Forums IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ PhotoReading, Memory Optimizer Help me , i didnt do well in my math test.

Now i wont be able to do 4unit.
Every question looked easy very familiar , then when i did them i found problems with it. I did a ;lot each one i found it took me long as i did too many mistakes , scribbled out again , found another again.
I did most problems some because i was so angrily stresses i was going top rip the page as i didnt have enough time , i am so upset as i will not be able to do 4unit , even if i do i wont feel good enough ill feel like this will always happen in my tests.
Ive tryed everything to prevent this , even everyone else always thinks i will absolutely do the test with ease.
When i do questions that are not in the test i know all of them , no wrong but i admit i take quite a while to think it out, As i keep thinkingwhat i want to do now and then think of what i just thought (my thought knows im stressed) not knowing when to continue trying question , keep repeating this preventing my from thinking clearly and fastly.
I know it is not the case that i am not good enough as i have also made a couple things in maths and am also able to do extension questions in cambridge maths book(which are the hardest maths q's get) , i have made my own cubic formulas , known stuff way beyond our school , more then any of the other children although i cannot control myself.

After the test i do the troubled q's easily on the first go.

So you already have your test result?

Sounds like you're in Australia. You suffer from test stress and let your anger control you during the test. You really needed to focus more on staying relaxed. If you know you can do it normally then you have to allow yourself to remain confident during a test.

Develop a stragety to remain calm. First of all you went in with the unrealistic expectation of being able to answer all the questions. When ever you sit for a test you need to allow for the fact that there will be a few questions that you may not know the answer for... You won't necessarily get 100%. However your goal should be to do your personal best and let go of troublesome questions. That is all you can ever honestly achieve. If you had a more realistic focus you would have been able to move throught the questions easier. The first question you hit that you might not get right you got frustrated with it and stuck on it. Rather than just doing your best with it and moving on. That way ensuring that the questions you could answer without difficulty get answered. Because you had an all or nothing approach you trapped yourself.

Secondly, Given that you set yourself a target for getting into 4 unit math you overloaded yourself. That is a future goal nice one to have. However your present goal was to get the best possible passing grade for you. To bring in the worry of not being able to do 4 unit maths increases the stress that you placed upon yourself during the test.

One of your points is that you have trouble completing the questions. Were the test set in English? The English language is not your strong point and therefore you could have difficulty completing tests within the normal time for this reason. This is something you should discuss with your teacher, to help you find a strategy to deal with this problem. This might be in the form of extra exercises from old tests. They may be able to locate a tutor who can help you to learn to remain calm and focused on the goal at hand.

What other tests do you have coming up. What strategy do you already have in place? Do you know any relaxation exercises? If not would you like to learn some?

I have already pointed out the most important one thing to remember when sitting an exam. Be realistic of your expectations. You can only do your best and your best today may not be what your best was yesterday for whatever reason. (you may not be feeling well, something might be distracting you etc,). Allow for the fact that when you face a test that there will be some questions you cannot answer. Move past these quickly and cover the ones you know. You want to get your best score and you do that by answering all the questions you can answer with ease quickly, first... you can come back to the tricky ones if you still have time.

Another tip... you know at the beginning of the test how much time you have for the whole test and you also know how many questions you have...spend a few moments working out the amount of time to allow yourself for each question leaving 15 to 20 minutes spare at the end. Eg you have 60 minutes to work out 9 problems that means you allow yourself to spend only 5 minutes on each problem. If after 5 minutes you haven't completed the answer leave it and go onto the next one. Leave some space to come back to it later. You will have the opportunity to come back to it later because you spent 45 minutes answering all the questions as best you can and have 15 minutes left to go back and finish any that were incomplete. (you give yourself approx 3 minutes for each unfinished question). So have a watch on the table. Do this during practice test as well as formal tests. Kowing exactly how much time you have to spend on each question helps keep you on track to completing the test.

Alex

I remember way back when during a math exam that I was determined to ace it.

I did not do well throughout the year as I lazed off ... but on this one particular occasion, I was wanted to ace it!

I spent the great portion of the night and into the early morning going over and over math problems to 'understand' the basic's of what need to be known.

Went to bed for two hours, up and off to the exams.

Considering the lack of sleep, I was rather relaxed and calm ... probably because my brain did know any better.

Well, the exam began, the race was on. During the exam, the question seemed all to easy and familiar, well, they should have been, I only went over them hours before!

Midway during the exam, I put up my hand to get the attention of the professor, he walks over and says 'yes'. I say, this question cannot be done. He says 'what'. I say 'yes' this question cannot be done because of a mistake in the questioning. He looks at it and say's ... your correct! Thanks for bring that to my attention and for your troubles - remind me to add an additional 10% to your exam mark. In my head I'm saying 'yeah' I could use all the help I can get.

Well, what seemed like an eternity actually turned out to be I was the first to leave the exam.

A few weeks later I get the exam results - a score of 110%!

I learned alot from that experience ...

1. Ensure you only get 1 or 2 hours of sleep before any important exam. Kidding!

2. If you put your mind to anything ... you CAN do it!

3. Relaxation and confidence in yourself is critical.

4. When it comes down to math, ya have to pay the pipper and literally DO the questions on paper. Heres why. When you take a math problem and put in on paper you literally engage several senses when it comes to learning. This is the best form of learning. When several senses get involved in the learning process.

5. There is a univeral law that everything happens for a reason ... you may not know it yet but remember that everything in life has a reason and a lesson for us to learn. Sometimes the lesson is not so apparent, but it's there.

6. Do not look at this one incident as an idication of your ability. We ALL have off days ... this was one of them for you. More times than not, when it comes to math, from what you have said ... you got it in the bag!

LLL

Michael Saikali

thanks both of youse, that really helped.

I got to ask... are you a Queenslander (Cane-toad), Mathematician?

Alex

no im from sydney.
What do u mean a queensland cane-toad, football?

Queenslanders are affectionately referred to as Canetoads whereas us Sydneysiders are referred to as cockroaches. The most common pest we have in each of these states. I had to ask because you are were using slang that is more common amongst the canetoads than cockroaches.

Alex

Australian, ey? So why don't you finish every sentence with ",mate!"

sorry, couldn't resist, mate!

Cockroaches,ey? I remember I went to Newcastle, NSW once, and I hated those pests. Lots of fun spraying them with poison, though. For someone who's never seen cockroaches in his country before, it's a real shock to have them crawling around in your kitchen on holiday

Stefan

LOL... didn't they tell ya you don't spray 'em you turn the can over and hit them with it

BTW those cockies that you found in the kitchen were imports. Dinki Di Aussie cockroaches prefer to stay outside.

Your shout mate
Alex

oh I see so the indigenous cockroaches are 1 meter long and fat and ugly, live to 100 years and eat kangaroos for breakfast, ey?

[This message has been edited by Xehupatl (edited September 23, 2002).]