksu]

I do sometimes, but I have this obsession where I'll read my working over and over again even though I know it's right which leads to me wasting time on easy questions

As you know, there isn't much time left till the Maths Adv HSC, but if you can, aim to try and get the question right the first time you attempt it and skip questions you know will take you a long time, as people always say. Try and have at least a good 30mins left on the clock, it'll give you time to check over everything and reattempt questions if need be.

I found that having at least 30mins left stopped me from making silly mistakes

 

[p711]

I do sometimes, but I have this obsession where I'll read my working over and over again even though I know it's right which leads to me wasting time on easy questions

genuinely this is so relatable, ive fked up so much in my internals from just the most retarded mistakes and then i read over Q11 stuff whilst doing the test. ik its gonna be hard but for me ive been focusing more on calming my nerves and trying to write legit every step known to mankind cause that is what my teacher told me to do and nothing else has been working. time has never been a problem for me but rather its me being biased when i finished a paper. i just assume certain calcs are right when they really are not. so my advice just calm yourself, and write every step. other than that u just gotta pray that something stupid doesn't happen

 

[AsuTeksu]

genuinely this is so relatable, ive fked up so much in my internals from just the most retarded mistakes and then i read over Q11 stuff whilst doing the test. ik its gonna be hard but for me ive been focusing more on calming my nerves and trying to write legit every step known to mankind cause that is what my teacher told me to do and nothing else has been working. time has never been a problem for me but rather its me being biased when i finished a paper. i just assume certain calcs are right when they really are not. so my advice just calm yourself, and write every step. other than that u just gotta pray that something stupid doesn't happen

agree, just show the marker what they wanna see. show them that you know what the question is asking so that even if you don't get the right answer, you get as many marks as you possibly can