5 Tips for Acing Your Next Maths Exam
- Written by Samantha Ball
An upcoming maths exam may seem daunting to many students, particularly when studying for the HSC. Thankfully, it doesn’t have to be. Through these tried-and-tested tips, students can ace their next maths test.
1. Complete practice questions
The best preparation a student can do in the lead up to a major maths exam is to practice past HSC papers. This is because, while studying and memorising is of utmost importance, practice makes perfect. It not only aids with memory retention but also allows them to further establish the mathematical concepts and techniques they’ve learned in class.
Completing past maths papers under exam-like conditions also works wonders at preparing a student for the real situation they will soon find themselves in. This is because it’s one thing to be able to answer the exam questions, but another entirely to do so under stricter time constraints and without the assistance of a textbook or study notes.
2. Start preparing well in advance
We recommend that students prepare for maths exam by working through practice papers at least 6 months in advance. This gives them plenty of time to reattempt any difficult questions repeatedly before the big day and understand which areas of maths requires the most revision.
If a student comes across a question regarding a topic they haven’t yet learned in class, then they should mark it and come back to it once those concepts have been taught.
3. Keep a record of difficulties or mistakes
When it comes to preparing for the HSC maths exam, the old adage is certainly true: learn from your mistakes. Students should highlight and keep note of any questions they get wrong in their homework, assignments, class work, or the past papers they attempt.
These mistakes signal concepts they find more difficult or haven’t yet fully grasped. They should then repeatedly attempt these questions until they get them correct and understand them completely. Not only will this prevent similar mistakes from occurring during the HSC exam, but will also give them a much-needed confidence boost when they finally master these techniques and realize how far they’ve come.
4. Keep well-organised notes
Keeping well-organised notes can be advantageous for any subject, but when it comes to maths, the idea is to find connections between individual topics and areas within a topic. This is why mind maps are particularly useful for study notes, as they allow students to visually recognize the connections between mathematical concepts and techniques.
An additional tip is for students to attach diagrams, symbols, or other graphics to their study notes where relevant. Studies show that accompanying text-based instructions with a graphic improved students’ performance on a test by an average of 89%. This is because the human brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text.
5. Use different sources
Our final tip is for students to look to a number of different sources when seeking practice HSC maths questions. These sources might include official past papers, various mathematics textbooks, and past trial exams from numerous high schools across the state. This gives students exposure to a variety of exam structures and questions, allowing them to prepare for any type of exam content that might come their way.
