Actions to improve in Maths Ext 1 (1 Viewer)

[jj_parkour]

Hi,

My school has their prelims in roughly 4 weeks and I'm really concerned for maths ext 1 exam. This whole year I have been consistently average, which can deflated my confidence (which isn't bad but pretty much before Y11 i was in the high 90s) and I really want to improve. When I do practice papers at home, I can usually get through the whole paper (except the hardest question) without making any mistakes and I am pretty happy with my results. However, during the real exam, I feel really anxious and stressed and I just collapse. I panic at the questions, and it takes me a long time to get into a momentum of solving questions but by that time the exam time is over. I make a lot of silly mistakes, think I'm on the right track but I'm really not. And this cycle has been repeating this whole year. I do a lot of practice papers but I don't really know if its helping.

Any advice would be helpful, such as

• How to approach practice papers (do them under timed conditions, in a different room to where you usually study, with friends)
• Where I'm going wrong?
• How important is doing homework, staying on top of work during the term?
• When to start preparing (considering I have a lot of other stuff to do)
• How to not let bad marks affect me? (what to take from next time)

 

[Nacseo]

Hi,

My school has their prelims in roughly 4 weeks and I'm really concerned for maths ext 1 exam. This whole year I have been consistently average, which can deflated my confidence (which isn't bad but pretty much before Y11 i was in the high 90s) and I really want to improve. When I do practice papers at home, I can usually get through the whole paper (except the hardest question) without making any mistakes and I am pretty happy with my results. However, during the real exam, I feel really anxious and stressed and I just collapse. I panic at the questions, and it takes me a long time to get into a momentum of solving questions but by that time the exam time is over. I make a lot of silly mistakes, think I'm on the right track but I'm really not. And this cycle has been repeating this whole year. I do a lot of practice papers but I don't really know if its helping.

Any advice would be helpful, such as

• How to approach practice papers (do them under timed conditions, in a different room to where you usually study, with friends)
• Where I'm going wrong?
• How important is doing homework, staying on top of work during the term?
• When to start preparing (considering I have a lot of other stuff to do)
• How to not let bad marks affect me? (what to take from next time)

I did my extension exam yesterday for prelims and this is what i would do I were to do it again
- It is preferred that you SHOULD do practice papers under timed conditions and preferred at a place that is quiet and distraction free. By doing this, you're kinda conditioning yourself for what the exam will be like once you enter the room + What i do in the actual exam is to time myself for how long it takes for each question and see how much time i have left cause the clocks in my school are trash af.
- Unless if the paper is challenging, I would go through discord call or other video calls with my friends and go through the paper together and help each other out
- About not letting bad marks affect you, look the papers you have done for extension 1 and where your mistakes are at. Check the answer and reattempt the question to ensure when you encounter similar qs in the prelims, you wont make the same mistakes.
- The best way to prepare is as early as possible and create a timetable for it. My mistake was study for an exam for most of the time, and after finishing the exam, i had one afterwards and only have a certain period of time to actually study properly for it. You can still emphasis a certain subject if it is near, but still put emphasis on the ones upcoming to those.
- Homework is important by letting the knowledge stick but ur gonna forget if u don't revise frequently, so that's why u should spam some papers to be aware of what areas you lacking at and consolidate these topics to ensure you can get the best results.

Alsoo, if you guys have separate booklets for each question in ext 1, during ur reading time, stack the most doable booklets on top to the ones that need more time at the bottom in order to maximise them marks.

