You’ve been anxiously awaiting the third—and final—installment of our “Top 10 Math Secrets You Won’t Learn in School.  Click Here to review Part 1 and Here for Part 2.

Here are even more secret tips from The Premier Tutors, guaranteed to help you avoid getting the short end of the math stick!

7. Believe in Yourself and Avoid Math Anxiety.

Students often panic and lose focus when they get stuck on a particular math problem. Your mind starts to race and all of a sudden you can’t focus on the task at hand.  Sound familiar? It’s no secret that stress harms test scores, but did you know that feeling calm and confident can actually improve your math?

Always remain confident of your abilities and constantly remind yourself that you possess the necessary tools to solve any question. Remember “The Little Engine That Could”?  Chant, “I think I can, I think I can, I know I can.” Silence your mind’s chatter so you can focus.

When you feel clueless about how to solve a particular question, it’s a great opportunity for your learning techniques to come into play (see that shift from the negative to the positive? No doubting allowed here!).  Review your work step-by-step and let the knowledge flow back into your calm clear brain.

For more tips on how to beat anxiety, click here.

8. Stare for 10 seconds and Save 2 Minutes.

If you jump headfirst into a problem, trying the “brute force” approach, you might get the right answer, but you might also lead yourself down the wrong path. Unfortunately, you’ll only realize a few minutes later that all your efforts were in vain.

Concentrate on the problem for 10 seconds. Ask yourself, “what is the best way to solve this question” before you actually start working on it. Consider several approaches and then pick the one that will get you to the answer in the most efficient way. It’s as easy as pi (ha ha).

9. Find Cool Ways to Learn a Formula and Know Them For Life!

Here are some of our favorites, you can find hundreds more for anything you are trying to memorize:

“Cherry pie’s delicious, Apple pies are too.”

C = πd. A = π(r2). Calculate the circumference of a circle by multiplying pi and the diameter. Calculate the area of a circle by multiplying pi with the radius squared.

“Some People Have Curly Brown Hair Till Painted Black.”

sin = perpendicular/hypotenuse, cos = base/hypotenuse, tan = perpendicular/base

√2 = 1.4 (2/14 – Valentine’s Day)
√3 = 1.7 (3/17 – St. Patty’s Day)

Don’t like our rhymes? You can make up your own.  It’s a fun way to take a break in a study group and come up with funny rhymes you and your friends can remember on the test.

If you like learning rhymes check out this one for PEMDAS, or as we say around the Premier Tutors, “Some people have curly brown hair till painted black”

*BONUS SECRET!* (that’s right, baby!  A free bonus just for you!)

10. Hire Us and Learn Math Right the First Time Around!

These were just some of the great math tricks up our sleeve—at TPT, the first session is FREE, and we’re going to give you every tip we can squeeze into that one hour! The point is that tutors can really help! Whether you want to give us a try, or have a friend who can help you, getting extra help outside the classroom can help you understand the material in a different way.

Keep checking out our blog for more great ideas to help you learn and reduce anxiety around education.  Learning should be fun!