My Person Journey in Mathematics
In year 7, I used to be one of the weakest maths students in my class, nowadays I tutor Maths Methods, Specialist Maths and I also study Engineering at Monash University.
What changed? Am I naturally smart? Did my brain grow?
When people call me smart – the very first thing that I think is “I created my smartness”. I was never one of those “super-smart” students that seem to understand concepts instantly. Education used to be a continuous uphill and painful journey for me – it wasn’t easy.
When the end of the year reports came out in year 7, my mum became concerned about my marks in maths. I told her that I really wanted to improve – so she signed me up to Kumon starting from 2000. I was enrolled into level B, which started me off from simple addition and subtractions – some 5 year olds were doing more advanced concepts than me.
When I saw this, something made me so internally angry and embarrassed – I desperately wanted to improve my mathematics. I was 100% sure that if I tried hard enough, did the correct amount of work and wholeheartedly desired to improve my marks I would become a much more successful maths student. I recall competing with myself – setting personal best times to finish homework sheets and imagined my mum’s reaction to my improved marks.
I continued to work with great enthusiasm – as I began to see results my motivation grew stronger. Although at school we were covering more difficult topics, the gap was starting to narrow. I began to improve my school test grades and grow in confidence within my class. By 2 months I was up to level D – this was due to my motivation, will power and hard work.
I worked hard in Kumon for the entire year – I was very committed to change my marks, by the beginning of year 9 I was almost finished level G. I caught up to the theory that school was covering – and my marks at school improved significantly. I was regularly obtaining 95% – 100% on tests and finishing them with time to spare, as well as finding mistakes in the test papers. I continued to try hard in Kumon and I reached level K by the end of year 9. That year I won an academic prize for my Maths.
By year 10 I was confident in my maths, however the Kumon work started to get too difficult – I reached level N however I did not want to continue anymore because I couldn’t do the work and the Kumon supervisor never seemed to have enough time to teach me the theory (vector calculus). I won another academic excellence prize in that year – without studying for any tests, just going over the theory the night before.
So Methods was easy for me? Specialist too? I wish! Even after being the maths prize winner for 2 years and obtaining an average mark of 98% I found myself struggling with Specialist maths. Methods was a bit better because I knew the basics from Kumon, but when it came to applying and relating this to real life it was a struggle.
Did I find an amazing strategy to unlock the secrets of success in Methods or Specialist Maths? Pfffft I wish! Unfortunately, I began averaging 70% in Methods and 60% in Specialist – I was continuously losing my marks due to careless errors and high levels of stress. This was a large drop in maths marks! From an average of 98% in year 10 to 60-70% in year 11. My mum saw that I was struggling and suggested that I get a private tutor – however even with the private tutor my marks did not increase significantly. Nowadays I know it was because ultimately I was completing the tests and approaching the exams – and the self-image I held of myself was determining the extent of success.
Year 11 proved to be a challenging year – it was a big leap from year 10. There was more workload, harder exams and more difficult subjects. As I went through the long holidays, I was continually worried about year 12, I wanted to obtain a very high ENTER and I knew that this was my absolute last chance.
As year 12 started I began working very hard, I attended about 2-3 hours of tutoring a day and then studied regularly to 1 or 2 am. Yes I did overdo it – and I will be discussing these mistakes in other articles.
Although I was getting better marks and had a better grasp of the topics, the results were not as great as some of my other friends (most who self-studied)– I found this incredibly frustrating and it turned out to be a very challenging year. In the end my hard work in my Maths paid off – but it had a great toll on my general wellbeing during 2004 (my VCE year). However if I could go back in time and change something, I wouldn’t because then if would not save other people falling into the same trap.
The purpose of this journey is to see that;
(1) You will not improve in any subject until you really want to;
The motivation/inspiration will not happen if a student doesn’t care about their school work. I had friends in Kumon with me, that were much brighter and they did not obtain benefit from their experience because they didn’t care about maths or their performance in academics.
(2) To achieve any result take 100% responsibility for your education;
Blaming your teachers or school for your results will not get you anywhere. Although it can be fun, and a nice way to vent negative emotions – if you want those marks to rise from C to A become more independent in your studies. If you do not understand a topic there are many ways out there in order to find the answer – take charge and watch those marks improve!
(3) Do not overdo the tutoring;
***Gasp*** fancy that! A tutoring centre advising you not to take up too much tutoring – are we insane?! No (well maybe I am a little bit) but Academy Plus just cares about your studies and we want you to get the best for your money’s worth.
Tutoring should be there to get question assistance from a professional – and to clarify uncertainties in topics. It should not be a replacement for school! As a student you must learn to develop a question answering system – because ultimately you may have the smartest tutor in town, but he/she will not be sitting your exam for you.
(4) Its not about how much you do ; it’s your style that counts!
I always believed that if I work harder I will get better results. Now from my experience during VCE, at university and business I am absolutely confident that it is not so much how hard you work. It is how you view yourself and how much faith you have in your own ability! Instead of working hard – make your new motto working smart & effectively.
