Silly Mistakes in Maths (1 Viewer)

ColdMint123

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This seems to a HUGE problem for a lot of people (at least for a lot of my friends and myself). I end up getting 80% for maths exams that i should be getting 95% plus.

I have a few maths exams coming up in the first few weeks of term 3, and i really don't wanna be repeating this dumb mistake thing. Does anyone have any advice and tips in medicating it. Its a serious problem for me especially and i really need to fix it.

Thank you :))
 

Wizjaro

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Analyse your previous mistakes and be conscious of those types of questions in the exam. Helped me a ton went from like low 90s with occasional 80-90s to 100s with occasional 95+
 

Greninja340

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I know this is going to sound cliche but you just need to practise a lot and when you are practising, look at the silly mistakes you are making and practise those questions even more
 

Drongoski

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Can you show examples of your "silly mistakes"???
 

Canteen

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Before every one of my maths exams I write a list of all the silly mistakes I have made in previous exams, class tests and even homework. This helps you to know what to look out for and make a conscious effort to avoid. This has helped me a lot and now I consistently get over 95% in 4U.
 

Kangaaroo

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Just before the exam I give a little pep talk to myself so that I relax. Assure yourself that you know how to do everything and you'll read every question carefully and work through your answers thoroughly. Like literally talk to yourself. Keep reminding yourself of this throughout the exam. Honestly I went from 57% in a test to topping the grade doing this.
 

studiesofboard

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Review the types of questions that you are having difficulty in and understand why you are making those mistakes so you know how to improve. Practice makes perfect. Keep going :)
 

Drdusk

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This is a true fact I'm not even kidding.

The way I got over silly mistakes (mine were just calculation errors) is to use the calculator for anything and everything. Literally even 2 * 2 I would do on a calculator and this saved me soo many marks in year 12 because it just became muscle memory to use the calculator for everything in an exam.
 

tito981

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also knowing how to use a calculator fast e.g. knowing the reset times and how fast you can click buttons so they register can also save u a bit of time. There can be long calculations your made to do, so saving that little bit of time can help in the long run.
 

jazz519

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This is from a post I made a few years ago. Doing these things helped me get high 90s hsc marks for maths subjects I did.

Often in these subjects people complain that they know the content however keep making silly mistakes. These are some ways to reduce errors;
- practice a lot and write in a note book about common silly mistakes you have done in questions in the past. Read through that before an exam to make sure those things are fresh in your mind
- use the quadratic formula instead of mentally factorising (only 1 source of error from you subbing in, while there is a potential for two errors in factorising as you need to make sure your factorised expression has the sum of the roots and product of roots.
- sub in the value when you solved an equation for example for in x^2=9 you get x=+3 or -3. So by subbing that value you found back into the original equation both sides of the equation should still hold true. A simple example but when you get to cubics and other bigger equations a helpful way to know you have got the correct anwser
- sub a random value into the starting expression and end expression when asked to simplify if the two aren’t equal you have made a mistake along the way, while if they are equal then you have correctly simplified. For example simplify y=(x^2-4)/(x-2) this becomes y=x+2 where x cannot equal -2. So sub in let’s say x=3 to them both for the first one you get 5 and for the second one also 5 so we know we have simplified it correctly
- for differentiation and integration doing the opposite to the answer you have found will give you the a original expression, another way to check you have performed the right calculus
- for graphs to check it’s right you can sub in values into a calculator on either side of the turning points to see which direction the graph continues in

These are just some of the techniques you can use to check errors
 

tony11QZ

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Before every one of my maths exams I write a list of all the silly mistakes I have made in previous exams, class tests and even homework. This helps you to know what to look out for and make a conscious effort to avoid. This has helped me a lot and now I consistently get over 95% in 4U.
Almost the same things happen to me. It's really nice that we have such resources, where can get the necessary information.
 

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