Maths Methods Tutors are often wasted! WHY? BECAUSE...
You can't cover everything in one weekly session!
There's so much content to learn that if you tried to cover it all in one weekly session, you'd either end up feeling overwhelmed or won't go into enough depth into each topic for it to be worthwhile.
However, if you came into your tutoring session with a good idea of each topic already, you'd be able to focus on the more difficult concepts and you'd find your tutoring sessions much more valuable.
This means your confidence will grow and so will your marks!
But how do I do this?!
The textbook is too difficult to understand and if you could understand your teacher, you'd probably not need a tutor to begin with! So how do you learn the content effectively by yourself?
You need a resource you can rely on at any time that teaches you all the concepts in a simple to understand manner. There are a few options and I'll go into those a bit later. For now...
Let's look at exactly what a student needs to do well and stress less in Maths Methods.
To feel confident and get good marks in Maths Methods, you need 2 things!
- 1To fully understand the content, AND...
- 2To regularly do Exam-Style questions under timed conditions
The ideal situation is that you spend all of your study time doing practise exam questions under timed conditions. This is your long-term goal for your study.
However, the first step is to fully understand all of the concepts!
Let me take you through step-by-step how we can build up your confidence and ability without stressing you out. The first step is to help you understand the concepts of each topic.
This is the ideal way to tackle that...
The 4 Steps to Make Methods Easier
- 1Understand the topics you are currently learning in class
- 2Get ahead and understand the topics you will learn next
- 3Go back and fill in the gaps on all the other topics
- 4Continue to stay ahead of the class
Now let's look at exactly how this would work!
Step 1
Understand the topics you are currently learning in class
You want to make sure what you are currently studying make sense, without worrying about the topics you've studied before. You don't have enough time to full cover everything in your tutoring sessions, but if you have the right resources, you can cover a lot in a short time.
Step 2
Get ahead and understand the topics you will learn next
Once you are up-to-date with the current topics in class, then learn the topics you are about to cover. You don't need to go crazy on this, but by learning the topics a week ahead of class (or even just a day ahead) will mean that when your teacher explains something, you will already have a good idea of what is going on and it will feel like revision.
This will boost your confidence and help make class much less stressful.
Step 3
Go back and fill in the gaps on all the other topics
Now that you are confident in the topics you are learning in class, you can go back and learn everything you missed. However, if you have missed a lot of topics, this can be hours and hours of time with a tutor.
Luckily, there are a couple of resources which can help you learn the concepts on your own.
For example, there are numerous raving reviews from teachers, students and parents on a series of online videos called the Maths Methods Video Tutorials which contain simple explanations and colourful animations to visually describe each topic. Watch them, answer some simple questions to solidify your understanding and then go over the parts which are really difficult with your tutor.
You can learn more about them here
Step 4
Continue to stay ahead of class
Now you know what's going on in class and you've filled in all the gaps and you feel much more confident, less stressed out and finally Maths Methods is tolerable! Make sure to spend a few minutes each week to continue what has worked, and stay ahead of class.
What to do if you lack the motivation to watch the videos?
If you are completely unmotivated and even the idea of watching a few videos sounds awful, then there are other options. In fact, you can actually cover an entire term in a single day, and understand every single concept with a Head-Start Workshop.
Students say that these workshops have boosted their motivation and helped them realise they can understand the content.
Since these are booked at a certain time, the student is very likely to come along and then it's the duty of the presenter to help the students see that Methods can be more tolerable.
There is some more information below.
Maths Methods Workshops
I've done these 4 steps and want to know what's next!
Well done! I'm sure the content of Maths Methods seems a lot easier for you. Now you can start spending more time on exam-style questions, the most important part of your study.
Remember, you want to get to a point that you all of your study time on these, but you will have to build up to this. You can learn more about how study and get to doing more exam questions here.
For free Exam-Style questions with worked solutions, cheatsheets, videos, advice and a whole lot more, check out the...
Free Maths Methods Resources
That's it! I hope this helps. If you have any questions, you can send me an email.
Written by Alex Bell.
Alex is the creator of MathsMethodsTutor.com.au and MathsMethods.com.au, the most popular Maths Methods website in Australia. He's helped over 10,000 Maths Methods students, parents and teachers every year and has created hundreds of free resources.
This was originally written regarding VCE Maths Methods Tutors (in Victoria) but is applicable for every state in Australia (Including TCE Maths Methods Tutors, WACE Maths Methods Tutors, SACE Maths Methods Tutors and TCE Maths Methods Tutors).