Some "Secrets to Success” for ANY Math Course

· YOU KNOW YOU CAN……start off each day by telling yourself that you CAN do math and you are going to give it your best shot this semester. It is not 'healthy' to always tell yourself that you were 'never good at math' or that you are just not 'a math person'. You have to overcome that mental block and reverse your thinking. Remind yourself that this is a challenge that you are willing to take on this semester.

· COME TO CLASS ON TIME….come prepared and ready to participate by asking questions and trying any problems throughout lecture. I can watch Michael Jordan dunk all day and say 'yeah, I can do that too'. But when I actually go out onto the courts, I can't even touch the rim! Same thing with learning and understanding math…..if you just watch your math professor show you the problem on the board and not try it in your notes, you will have a hard time understanding and retaining the material.

· WORK ON SOME MATH EVERY DAY........ Math is cumulative, so missing one or two assignments can mean being lost for days or weeks. If you are stuck on a problem, do not stop and leave a blank area on your paper. Show what you know. Find matching examples from lecture notes or the book and attempt to start the problem. Doing this, many times you will be able to work through the solution. If you do not, at least you can show your professor exactly what stumped you. No one can help a student who simply says, “I didn’t know how to do it.”

· PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT…..As you work through each homework problem, mentally form a thought process in your head about the main idea for problem. Why are you adding 3 to both sides? What does the final answer mean? By remembering the thought process instead of specific steps, you will less likely have a 'brain freeze' on an exam. Also, check your answer in the back of the book to see if you are getting the concepts. If the answers don't match up, go back and check your steps. If you find yourself spending more than 20 minutes on a problem, skip that problem, take a break and go back to it. Sometimes when you stare at a problem for too long, you will begin to see stars J.

· ALWAYS DO A PRACTICE EXAM a couple of days before the actual exam day. Isolate yourself in a room with the practice exam (usually at the end of a chapter) and allow yourself about an hour and 15 minutes to complete it. Don't use a calculator, don't answer any phone calls…make the testing environment as similar to the actual testing environment as possible. When the time is up, grade your practice exam and see what type of problems you still have difficulties with. Go back to those sections and work on more problems until you get a grip on the concept. Talk to yourself as you work through these problems….verbalize your solution process to yourself. This is not a strange thing to try as you will find yourself mentally talking to yourself on exam day. I have done this many times when I was in school.

· UTILIZE OFFICE HOUR…….normal class meeting time doesn't allow enough time to go over homework problems. If you get stuck on a homework problem, leave the work that you have done so far for that problem and come to one of my office hours. You could also use office hours to ask anything from lecture or anything from reading the math book.

· THE POWER IS IN YOUR HANDS……if you have always thought that math is not ‘your thing’, then it’s time to make some adjustments in learning and understanding math NOW. The end of the semester will creep up on you before you know it. Remember that learning math is similar to learning a foreign language. If you don't have all the vocabulary words down (basic math concepts), you'll have a hard time forming sentences, writing paragraphs, and speaking the language. So here's to learning, understanding, and actually 'liking', yes, 'liking' mathematics!

Lastly, give your best every time you go to class. You will get out of the course exactly what you put into the course. I believe in hard work, teamwork, honesty, mutual respect, curiosity, smiles, persistence, patience, occasional frustration, and ultimately the reward of pride in a job well done!