Hope this helps(not me pulling a jimmysmith)

 

[fourteenninetwo]

the whole premise to my approach in studying for maths is being capable as you learn the content, not right before the exam. For me, doing past papers before exams is more of a refresher as opposed to trying to learn new content which is why I use past papers to study when I learn content (so I would finish the homework thats given and do some textbook exersices until i feel comfortable, and then when I do i go straight into past papers - you can find a ton of them on thsc). I think for maths the way to do as well as you can is to be familiar with all possible questions and everything before they even release the exam notifications. this does sound a bit unrealistic, but for subjects maths you really need to work hard during the year rather than before an exam. This way, youll be confident when you walk into the exam and dont have to stress yourself out 2 weeks out of an exam overloading with past papers.

hope this helps...

edit:
also as you said a lot of people are very busy through yr 11 and 12 so Id suggest doing maybe an hour of maths everyday (this does not include school given homework) or even working through like 5 past papers a week

 

[jj_parkour]

the whole premise to my approach in studying for maths is being capable as you learn the content, not right before the exam. For me, doing past papers before exams is more of a refresher as opposed to trying to learn new content which is why I use past papers to study when I learn content (so I would finish the homework thats given and do some textbook exersices until i feel comfortable, and then when I do i go straight into past papers - you can find a ton of them on thsc). I think for maths the way to do as well as you can is to be familiar with all possible questions and everything before they even release the exam notifications. this does sound a bit unrealistic, but for subjects maths you really need to work hard during the year rather than before an exam. This way, youll be confident when you walk into the exam and dont have to stress yourself out 2 weeks out of an exam overloading with past papers.

hope this helps...

edit:
also as you said a lot of people are very busy through yr 11 and 12 so Id suggest doing maybe an hour of maths everyday (this does not include school given homework) or even working through like 5 past papers a week

Thank you so much for this advice! Do you have a collection of questions that you build before the term starts or do you start finding questions as soon as you have finished a homework exercise?

 

[fourteenninetwo]

no worries! nah I usually just find them as I go like maybe at the start of the week or the weekend ill probably find a set of past papers to work thru. Usually tho id find it as I go - but website such as thsc has hundreds of past papers so I usually just go through them.

 

[Life'sHard]

Hi,

My school has their prelims in roughly 4 weeks and I'm really concerned for maths ext 1 exam. This whole year I have been consistently average, which can deflated my confidence (which isn't bad but pretty much before Y11 i was in the high 90s) and I really want to improve. When I do practice papers at home, I can usually get through the whole paper (except the hardest question) without making any mistakes and I am pretty happy with my results. However, during the real exam, I feel really anxious and stressed and I just collapse. I panic at the questions, and it takes me a long time to get into a momentum of solving questions but by that time the exam time is over. I make a lot of silly mistakes, think I'm on the right track but I'm really not. And this cycle has been repeating this whole year. I do a lot of practice papers but I don't really know if its helping.

Any advice would be helpful, such as

• How to approach practice papers (do them under timed conditions, in a different room to where you usually study, with friends)
• Where I'm going wrong?
• How important is doing homework, staying on top of work during the term?
• When to start preparing (considering I have a lot of other stuff to do)
• How to not let bad marks affect me? (what to take from next time)

If you’re studying the way you are and completing past papers with ease, I’m confused how you would feel nervous before and during an exam. I reckon you should just have a little more confidence in yourself. However if this anxiety is a result of a lack of understanding in certain topics and holes in your knowledge, then I suggest regularly revising your content.

As for silly mistakes, I suggest doing calculations with your calculator whenever possible instead of mental maths. Also make sure you reread the question checking for units and what not.
Tbh I think the silly mistakes and going on “the wrong track” are a result of your nervousness.

Just be confident in yourself is all I can really say.

 

[jj_parkour]

Thank you so much! I didn't really think I had a confidence problem but it's a good thing that you've noticed. This seems really dumb to say but how do I improve my confidence before an exam if I haven't been happy with my marks before?

 

[Life'sHard]

Thank you so much! I didn't really think I had a confidence problem but it's a good thing that you've noticed. This seems really dumb to say but how do I improve my confidence before an exam if I haven't been happy with my marks before?

Sit every exam with the understanding that it’s a fresh start. Any previous bad experiences don’t matter. Have faith that you know your stuff. Breathe.
A little trick I used to do was to just be obnoxiously cocky before an exam lol.