MAKING WAEC/NECO MATHS MAKE SENSE –
COMPILED BY OLUKAYODE ODUMOSU, EX-PROPRIETOR, MASON COLLEGE, FESTAC,LAGOS
maths can be heaven but you need to be born again about it!...PREAMBLE84 STEPS TO MATHS HEAVEN IS A BOLD ATTEMPT TO PORTRAY MATHS IN A MORE REALISTIC AND FRIENDLIER MANNER THAN MANY TUTORS BOTHER TO MAKE IT APPEAR.IT IS A COMPILATION OF MATHS METHODS AND NOT A WRITE-UP ON PARTICULAR TOPICS UNDER MATHEMATICS.THOUGH IT MIGHT BE USEFUL FOR REGULAR SENIOR SCHOOL MATHS CLASSES IT IS MORE USEFUL AS A PSYCHOLOGICAL BOOSTER FOR MATHS CLINICS OR MATHS REMEDIAL CLASSES.KINDLY TAKE NOTE OF THIS1.In this write-up “maths” means mathematics.2.So you think maths is a difficult subject? Yes many other students think so too. But have you asked yourself why?3.Experiences over the years have pointed to many reasons why and this include family stories that "maths is difficult".4.Terror-producing teaching methods by teachers who don’t really know how to teach the subject is another reason. Many students have been victims of their fuzzy or meaningless explanations. Many of them forget that maths teaching should be seen as "assisted performance" to students. How do student make any progress in maths when they cannot make sense of any key topic or mathematical operations? For instance, what does 20 ÷ 5 or 30 ÷ 1/2 + 10 mean in real life? Here I am not referring to the answer but that the teacher needs to explain what the operations mean in practical terms.5.Similarly, many teachers do not believe that a student can work above what they think is the competence of the student. Hence they make very little effort at what is called remedial work, maths clinics, maths continuous practice and maths special programs as in Mason College.6.Emphatically ,it is obvious that many teachers fail to link maths to real life. Many teach maths without physical or pictorial examples. They expect students to be "mathematically correct" by assuming that each one should be able to think ABSTRACTLY. Not even the commonest and cheapest educational aids are used. They assume that every student must have a "mathematical mind" leading to a rather austere portrayal of the subject.7.Yes, we will not leave teachers alone! We cannot but refer to many of them using robotic, imitative, memorized styles of teaching with little conceptual guiding. It is a fact that no one can make maths easy. But it should be taught with a soul.8.Naturally, many students are afraid of maths because of its difficult words. Sometimes, the problem comes from maths questions too. These can be confusing. Add to these a lot of formulae which students are not asked to prove nowadays as in the past .In which case many cannot be remembered easily. In summary, many students cannot even understand the purpose of maths."Poor teaching leads to the inevitable idea that the subject (mathematics) is only adapted to peculiar minds, when it is the one universal science and the one whose ground rules are taught us almost in infancy and reappear in the motions of the universe." Henry J.S. Smith (above)
GOOD NEWS!!9.But there is good news for you. There are actually other tutors who care for your feelings about maths. We believe we can make you make sense out of maths. You can become friendlier with maths. You can “walk the walk and talk the talk” of maths.10.To do this, you must understand that maths is a language and not a "spirit". Yes the teaching or learning of mathematics should be regarded initially as the extension of the teaching of a foreign language from which you acquire some proficiency through certain rules and practices.Those rules must be observed otherwise practice will be difficult.On the other hand those rules will be not be useful without practice.
11.It must be noted that the rules are based on logic and reasoning before maths can be made intelligible. Fortunately all of us can reason whether we are in JSS 1 or SS 3. In fact, we do reason all the time or don’t we? When we have our bath early in the morning, we do not bite the soap. When we eat we do not put the fork or spoon in our eyes or on our heads. We know what is good and what can be harmful to us. When our parents speak to us or when we listen to our church pastor or the imam in the mosque we “reason out what they tell us. We query what appears to make no sense at all. Therefore the first basic ingredient for our maths soup which is ability for logic and reasoning is possessed by all of us.
12.Next maths is a living subject which requires thinking (mental effort) along with reasoning. There must be a deliberate thought process that we want to reason things out in a maths situation because many of them are abstract (the tutor must explain this clearly to the student).Under paragraph 10 above we referred to “rules and practice” as the basis for making sense out of mathematics. So what are these rules? They are as follows:CATEGORIZE the seven branches of maths (maths can be categorized into 7 main branches)
EMPHASIZE your understanding of the basic concepts and principles of maths.VISUALIZE & CRYSTALLIZE maths through question phrases.RECOGNIZE useful hints, formulas, signs, symbols and notations.MEMORIZE the procedural steps for maths solutions.Now let us consider additional notes on these in detailNEXT: DETAILED NOTES ON THE SEVEN BRANCHES OF MATHEMATICS AND HOW KNOWING THEM CAN HELP YOU MAKE SENSE OUT OF MATHS
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