Thursday, February 18, 2016

Last year, my friend confided with me about his daughter’s Math results. He told me that he could not understand why his daughter who seemed to have worked quite hard had not been doing well in her school Math examinations. She not only had completed all her school work daily but had also done many assessment books.

Upon hearing my friend’s concern, I asked him if he could show me his child’s examination paper and he did so.
After studying the paper, I realised that her girl, like many others have lost about 15 marks due to careless mistakes. Thus, I told my friend to get her girl to take note of the following careless mistakes:

- Do not copy the wrong number from the question.

While reading the word problem, a child sees “2” but he writes “5”, or he sees ‘0’ but writes ‘6’.

- Do not transfer the wrong number from 1 step to the next step. 

This can happen if his handwriting is untidy and he may have mistaken the ‘4’ that he wrote for a ‘9’, a ‘6’ for a ‘0’.

- Do not write the wrong operations

A child may write the wrong symbol for the 4 ‘operations’. For e.g., a ‘+’ sign is written instead of a ‘x’ symbol, thus resulting in the wrong answers or marks deducted for the wrong equation.

- Do not miss out on writing the units or write the wrong units

This is quite common for many as they are so used to just writing the answer after doing the workings and forgot to read the question again to see if any units are required. Some may also write the wrong unit. For e.g. the answer should be in “m” but the child wrote “cm”. Or the answer is to be given in “ɭ” but the child wrote “mɭ” instead.
- Do not key in the wrong number while using the calculator

For the P5s and P6s, while using the calculator, they may press the wrong number thus resulting in getting the wrong answers.

My friend listened to my advice and went through past examination papers and revision papers with his daughter. They analysed the past papers together and his daughter resolved not to make the same careless mistakes again. My friend also assured his daughter that it is alright to make mistakes but it is important to learn from the mistake made and not to make the same mistakes again.




My friend then asked me what else he can do to help her daughter for the examination which will be coming soon. I told him to ask her daughter to redo the school’s previous assessment papers, revision papers and even to redo some of her daily schoolwork where she have previously got the wrong answers.


Redoing the school’s revision papers and past schoolwork helps my friend’s daughter to work out the solutions for questions that she has done wrong and gained confidence for the next assessment. In school, normally the teacher will go through every question in the assessment paper and get the student to copy down the answers. Thus, many of the students just copied the solutions without any understanding. Thus, doing the previous assessment paper on their own gives them the assurance that they are actually able to solve their school paper on their own. 


I received a call from my friend after a few weeks. He thanked me for my “tips” and told me that this time round her daughter grade has improved from a ‘C’ grade to a ‘B’ grade. His daughter even told him that for the next Math assessment, she will like to get an ‘A’ grade.


Actually, I have not done much but just offered some simple advice only. Thus, dear parents, if you want your child to do well for his Math assessment, do go through your child’s past papers with him and advise him on the areas that he should take note of.


By: Josh Leong