Tips on Solving Math Problems

Male: What are some tips for answering math problems?

Amanda Medders: One thing you want to do as soon as you get your paper write down anything that you think you may forget on the test. For example you might want to just write down the quadratic formula as soon as you get it for an algebra to exam or so good to help you remember your trig functions.

Once you get to a specific problem, you want to make sure you understand what’s being asked of you. Job diagram to help understand the tough word problem. And also list anything that you know from the problem and assign variables to it. When you’re actually doing the problem, watch out for careless mistakes. You don’t want to miss points because you miss in negative sign or forgot to distribute correctly. You also want to make sure that you’re referring back to the directions to see what they’re asking for. They may have said round to a certain number of decimal places. Make sure that you’re including this in your answer. Also make sure that you’re including any units that have been provided. Again, you don’t want to miss points for incorrect rounding or missing units.

One thing you want to do is show your work. A lot of students don’t do this and even though they may have got a couple steps correct they’re not going to get any credit because they haven’t shown any work at all. Collect down what you know and often times you let at least get some points for having that information.


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