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Improving speed and accuracy in maths (1 Viewer)

Ledepressedrightnow

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Hi guys, I find that in past papers for maths exams, I tend to do them reasonably fast at good accuracy. However, in exams, I tend to take longer than I normally should. I have noticed that the moment I come across a question that I don't get the first time reading it, I tend to get flustered and lose concentration. Also, I tend to check my answers to multiple-choice for longer than necessary amounts of time.

Does anyone have tips as to how I can improve my speed for 4u maths that can translate from revision to the actual test?
 

icycledough

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This may just be due to exam stress and pressure, which is completely normal. Everyone will go through this, even the smartest students in your cohort. What you could do is trying to complete your practice exams 5-10 minutes early, so that you can stick to a more strict time and try to emulate this in the exam, giving yourself enough time to check at the end. With regards to questions which you may not get, I would analyse it for a minute or two, but not spend longer than that. Why spend 10 minutes looking at one question when you could be working through multiple questions?
 

Ledepressedrightnow

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For me, I only look at the questions for around 1 minute. If I don't get it, I look a bit longer and then start getting extremely nervous and then time seems to be running out a lot faster.
 

username_2

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For me, I only look at the questions for around 1 minute. If I don't get it, I look a bit longer and then start getting extremely nervous and then time seems to be running out a lot faster.
hmm... this has happened to me before and there are some things i religiously follow for any exams, even the ones im doing now so i hope it helps. Well first off, it is important to go into an exam with a calm mind and a clear goal. First off, atleast 3 hrs before the exam do not touch anything - i mean anything - related to the test. Doesn't matter if you havent finished your syllabus or havent done those past papers, dont do any serious study before an exam. It is okay to look at some dotpoints/formulas like 5-7 min before exams but other than that, just play games for those three hours or something (or in school, just listen passively). When in the exam, do the paper in what ever order you normally do, but if you are taking more that 3 min and yoy have no clue, leave the question right there and go to the next one. Dont even think about it - forget its existence and move on. Once you get all the marks you can, come back and look at it word by word. Underline the important terms, write any assumptions you're making and make sure you're using everything the question gives to you. At the end of the exam, you can panick because you have already gotten all of the marks you can and most of the time, that is all you need. Dont worry about the outcome worry about the process and putting out all of your knowledge out there on the paper and you should be fine. Doing timed papers in groups helps as well - slightly different from doing it alone as there is a bit of competition. Hope it helps :)
 

idkkdi

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Hi guys, I find that in past papers for maths exams, I tend to do them reasonably fast at good accuracy. However, in exams, I tend to take longer than I normally should. I have noticed that the moment I come across a question that I don't get the first time reading it, I tend to get flustered and lose concentration. Also, I tend to check my answers to multiple-choice for longer than necessary amounts of time.

Does anyone have tips as to how I can improve my speed for 4u maths that can translate from revision to the actual test?
it might be a good idea to do terry lee as well if cambridge isn't sufficing.
 

tito981

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Hi guys, I find that in past papers for maths exams, I tend to do them reasonably fast at good accuracy. However, in exams, I tend to take longer than I normally should. I have noticed that the moment I come across a question that I don't get the first time reading it, I tend to get flustered and lose concentration. Also, I tend to check my answers to multiple-choice for longer than necessary amounts of time.

Does anyone have tips as to how I can improve my speed for 4u maths that can translate from revision to the actual test?
This is a normal thing for students who have aced maths from yr 7-11 and then face an actually difficult 4u exam. The best way to deal with this is to constantly expose yourself to new questions and refrain from looking at answers even if they take you 10+ minutes, as in longer exams you commonly finish 90% of the exam with relative ease but the last 10% become increasingly difficult to attain, and for the later hard questions you normally have a lot more time left. Therefore, the practice and methods that you trial while studying come in clutch at these moments and attempting them at the end allows you to be confident with a semi-decent mark that way you can tackle the harder questions without the stress of 'failing'.
 

Ledepressedrightnow

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Would improving my writing speed have much of an impact on how long I take to do an exam. My writing speed is around 40 words per minute. Is that too slow?
 

idkkdi

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Would improving my writing speed have much of an impact on how long I take to do an exam. My writing speed is around 40 words per minute. Is that too slow?
faster than me lol
probably not an issue. but u do want to write numbers quickly. as said before, try terry lee if cambridge alone isnt making u fast enough.
 

Ledepressedrightnow

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faster than me lol
probably not an issue. but u do want to write numbers quickly. as said before, try terry lee if cambridge alone isnt making u fast enough.
Will do. What makes Terry Lee better? Would it be the questions or the theory?
 

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