singaporeolevelmaths

Simple Tips for Better Maths Results!

Ai Ling Ong

Vote For singaporeolevelmaths!

It always feels good when someone compliments you. Be it your clothing, the way you talk, your new look, your new acquired wisdom...We all love compliments, don't we?

I love to hear comments from readers. Just recently, I got a very motivating comment from one of our readers. Thank you.
Comments keep me going in times when I feel burnt out, feel exhausted but when I think of how much my tips and strategies are going to help students, parents and even teachers, I simply keep going :-)

Those who have the opportunity to spend time with me notice the many "Thank You","Awesome","Nice", "Well Done" for every little actions student do. Acknowledge students for their effort, courage to answer a question, the guts to even raise hands in response to the question asked.

Acknowledging Partcipicants is one of the every important tips for parents, teachers and trainers to build the rapport crucial for coaching, not nagging, not talking to the wall .

[Read more...] about Vote For singaporeolevelmaths!

Quadratic Equation Discriminant Proving Question

I realize many students have a challenge with presenting the solution of proving question. I am going to illustrate the correct way using the following question.

Show that is always positive for all real values of x.

=> what is always +ve? the values of y not x ( x can be of any values)

=> The graph will not touch x-axis; it is "hanging" above the x-axis

=> No roots, hence discriminant is less than 0

TIPS FOR SHOWING/PROVING QUESTION

  • Have an end in your mind. Be clear of the underlying concepts that the question is asking you to prove. Work towards that. For example, in the question, we want to prove that the discriminant is less than 0. <== this is the end.
  • Sketch to have a clearer idea.

quadraticprovingqn.jpgquadraticprovingqn.jpg

What Is The Difference Between Sketch And Draw?

It is important to know the difference between Sketch A Graph & Draw A Graph.

Sketch ==>

  • On foolscap paper
  • Best Representation of the graph
  • Less time as it reflects only the general shape of the graph.

Draw ==>

  • On graph paper
  • Accurate representation of the graph
  • More time needed as it usually involves more points on the graph
  • Curve rule/french curve is usually required.

Example:

Sketch y=-3x+1

What I will do :

  1. Find x-intercept (i.e. set y = 0)
    x=\frac{1}{3}
  2. Find y-intercept (i.e. set x = 0) y = 1
  3. Put the 2 points on the axes I have drawn on foolscap, join the 2 points, label the line.

Draw y=-3x+1

  1. Set up a table of 3 values of x choosen randomly i.e x = -1 , 0, 1
  2. Find out values of y for each value of x by substituting into the equation of the line.
  3. Plot the points on a graph paper accurately.
  4. Join the 3 points, label the line.

Good in straight line? You might want to check out how you can draw Exponential Graph here even with NO Math knowledge.

Effective Learning Tips from SimpleChemConcepts

effective-learning-tips.PNG

Recently I was following SimpleChemConcepts Effective Learning Tips Series by Sean. They are extremely useful if and only if you apply them on yourself.

Though the learning tips are more towards Chemistry, there are a few tips which I think are applicable for any subject you are learning.

This is one of them:

"Ask questions about anything you are not clear about or require further information or clarification about.No questions are stupid"

Learning is about understanding new concepts and clarification of thoughts which will then lead to true mastery of the subject.

2 Learning Strategies I Live By Personally

  1. I take every chance to share with others on what I have learnt. By sharing, not only do I reinforce my understanding, I gather more insight and new perspectives sometimes, adding on to my wealth of knowledge.
  2. Whenever I learnt something new, I find opportunities to keep applying them and see the outcomes I get. If the outcome is desirable, I will keep using the new strategies.

If you have more learning strategies which have helped you to learn better and faster, share with us on the comments section below. We would love to learn more, wouldn't we? :-)

arrow-down.gif