Math Class Study Tips It is the beginning of another semester and you have registered for this math class that you need for your future plans. Now comes the hard part – how can you succeed in the math class? For some courses, the primary drivers of course success happen in the classroom. But, for math courses, the primary drivers of course success happen outside the classroom. And that means that the primary drivers of math course success are in your hands. In the classroom, you will see new math concepts and problems. But, learning math depends more on the hard work, dedication, and time you devote to the course outside the classroom. The actions you undertake outside the classroom will be the number one predictor of your success in the class. These study tips are intended to help you organize your activities to lead to success in the course. They are organized in two groupings – what you should do in the classroom and what you should do outside the classroom. Since what you do outside the classroom is more important for success, most of the study tips relate to the second grouping.

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Attend class on a regular basis. Students who attend regularly are more likely to succeed than those with irregular attendance. Do not take notes in class – follow and engage in the discussion of new material and ask questions. The instructor will post all of the class notes online after each class. Consequently, do not take notes in class. Instead pay attention to what is being covered in class and try to understand. The classroom format is lecture/discussion – the instructor will be leading a presentation and discussion of the new material. The instructor will ask questions during presentation of new material – don’t be bashful about answering. If you are confused about anything covered in class, ask questions! Do not assume that your question is “stupid” or that everyone else “gets it”. If you don’t get something, chances are high that there are others in the class who also don’t. Take exams and quizzes. Your course grade will be determined by how you perform on exams and quizzes. So, don’t miss taking any of them. The instructor will remind you of when exams and quizzes will be given. (Tips on how to prepare for and take exams and quizzes come later in this document.)

Things to do outside of the classroom: As stated above, the most important driver for success in a math class is what you do outside of the classroom. The first thing you need to decide is how you want to study. 

Study alone or form a study group? Some students prefer to work alone in studying for a math class. Other students find that they learn better working with other students to study math. Decide which method works best for you. If you want to work with a study group, make contact with other students in the class (if you have difficulty forming a group, ask you instructor for help in forming the study group).

After you decide about how you will study for the class, it’s time to start the studying process. Here is a list of four key study phases you can work through outside the classroom that will increase your chances of success in the class: 1. Review and study the new material. 

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Review the class notes. As stated above, the daily class notes will be posted online after each class. Using your notes, think through the material that was presented that day. If there are things you don’t completely understand in the notes, ask the instructor questions. Or, if you are part of a study group for the class, review the notes with the group and resolve any questions. Study the section(s) from the text that were covered that day. Carefully read the text, making sure that you clearly understand any new definitions, notation, formulas, and/or theorems. Reading a math text can be a different experience than reading a novel or something else for fun. Typically, it takes more time to read a math text. There may be sections of your math text that require considerable concentration and thought just to read and understand one page. Carefully read through all the examples in the text to understand how the example problem was solved. If you do not understand something in the text as you are studying, seek help from your instructor or a tutor so that you will understand before going on. If you skip an example or a theorem due to lack of understanding, this will make it difficult and/or impossible to successfully complete the homework. If you are working with a study group, everyone needs to read and study the text, but the group could engage in discussion to help understand more complicated material. Make note cards for the new material you are studying. On the front side of the card, list the topic (a definition, new notation, a formula, a theorem, etc.) and on the back side give the new topic (the definition, the new notation, the formula, the theorem, etc.) and give an example of the topic. After studying the new material, review what you have learned using the note cards you made. Shuffle the cards and then go through the cards, one at a time. Identify each of the new topics and then look at the back of the card to check your knowledge. Ask questions if you do not understand new material. During your review and study time, if you have difficulty understanding any of the new material, visit the instructor outside of class and ask questions. If you do not feel comfortable visiting the instructor to ask questions, go to the Math Center or the Learning Center and ask questions of a tutor. If you are working with a study group, questions may be resolved with group discussion – but it still may be necessary to ask questions of the instructor or a tutor.

2. Do the homework. Doing the homework in a math class is the single most important thing a student can do to be successful in the math class. But, you need to be careful that you understand what “doing the homework” actually means. It is not infrequent that a student who is not succeeding in a class laments that he/she just doesn’t understand why he/she is failing because he/she had “done all of the homework.” Here are suggestions on how to approach doing the homework for a math class:  Don't get behind in the homework. When you cannot find the time to do a homework assignment, that means that you will have more homework that will need to be done tomorrow. This will “snowball” and lead to serious problems. If you are serious about wanting to succeed in your math class, you need to seriously consider your daily schedule

