Why Do I Hate Math So Much?

The Root … See What We Did There? 

After years of working with many many students, we know for a fact that every single person is able to excel in Maths. The problem we see is that at some point during Maths class, a topic was taught perhaps too quickly, or sometimes just not taught well at all. This has led to the child falling behind for a variety of reasons. While this could happen at any age, very often one of the first instances is around the age of 7-9 years old.

Look, it is hard to have every child understand everything when dealing with a  class of 10, 20 or even 50 students, we fully understand and accept that. Therefore our path is to try to address this and move the child forward. We will share below some of our observations over the years. 

1. The child is too shy to ask for clarification for fear of ridicule amongst his or her peers. No child wants to be the butt of jokes and so sometimes it is easier just to not ask for help and avoid any associated shame.
2. Maths topics tend to build on each topic, so if there is a gap in understanding, then this will lead to mistakes further down the line. Maths is one of these topics that either has a correct or incorrect answer and it becomes evident very quickly if the student understands the Maths problems. If there is a deficiency in understanding, this will almost certainly lead to wrong answers and thus knock the students confidence. 
3. Students who say there is no point in Maths because they will never use it in real life is another common misconception, or perhaps it is a way of justification for poor understanding of Maths. While we agree that not every single topic will be used on a day to day basis, the point of Maths is to learn and apply logical thinking. Of course many of the topics will be used too, and this needs to be demonstrated through real life examples.
4. The fall out from this will snowball to a strong dislike or even hatred of Maths. Indeed this is quite often when people think that they are just not a Maths person, but the truth of the matter is that they just did not have the opportunity to identify and correct instances when understanding was weak.  

Let’s Square This Up … See What We Did There Again? We Love Our Dad Jokes 

The very first thing we would do with any student is rebuild confidence. This will always inevitably mean going back to basics to try to identify where the break down in knowledge has occurred. We start by checking and working on foundation skills such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. If these concepts are well understood then we move on to things like the Order Of Operations, fractions, geometry, and then algebra. These are the foundations of Maths and everything else flows from this point.

While going back a full school year or even more might seem a waste of time for some, the point is about rebuilding confidence. We want the child to say to us that that topic is easy and that they are able to do it. With a renewed confidence, it then becomes significantly easier to start building on existing topics, or even approaching new topics. Typically, we are able to rebuild confidence in around 10 to 20 hours of one on one focused tutorials and would have answered the question Why Do I Hate Math So Much? Once we are back on par with the current class level, it is crucial to maintain this confidence. There are three approaches we take that have worked extremely well for our students. 

1. We first reinforce to the child that if he or she does not understand anything, then they always have the option to ask. It doesn’t matter how basic the question may be. A little secret we share is that if they don’t understand it, then there is a very high likelihood that there will be other students who also don’t understand a concept.
2. Secondly, we practice questions over and over again. Maths is really about logic and applying the correct process to a given problem. So if you see x, then apply step y. Then repeat. Through practice, things start falling in place. In fact, our benchmark for knowing when a student truly understands a topic is when they can start writing their own questions and answer them correctly. It should be noted that this is actually true for pretty much every other subject or task one has to do. Hard work and practice will always beat talent.
3. Third, we will also take students ahead of their current year group. Our rational is that if a child is able to complete more advanced Maths, then whatever they are learning in school will become significantly easier for them, thus continuing to build confidence. We have several students in Primary 5 and 6 who are confidently able to complete GCSE Foundation Maths Exams already. We need to add a caveat here as there is a downside to this third point, and expectations do need to be managed. Specifically, it is very common for advanced students to become bored in their usual school class and hence might lead to behavioural issues in class. Keep it in mind and speak to the child to explain what is going on and how to manage emotions. 

The goal as already mentioned is to evaluate the question Why Do I Hate Math So Much? with a more positive approach through figuring out the root issue, address it, and move forward from there. 

Consistency is crucial at this stage. Practice, understanding, and challenging the child while maintaining confidence is the key. This holds true for Maths and indeed any subject.