Learning Maths Explained

Maths was never my favorite subject as I felt that it was always hard and I could never understand the numbers. However, I soon discovered that it was not really difficult as I presumed but easy if you followed some principles

I am aware of the individuality factor and the fact that we can’t all follow the same strategy to achieve a task but the principles I about to share with you will enable you to discover your own method or gain an insight in learning Maths

Principle 1: Believe in Yourself

One thing that denies man the power to achieve his dreams is feeling inferior; not believing in oneself. You have to remove every negative opinion about Maths and think positively to be able to learn and solve Maths problems.

I had to believe in my abilities that I could learn Maths; although this was not easy because the negative system has a way of molding one into a failure but I remember that I made up my mind that all things were possible and that I could learn Maths. Therefore I was ready to take all necessary measure to achieve this. Believe that you can do it.

Principle 2: Be Open Minded

If you hate your Maths teacher, then you are doomed. You have to drop aside every negative belief about your teacher and face the task which is learning the subject. Empty your cup; try to listen, learn and avoid judging opinions without first evaluating what you have been told. Learn to seek assistance from your colleagues or friends whom you know are good in Maths. This doesn’t mean that you aren’t good enough but you seek to expand your knowledge on the subject. My Dad taught me in an easy way, the principles of solving Word problems in Maths that till today I can solve any word problems in Maths.

Principle 3:   Understanding the Basics

Everything in life starts by knowing the basics. A football player must know the basics of the sport before he expresses himself on the field and play the game. He can’t contribute much in the team if he can’t grasp the basics and then combine them into skills. Also for one to speak a language fluently, one must understand the basics which include the letters, sounds, semantic and lexical structures of the language.

To learn and solve Maths problems easily, one must understand the basics and take them seriously. This is because as you progress in the subject, these basics would be the building blocks to solve complex problems. For example, when giving a multiplication problem 248x489 to solve, you must apply 2 basic principles which are addition and multiplication.

Even though the above illustration is elementary, you would be surprise how people still can’t solve this problem. There is no shortcut; even though computers and softwares have made computation easy, it still pays to understand the basics in the long run.

Take time to learn the basics of every subject in Maths and you will be surprised how this could improve your learning.

PRINCIPLE 4:   UNDERSTAND PROBLEM SOLVING

My dad assisted me in learning maths easily. I remember he would tell me that people had problem solving maths, because they never took the time to know the basics and they never learnt how to solve maths’ problem.

He said that if you wanted to solve a problem then you would have to understand English. What this means is that before one can solve a math’s problem, one must understand the question. For instance he would ask me a question like “Think of a number, add 40 to that number and your answer is 190. What is the number? ”. Questions like this are algebraic in nature and would give something like this

X+40=190

Let analyze this; the question starts with “Think of a number”; there is no how we can start guessing numbers. It would probably take ages for some people to get the number so we apply an algebra to it. You could pick any letter as long as it represents the number.

Then we add 40 to the algebra and equate it with 190 as shown above so what is the number, I am sure you can guess it (150).

Most Maths’ Professors know that to solve a complex problem, is to understand it and they do this breaking the problem into bits to achieve this.

To those who are willing to learn maths easily, Remember everything is possible if you believe.