If asked which subject in school was the most challenging, many people would probably say math. For a lot of them, making sense of all of the numbers, letters, and signs is just impossible and only leaves them with major headaches.
Is it the same for you? Do you also have a hard time in your math classes?
Having a difficult time solving math problems does not automatically mean being bad at math. In many cases, time and practice can help change things. If you want to be better at it, below are some tips that you might want to try:
- Recognize everyday a situation in which math is required
You probably do not realize that you use math in your daily life more often than you are aware of. For example, when you last went to your favorite coffee shop to get 3 cups of coffee, you saw that they had a “Buy 2, Get 1 Free” promo for only $10. You decided that it was a good deal because you saved $5 from your usual purchase of 3 cups. But how did you know that you saved $5? Because you did the math! You performed division, multiplication, and subtraction! Things like this can also happen when you are shopping for groceries and other products.
- Download and play math game apps
To pass the time, you probably have various game apps on your phone. From puzzle apps and word apps to racing apps and adventure apps, you can easily kill an hour or two and not be bored. But did you know that there are also apps that can help improve your math skills? These days, there are plenty of math problem solver apps. Some can build your basic math skills, while others offer more advanced math problems. Depending on your math skill level and goals, you can select certain math solver apps to help you get where you want to be.
- Study math concepts and practice math problems regularly
Setting a schedule for studying math is highly recommended if you want to improve your math knowledge and skills. It does not have to be several hours long each time. Even for just 10 to 20 minutes a day, whether using your textbooks or a math problem solver app, you should be able to see improvements over time. Pick a chapter to focus on for a day or two and do one or two math problems each day. By making these efforts, you can learn a lot and become better than the day before.
- Draw your solutions
Word problems made up of so many sentences or paragraphs in math textbooks or math solver apps can be intimidating. Oftentimes, they are hard to picture and cause some people to just give up after reading the first sentence. If you encounter these, you should try drawing all the information presented to visualize the problem better. For example, if you are asked to figure out how many rocks there are in 3 bags if there are 15 rocks total and they are split evenly into the 3 bags, you can draw boxes to represent the bags and circles to represent the rocks. Fill the boxes with an equal number of circles to get the correct answer.