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Basic math skills are critical to your survival at every grade level. From kindergarten students to middle school students, from high schoolers to college students, students of all ages can use a little help with their basic math skills.
Fortunately, there are countless math websites, math resources, and math-based educational videos that are available to you completely for free. From math games, math test prep and math videos to comprehensive math centers and learning centers, you can master key mathematical concepts on your own time.
Mathematics is considered one of the most difficult subjects for many students. One study showed that 82% of US students between grades 7 and 10 are struggling with math. While math confidence is a constant issue in the US, the pandemic amplified the problem, thus increasing the fear and loss of interest among students.
To bridge the gap, there are many math resources that provide guided math curriculum and exercise for learners. But why do many students struggle with math? Take a look at some of the most common reasons:
Attention Difficulties: One of the main reasons why math is challenging for so many students is because math requires multi-step solutions. Student have to perform different consecutive steps to find a solution.
Doing so requires an active focus on the math problem at hand. Many students struggle with losing focus and an inability to free themselves from distractions when trying to solve math problems.
Because of the lack of attention, students can potentially miss crucial steps in the problem-solving process. This becomes an especially acute issue when trying to solve problems on their own.
Math Builds Upon Previous Theories. Mathematics experts agree on one thing—that math is built on sequential learning. If one student fails to understand the concept of the previous lesson, chances are, he/she will continue to struggle when newer theories are introduced. To minimize fractions, for example, students have to master division first.
To perform algebra, a student has to be comfortable with multi-step arithmetic, and so on. Sadly, most students struggling with math are embarrassed and uncomfortable to ask questions in class, especially when the teacher has already moved on to the next lesson.
Think of math concepts as building blocks. The foundational layer has to laid before moving on to the next layer (or math concept, as it were). Without the foundation, students will continue to struggle.
Students Learn the Concepts but Lack Understanding. Some students don’t have a hard time executing an operation through repetition. However, not everybody understands the meaning behind it. For instance, students may know that “6x6=36”, simply because they memorized it, and not because they completely understand how multiplication works.
Because of this, many students learn so much from visual presentations, like using small objects (coins, marbles) when learning their multiplication and division. The truth is, students learn differently; and it can be challenging to encompass each student’s unique learning style. That is where individualized learning from different math resources helps.
Impatience and Lack of Practice: There is no secret to succeeding in math. It simply requires practice. A lot of students, unfortunately, do not dedicate enough time to practicing math concepts. There are times when students completely understand a concept, but when a math problem is given, they seem to be at a loss on how or where to begin.
Others are overly confident just by looking at their teachers explain math lessons, only to realize that independently solving math problems tends to be more challenging. There isn’t a single easy or quick solution to mastering math—it requires patience and a lot of practice.
“When Will I Ever Use Math?“: This is a very classic line every math teacher hears. But this line also signifies how students look at math as something they can never use outside of a classroom. Simply put, students cannot connect math to reality, nor do they see any relevance as to how they can use it in their daily lives.
For example, a student struggling with fractions may also have a hard time understanding how to convert ½ fraction to decimal. Conversely, the same student will not have any issue that “half a dollar” is the same as 50 cents. See the disparity? This is what students often experience when they struggle with math.
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