Mathematics can be intimidating. For some, it’s a subject that never clicked. For others, it becomes increasingly challenging as the coursework becomes more advanced. Some students may even doubt their future career options due to a fear of how much math is involved in pursuing a STEM degree. Math is a part of everyday life and can be a big part of some careers, and students can overcome its obstacles.
It's an important field to feel confident in, but confidence in math doesn’t come easy. Overcoming learning obstacles in math requires a combination of strategies, persistence, and mindset changes. Here’s a guide to help you transform into a better math student, attack your academic blocks head-on, and feel confident in any high school or college math course.
Overcoming math anxiety with action-based goals
The very feeling of needing help to improve at math or that it’s very black and white are common obstacles for many students. For any given math problem, there’s only one correct answer, which makes arriving at it even more stressful. When students focus only on grades and their mistakes, it’s easy to feel improvement is impossible. One strategy to combat this feeling is setting small, achievable goals.
Rather than setting a goal of “getting an A on my next math test,” try shifting your goal to something based on an action rather than a result. You can control your actions but not always the results. For example, rather than saying, “I want to get four of these five questions correct,” shift your goal to, “I will continue to complete practice problems until I get four correct.” Making an action-based goal forces you to take ownership of your learning process and work until it’s complete.
Related: How to Overcome Obstacles in Difficult Academic Subjects
Building confidence in math with positive affirmations
In math, confidence is key. Many students develop a fear of mathematics due to one difficult test or one bad grade. This often leads to a lack of confidence, affecting your performance on future exams. If you go into a quiz thinking it will be too challenging to get the questions correct, you condition your mind to act as you predicted.
To combat this, practice positive affirmations before exams. By reminding yourself of all the studying you did, the questions you got correct in the past, and that you can do well on the test, you’ll condition yourself for success. This will give you more confidence to continue improving throughout the course.
Mastering math with teaching and collaboration
Many students have trouble remembering mathematical concepts. Although memorizing formulas might work for some, other study techniques are more effective for long-term success. If you face the learning obstacle of a blank mind on test day, try studying in a small group and choose a question that each of you has to explain step-by-step to the rest of the group. Teaching is often the best way to learn. When we teach someone else a concept, we solidify it as knowledge for ourselves.
Related: How to Organize an Effective Online Study Group
Strengthening your foundations for success in advanced math
When students struggle in upper-level math classes, it’s often due to how different the new material can be. Although it may seem like going backward, having a solid base in the building blocks of math is the only way to move forward. Returning to basic topics such as order of operations, fraction operations, and algebra can be the way to find success in higher-level courses.
If you’re unsure of which basic topics to review, try looking for patterns in your incorrect answers. Are you making small mistakes with negatives and positives? Are you skipping critical first steps? Once you identify the pattern, you can isolate it and build a stronger math base.
Finding your study strategy for math and other STEM fields
In recent years, the interest in studying STEM fields in college has grown exponentially—as exhibited by the STEM workforce having grown by 5.9 million workers in the past decade. It’s an ever-growing field with more and more job opportunities incentivizing students to study science, technology, engineering, and math.
If you’re interested in these fields but feel nervous about the intense math requirements in college, the first step to overcoming it is to recognize the importance of math and respect it, not fear it. You can prepare for university-level math by solidifying study techniques that work for you. Try out these three study strategies to see what helps the most.
Active problem-solving
Active problem-solving means completing multiple practice problems for any topic and reviewing the answers you got correct and incorrect. Rather than leaving incorrect questions, review your steps and think as if you were a teacher and identify where the solution to the problem went wrong. Rework your way through the question using the correct answer as a key. Then set it aside for a while before returning to the same problem a few hours later and trying it again from scratch. This repetition will build confidence and allow you to see the patterns that occur in your weak areas.
Related: Infographic: Find Your Learning Style and Study Smarter
Challenge isolation
In math, isolating areas of difficulty within specific problems is helpful. Often, students continue to complete long practice problems rather than focusing on small sub-steps that need to be corrected. Find a way to isolate the sub-step and repeat it until you feel confident with that puzzle piece. Then you can return to completing total practice problems.
Create a one-pager
Sometimes, the sheer amount of material on a single math test can be intimidating. Feel more prepared by creating a one-page study guide that includes all necessary formulas and definitions. Fitting the information onto one page makes your brain feel less overwhelmed and more confident in your ability to learn all the material.
Personalized tutoring to achieve your math goals
Once you identify which study techniques work best for you, you’ll feel more confident going into new math classes as you progress in your education. If any math obstacle still seems too big to overcome after trying all these techniques, working with a tutor is another excellent option to discover individualized study techniques and master mathematical topics. Tutors can help you find your strengths and use those to feel more confident in all areas of math. They can create a personalized learning plan with actionable goals and specific steps to meet you where you are and help you progress.
Related: Math in the Real World: Different Careers You Could Pursue
Although the obstacles that math presents seem intimidating to many students, you can use a combination of strategies and solutions to overcome any barrier in your way of succeeding in math class. Confidence is key, and once you’ve mastered your study style in math, you’ll unlock a future you never thought possible.
Need more general study advice to get through all your classes? Check out these Quick Study Tips for the 4 Core High School Subjects to cover all your bases!