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and allocate time for doing your homework. A general rule-of-thumb on the amount of time you will need to allocate to doing homework in a math class is to take the amount of class time and multiply that by 2 or 3. So, if your class meets for an hour and five minutes four 2 times a week, expect to spend from about 8 3 to 13 hours per week on homework for the class. Don't try to do your homework while using social media or watching TV. Social media, TV, and homework do not mix. If studying by yourself, find a quiet location where you won’t be interrupted. If you studying with a group, find a quiet location where you can discuss the math. In either case, turn off the cell phone and focus on the math. Work your homework in a notebook so that you keep your work organized for future reference. It is important to keep your work organized – you will want to look back at your work later when you prepare for an exam. Clearly mark which problem is which indicating the problem number and the section number from which the problem comes. Work each homework problem. o Try to do the problem using only paper, pencil, calculator, and what is in your head. o Avoid looking back at examples in the text and/or at worked out solutions in a student solution manual. o When you are confident that you have worked the problem correctly, check your answer by comparing it with the answer in the back of your text. o If your answer is incorrect, carefully check your work for obvious mistakes. o If your answer is still incorrect, you can look back at text examples or at a workedout solution in a student solution manual, but you should do so only as a last resort. o If working with a study group, everyone should individually work the problem. Do not assume that if you watch a study partner successfully work a problem that you now know how to work the problem. Pay close attention to HOW you are doing the homework problems. If you find it necessary to frequently look back at text examples, or at a student solution manual, STOP. Go back and re-study the material using the classroom notes, the text, and the note cards you have made. Then, go try the homework problems again. If you still have trouble with the homework problems, go to see your instructor or a tutor. Your instructor or tutor should help you by trying to understand what you don’t understand and then give you hints as to how to proceed. Don’t expect that your instructor or tutor will simply show you how to work the problem – the best way to learn math is by doing math, not by listening to or watching someone else doing the math. If you successfully complete a homework assignment, but still feel that some of the problems were especially challenging, do more problems like the ones you found difficult. Usually, homework assignments come from the odd-numbered exercises – an evennumbered exercise near a given odd-numbered exercise will usually be a similar type problem. If you want to work more problems and don’t have the answers, ask your instructor for the answers. Doing homework within a study group. Take turns explaining a problem to another student. Usually, you will find that in order to explain something to another person requires that you thoroughly understand what you are trying to explain.

3. Read the new material to be covered in the next class. After completing the steps above, you should be feeling confident about your knowledge of the material covered that day. Assuming that new material will be covered in the next class meeting, now would be a good time to read ahead. Since you have the tentative class schedule, read the section(s) of the text that will be covered the next class. That should help with your understanding of that new material during the next class. 4. Preparing for and taking a math exam or quiz. Since your grade in the class will depend on how you perform on exams and quizzes, the following is a list of things to do to prepare for and take an exam or quiz. Preparing for a math exam or quiz: 

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Don’t wait until the last minute to study for an exam. Proper preparation for an exam takes time. Schedule sufficient time in your daily schedule to adequately prepare for an exam. Gather all of your materials that correspond to the topics the exam or quiz will cover. Gather together your text, classroom notes, homework notebook, and study note cards. If you are preparing for an exam, also get out the quiz given prior to the exam. Go through the material to be tested from your text. Review definitions, theorems, and formulas, as well as the examples. Go through the classroom notes and homework notebook. Make sure you remember and understand all the material in the classroom notes and all the homework exercises that you worked out before. Review the material again using your study note cards. Shuffle the cards and then go through the deck and see how much you remember. For exams, closely go over the quiz given prior to the exam. Since your instructor chooses the problems on the quizzes and exams, knowing the problems on the quiz might give you a valuable insight into what you might see on an exam. Work extra problems. Select problems from the chapter review (usually given at the end of a chapter). Work them like you are taking a test. This means, work them without looking back at any other materials. When you are done, check your results and assess your comprehension. If your knowledge of certain topics is lacking, go back and repeat the steps above for those topics. Get a good night’s sleep the night before an exam. If you are tired, it will negatively impact your performance on an exam.

Taking a math exam or quiz: 

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Turn the exam over and write down any formulas that you might need. Doing this gives you a legal “cheat sheet” to use on the exam and relieves anxiety levels associated with having to remember a lot of material. Quickly skim through the problems on the exam. Make a quick assessment of the difficulty level of each problem on the exam. If you did an adequate job of preparing for the exam, you should find some problems that are easy. Work the easy problems first. The easy problems should not take much time. Getting them out of the way will reduce any test-taking anxiety you may be feeling.

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Budget your time. Pay attention to the clock. Estimate about how much time you can spend on each problem. Do not spend too much time on any single problem. If you get stuck on a problem, move on to another problem. Return to the difficult problem later, time permitting. Sometimes when you work on other problems and then return to a problem that you were stuck on, you see the problem in a different manner that allows you to find the solution.

And finally, here are a few tips on what you should do after taking an exam or quiz: 

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Attend class. You might feel that you need a break after an exam or quiz and so decide to skip the class after an exam or quiz. Don’t do that! New material will be covered in the class after an exam or quiz and by not attending, you will simply fall behind. And, falling behind decreases your chances of success in a math class. Pick up your exam and review problems that you did not get right. Be sure you understand what mistakes you made and why they were mistakes. Review topic areas that you were weak on from your text, notes, study note cards, and homework notebook. Don’t let up. Continue this process of study throughout the semester. By staying with this plan, you can succeed!