For many students, including myself, math is a dreaded subject. During my time as a pre-IB (International Baccalaureate) student, it was required to take grade 11 functions during our grade 10 year and we were warned that there was a big jump from grade 10 math to grade 11 math. As we started the semester, I soon realized the magnitude of the situation. Since math is not my best subject I generally receive mid to high 80’s. I was also playing on my school’s volleyball team as I simultaneously took this difficult course, frequently missing lessons and having less time to study from attending practices and games. I started the semester with a mid 60 and quickly realized that I needed to get my act together. My goal is not to scare you, but share some of the steps I have taken that helped my average increase by 20%.
First and foremost, I want to acknowledge that it is more than okay to ask for help and accept help from others. At the time, I was embarrassed to be asking for help because I felt that I could handle it on my own. After the first test, I sat down with my mom and we revised the test questions that I missed together. Having an outside perspective helped me figure out what concepts I did not understand. As simple as this may have been, it played a great role in the success of boosting my mark. From that day moving forward, after a quiz or test, I took the time to correct my answers in a different coloured pen with the help of a classmate, parent or teacher.
I wanted extra practice outside of the homework questions that the teacher assigned to us, so rather than pointlessly searching the internet for sources, my mom and I invested in a workbook that is an optional companion to the Ontario ministry approved textbook. My school used the Functions 11 textbook from Nelson but we bought the Functions 11 exercise and homework book from McGraw Hill Ryerson. After I finished the assigned homework questions I would continue to work on questions in the workbook. After a while, I optimized this schedule by learning the basics of the lesson before discussing it in class. The York Region District School Board, categorized questions by increasing difficulty; ‘Knowledge and Understanding,’ ‘Application,’ then ‘Thinking.’ I read through the lesson from both books, then attempted the ‘Knowledge and ‘Understanding’ questions from my workbook. This improved schedule was better for my style of learning because I was able to use the lesson to solidify my understanding and fill in the gaps of any uncertainties.
Looking back at this course, I am grateful for my math teacher who stayed after school on countless occasions to allow us to review in his classroom. He distributed ‘Super Fun’ review sheets with questions of various difficulties, some that even exceeded the difficulty of the test questions. Often, the week before the test, a group of us would stay behind after school and attempt at these questions together, increasing the angles to approach the problem. If one person could solve a question that others could not, they had the chance to explain it to them, which benefited both parties. Of course, our teacher was there to provide clarification and ensure the explanation was correct. Those who did the questions were ahead of everyone else, since some of these review questions were slightly altered for the test. Personally, my favourite part about our review sessions was being able to go crazy on the whiteboards; everything could be easily erased and it was a large surface so I could do ALL of my rough work without worrying.
I will never forget the moment that I was handed my exponents test (unit 4; to give you an idea of where I was in the semester) back. It was a near perfect score, I only made one or two mistakes. I felt so happy, so relieved that my hard work had finally paid off. That was the start of my mark trending upwards and I knew that I would have to work a lot harder to keep aim for my goal: a grade of mid 80’s.
Once exams came around, I began to put all of my strategies together and studied as much as possible. My routine consisted of reviewing questions that I missed from tests and trying them again, which was possible because of the revisions that I made throughout the school year. I completed the practice exam from my personal workbook, the school textbook and the thick review package given to us by our teacher. We continued to review together after school before the exam period began. Most importantly, I had to come to terms with myself that I understood the material, there was nothing more that I could do, and it was down to how well I performed on the exam. Little did I know that I had nothing to worry about, I passed my exam with a score of mid to high 90.
Keep in mind that this was no fairytale story, I devoted a lot of time to this course and even as I improved with each test, there were still tests that I struggled to complete (trigonometry, my worst enemy) and had me on the verge of tears as I left the room, I was ready to give up. I gave myself some time to mull over the test, then fought my emotions and continued to push myself. After the semester ended, I finished with an 84. It definitely is not the most impressive score, but I was proud of that mark; I managed to bring my mark up by 20%. I hope that this story may have given you encouragement to keep on working hard at the class you are currently taking, whether it be math, English or anything else. Keep persevering in regards to anything that you do and you will slowly, but surely begin to see results. It is up to you to take your education by the horns and find out what strategies for you then take advantage of it.
Edited By: Khushi Kumar
Ally Chan is a DP2 International Baccalaureate candidate at Milliken Mills High School from Markham, Canada. She enjoys studying chemistry and biology and hopes to eventually pursue a post-secondary education in Pharmacy.
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