13 Nov How Can Weak Students Improve In Maths?
Mathematics is a critical subject of any formal education school system in the world. It is also used in every facet of life. Yet, many students struggle with grasping the fundamentals of the subject. Given the importance of maths, how can we help weak students improve in it? While there are no hard and fast rules, there are methods that enable weak students to excel in mathematics:
- Instilling Positivity and Confidence
- Scheduling Practice
- Tools to Help with Memory
- Ask Questions to Test Understanding
- Ensure Strong Fundamentals
- Focusing on Weaker Topics
Positivity and Confidence
Instilling confidence is an important step that allows students to perform their best. Maths Enrichment for Primary School lessons can build up confidence in students to prepare them for an upcoming examination.
A healthy mind-set provides a great boost to kick off a student’s learning journey. When students have a positive mind-set, half the battle is won as the fear of mathematics is removed. As a parent, you should look for opportunities to encourage your child. At the same time, do avoid emplacing on the difficulty of maths.
At home and at school, rewards and incentives can be used as positive reinforcement to encourage your child to strive for excellence. Positivity and confidence can also be achieved with consistent practice.
Practice Makes Perfect
There are a variety of mathematical question types, such as applying the right formulas, word problems, and equations. Each requires a different skillset that to solve, not unlike that of an athlete who trains for a competition.
In sports, repetition builds up muscle memory in terms of mental and physical training. Over time, this develops into second nature in the athletes’ thoughts and actions.
Maths is similar to the repetition process, where students can improve on the subject drastically with constant practice and understanding. When attempting questions, students will be more efficient at connecting the dots to solve the problems.
This connection instantly helps students gain the confidence to perfect their decision-making skills on how to pick the correct answer. Therefore, when your children practises daily and builds their understanding, learning advance topics will become more comfortable for them.
Practice can indeed improve a student’s math, however practice without retention of knowledge would be inefficient.
Tools to Retain Information in Class
Ultimately, a student has to take the onus of retaining information and applying them correctly to questions.
However, there are ways parents can help their child become an efficient student.
Parents can play an active role in helping their children to develop soft skills for studying and learning effectively. What does this mean exactly? You can ensure that their child is well-rested with good energy levels to focus in class.
Besides maintain energy levels, parents can either engage a study coach or rely on home coaching to impart soft skills to their children. Examples of useful soft skills include effective note-taking and question crafting. These questions can then be referred to teachers or tutors at their Primary School Maths Tuition centres.
Ask A lot of Questions
The simplest way to build confidence is to get rid of all doubts a student has. When the doubts of students are removed from the equation, it provides them with a clear direction to solve any math problems.
The best way to clear a student’s doubts is by asking questions that address their concerns. It does take two hands to clap, as parents, teachers, and tutors need to understand that all students have different perspectives and rates of understanding.
It is critical that as a parent, that your line of questioning does not demoralise your child. Instead, it should encourage open exploration instead of purely forcing the model answer upon your child.
Your objectives should lean towards understanding and addressing the your child’s thought process rather than just focusing on explaining the answer.
Getting The Fundamentals Right
Mathematics is a subject that is shaped like a pyramid. Each topic is built on those that come before it. As such, it is critical that your child spends as much time on fundamental topics to understand them before moving on to advance lessons.
In many ways, it is comparable to a marathon where marathoners have to remained focus on constant pacing instead of rushing to the end.
A suitable pace and understanding should be prioritised over speed, which is essential but as a secondary priority. A student’s fundamentals is akin to a base that he or she can rely on in times of doubt.
If the base is weak, anything that is built upon it, will collapse and result in avoidance or fear of the subject. Hence, everything is dependent on the mastery of the fundamentals a student has. This determines the standard they are at and whether they possess the capability to tackle specific topics which have a higher level of difficulty.
As students build up their foundation, they should also address their weaker subjects by investing more time and effort as compared to other topics.
Focus on Weaker Topics
Like any academic subject, it is normal for your child to have topics which he or she is weaker in for mathematics. Afterall, each topic may require different problem-solving methods or skills. A question then arises regarding whether your child should focus on perfecting a topic or on weaker concepts.
We believe that students should focus on their weaker topics. This is because having a topic whereby the student feels incompetent in, will result in unnecessary anxiety during exams. In turn, this has the potential to cause them to perform at a level worse than their best.
As obvious as this may sound, it is recommended that your child restart from basic questions for their weakest topics. The idea here is to ensure that their fundamentals are secure, and that they gain confidence from solving each consecutive question.
Does your child require enrichment to improve their grades? Or maybe he or she is struggling with mathematics as a whole subject? Enrolling your child for a tuition centre might be the solution for you.
Trust MLGS to Help Your Child with Mathematics
Maths Learning Groups was established by Mr. Lawrence Ong, who is NIE-Trained and an ex Primary School Teacher with more than 15 years of teaching experience. We aim to help weaker students to bridge the gap with better-performing students by catering to their learning pace and style.
We strive to provide affordable tuition rates so that no student will be deprived of the opportunity to learn from NIE-Trained teachers. We specialise in offering math tuition classes for students in Primary 3 to Primary 6. Our Math enrichment classes help to build up a strong solid foundation in the key mathematics concepts.
Our Primary school tuition classes in Singapore is committed to help students maximise their learning potential. This ensures that they hone strong critical thinking skills that will carry them through in their education journey.
Looking for more information on how your child with math? Read out article titled “How do you teach math to primary school students?”.