Maths Study Tips I

This is my 50'th blog post! so as a way of celebration, I thought I would share an old Jedi Mind Trick.

A quick war story first:

I took a professional, 3 hour exam about 8yrs ago, in which I needed to learn, one-thousand pages of law, in great detail. 

I took the exam twice.  The first time I took it, I just read the material over and over again, and felt I had a good grasp of it.  I failed the exam on that occasion by 2%.

So, the following year, I re-sat the exam, but this time, I radically altered my approach and used the technique, that I describe below. 

This time, I read the books through and then started to put together practise exam questions, based on the text.  But I didn't just do the questions once, or twice, or even ten times.  I completed each practise questions, 50+ times.

By the time I had finished, I could even close my eyes and see the page in front of me, almost word for word.  It was like when you look at a bright light, close your eyes and still see the image.  I have no special skills (apart from Jedi Mind Tricks), It was just through practise,  nothing more and nothing less.

I scored 100% in that second exam.  I later learnt that I am the only person, to date, in the country, to have taken that exam and scored 100% in it.  That is out of over 100,000 people that have taken it, in the last 8yrs.

Why am I boring you with this?

Well, I believe that my exam revision technique works and, what’s more, it is perfectly suited to maths.

I noticed that when I first started studying maths with the OU, that I fell into a pattern of study, without too much thought.  It was roughly balanced as below:

50% - reading new material

45% - writing Coursework (TMA's)

5% - doing practise questions

Based on my Jedi exam prep technique, I quickly amended it to:

30% - reading new material

30% - writing TMA's

40% - doing practise questions

But, you may ask, where can I find all of those practise question, to test my knowledge?  Well, I have a stock of questions that I have collected from the OU texts and exercise books.  Also, I have several good text books such as Spivak et al.  I have written out, all of the practise questions, that best reflect the syllabus and all of the pit falls, for each area of maths.  I have just chosen one carefully selected question, for each learning point.

 [This selection of questions takes time, but it is probably the most productive use of time, in my whole year, without exception].

I then repeatedly do those sums, over and over and over, until I can do them in my sleep (not an exaggeration, I actually dream about this stuff). 

It doesn't matter that you are using the same sums repeatedly. The structure of how to answer these practise problems will be so ingrained into the subconscious that they will never, ever leave you; a bit like your times-tables.

So, when a similar exam problem comes along, but it contains different variables, constants, notations or even a different structure; your amazing brain won't panic, it will simply adapt.  It will solve the problem, based on your solid knowledge, built up through good old fashioned 'elbow grease'.

If I can find the time, I am currently considering starting a comprehensive didactic compendium of several hundred / thousand study questions and solutions, covering my entire maths journey, from 1+1= 2, right through to Post Grad MSc work; along with an explanation of how to use the questions and get the best out of them.  The practise-question method, works for me; so maybe I could share it, in a structured way, with other students, in the long-term. 

If I can find a willing computer geek, I might even try and build some software / smartphone app, that alters the parameters of each question and provides meaningful feedback after each study session.  My computer knowledge isn't that good, so it will definitely take collaboration of some sort. As a very wise man once said, 'I, have a cunning plan', almost.