This week’s blog topic is exam prep. I am guessing that exam preparation is considered to be the toughest thing for college students do. Since I tend to procrastinate a lot, I am very used to reviewing the class material the night before exams. This is certainly not a good way to prepare for an exam. I was already feeling like I need a different and efficient way to study for an exam. I chose my math course as my trial course for the strategies because it is already getting more difficult and I wanted to prepare for the next coming test.
I recently had a math test and the result was not very good. I was confident before taking this test because I did a lot of class note review. However, I have to admit that I only reviewed my notes and there was lack of solving practice problems and this caused me to get a poor grade on the test. Because I did not practice much, I did not fully understand the concept even though I reviewed the whole note. I was overconfident that I am a visual learner and I was not aware of the fact that I also I got a high score for kinesthetic learner so I have to actually solve problems before the test. I solved all the problems on the test because I wanted to make sure that I know everything covered on the test just in case when I get any problems in next test related to this material.
This is an example problem my teacher gave us in class. I can see the problem in the first picture and this example problem are very similar.
Likewise, this example problem he gave us will probably be on the next test. For this week, I reviewed all the examples and worked on some problems on my text book similar to them. By doing so, I can understand the chapter we covered in previous class better and memorize the pattern the questions have. It is a good feeling to understand and know what is definitely going to be on the test.
Lastly, I went through my syllabus. Everything was not directly related to how to prepare for an exam but the second point of learning goals. It says “select and apply an appropriate mathematical model for certain elementary probability problems.” In order to be able to do this, you need to practice solving problems much.
After doing exam prep with the strategies, I feel pretty much confident that I will do much better on next exam.
I am totally with you on this! Im also a kinesthetic learner so i have to DO the problems to help me understand the problem. I began solving extra problems from my textbook appart from my homework assignments. You should try that too because it will only help you. Its always better to do more than minimum.
ReplyDeletePractice makes perfect! after my last test, I too realized that just looking over the equations doesnt help unless you actually run through them to work out the kinks, especially for kinesthetic learners. The more the better! Great Job.
ReplyDeleteI am also a kinesthetic learner just like you. So in order for me to be well prepared for the upcoming exam, I had to organize everything first by looking over at the course syllabus just like you did. And yes, I too totally agree with you on how you feel confident about the exam after organizing everything. Because I feel exactly the same way as you too! I enjoyed reading your blogg!
ReplyDeleteTo be good at math, you always need to do to practice problems. As many problems you practice, you get better and better because math is different than other classes. While other classes require you to memorize stuff and review notes, math need a lot of practices to be good and to understand problems. Pictures are little bit hard to see but contents were good. Before math test, you should not only review your notes but also practice many problems until you understand and become good at solving any other problems with different numbers.
ReplyDeletei think that the best way to prepare the math exam is solving all the kinds of problem before you take a Exam. i do not think reviewing each concepts dose not help to solving the math problem. you should solve as many problem before you take a test. it will help you more than reviewing the the concept
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