5 Common Mistakes That Can Ruin Your Grades

In this video I talk about 5 common mistakes that can ruin your grades. While this video is really directed towards math these mistakes can really affect you when you are studying other subjects as well. If you are taking classes in college or high school, these are things you really should try to avoid. Do you have any advice for people? If so, please leave a comment below.

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1. Devote enough time to practice daily.
2. Focused/concentrated study time.
3. Understand the learning process, it takes time and practice to grasp the concepts and pattern.
4. READ THE PHYSICAL
5. Start doing your homework daily, get stuck, get wrong but this is the only way to learn.

[thecodingcanuck]

No joke, the #1 mistake that ruined my grades was playing World of warcraft.... 😅

[Steve_Stowers]

A couple of my thoughts:

On #1: It's important to spend enough time studying, but it's also important to spend enough time doing the other things you need to do to maintain your physical and mental health, especially sleeping. In particular, if you have a big test the next morning, getting a good night's sleep may be a better strategy than staying up all night studying.

On #5: Too many students don't seem to realize that (at least in math) doing the homework is supposed to be a learning experience. I think maybe they think of it as a chance to show off what they already know, or as just pointless busy-work.

[levinb]

I have a counter argument to all of this unfortunately. Coming from someone who’s public school job is to support high school students in math. Also someone who is a private tutor as well in math through Calculus. The issue is that we don’t have equitable education and perhaps never will. In fact, anyone who can afford a tutor is automatically ahead of other students. This is because quite often students need to relearn and/or reinforce ALL the rules of math as they advance from Algebra I onwards. Most people forget or aren’t conscious of all math rules and operations between pre algebra and onto Calculus. Having an expert evaluate and support each step of math makes for superior education plus superior quality time spent working. If you’re studying math without that personal expert near by, one road block or frustrating problem could mean you’re not going to learn and hence not remember the content going forward. I’ve seen so many students literally give up on sections or even chapters of learning because they feel stuck and without support to get them through. Then, compound all those frustrating moments over years of math instruction that is failing to meet the rigor of tutor-educated students and we get a “well intentioned” curriculum without an honest conversation about math with personal tutors versus math without.

[amvsenkai]

A lot of wisdom from The Math Sorcerer! Thanks for sharing your thoughts and helping students like me succeed in education!

[Kareem_Alcindor]

Great advice, Math Sorcerer! I would suggest anyone battling procrastination to try the Pomodoro Technique. This method since I have been using it has been like the second coming of Krishna for me. It involves starting and simply setting a goal of 25-30 minutes (can be adjusted) at a time and then taking a 5 min break. I realized, more often than note, I would continue working even past my initial target and when I would stop to take the break, I would feel the urge of not taking it fully to finish whatever problem I was working on. So it essentially gave me Reverse Procrastination Anxiety which motivated me to actually finish whatever problem set I was working on.

[richardgray]

Solid advice. I barely acraped by as a math minor at a third-tier (in math, but not in football and basketball) state university, and I made ALL of those mistakes ALL the time.

[DutchNorthAtlanticAlliance]

Amazing as always, the timer thing is indeed very effective. The problem I struggle with is, that I find it hard to stop studying, meaning: just stop, go to bed and make sure homework for other math subjects are also getting done. As my student advisor said to me: I study as if I'm a master's student already, but that is not going to get me my bachelors degree.

[cristianlezama]

I agree about the math book part. Now everything is on mymathlab. What's worse is that the problems in the homework (from mymathlab) are not like the problems on the test. Videos are great for guidance, especially if you don't have a good teacher who explains the material well, or at all.

[christianpatricio]

My physics grade aren't great, and I procrastinate a lot, so I'll try your advice. 
Thank you! Math sorcerer ❤️

[pwmiles]

With maths, you do it till it's done. Time is irrelevant.

Here is the work pattern I adopted as a first year maths undergraduate at Cambridge, UK, in the 1970s. The lecture schedule was curious: 2 hours a day, Monday to Saturday. Back then there were no PCs or smartphones, so everyone had lots more time. I got a First that year.

11am-1pm Lectures
Lunch
2pm-7pm Loaf around town. Occasional supervisions
Supper
8pm-12pm Drink in college bar
12pm-3am Read SF books
3am-4am Do maths examples
4am-10:50am Lie in drunken stupor
10:50 am-11am Put on least smelly clothes, jump on bike, head to lectures

[neelg]

Just got a B on my first graduate level math course midterm… felt like a putnam level exam but a lot of actual grad students (I’m an undergrad) did well. I wish I did better, and I spent a lot of time with the practice tests to the point that I knew what questions were to be asked, and since it’s grad level the test information isn’t like given out, but it’s just up until the last week of studying I had half assed all the hws since they felt too hard and arbitrary to the point that when the test arrived my only hope was busting ass trying to scrape up some problem solving skills by going to office hours, so this vid comes at a great time. I’m just looking at my schooling and even a week of intense work can’t make up for timed book and fundamental learning. And when profs give out notes and you yourself aren’t seeking out the book, you can miss out some of the beauty in the class. Time to get to work be kind to myself and map out a study plan for the final to maybe even you never know get an A. It just takes 10000 hrs to get good at something (especially grad math courses) and you just better serve that time forward.

[adamaubry]

Its amazing how many questions the teacher will use out of the book. My go to review method before test is to go through every odd end of chapter promblems and if i get stuck or need a better understanding of a promblem I use photomaths text books soultions that will give the most in depth walk through of the promblem i could ask for. If I get through all the chapter reviews before test day i feel cofident and have little gaps in my knowledge. Creating a structured review strategy that i can rely on has help to perform at my best even when i tell myself i will never be able to grasp all the topics .

[davidsoto]

Excellent video. I like having the physical book. I like traditional homework better. Online homework makes the professor, s job easier but the student, s job of studying and learning harder.

[alokmrP]

Namaste Sensei.
The "Reading a book" one is really important when I was graduating, I used to skip those parts when one of my friends (obviously smarter than me) told me to go through the complete book it was then only I started getting the hang of what math really is.
Thanks for the hard work, Sensei.
I have got a joke.
"You know what seems odd to me"


A number not divisible by 2.

[mannydossantos]

Fantastic and invaluable advice! In my experience, procrastination is probably the Achille's Heel of most students as it impacts study time, more specifically quality study time. Whilst studying, distractions be it in non-mathematical thoughts (i.e. partying, socializing, etc) or external physical noises (TV blaring, dogs barking, etc), impact directly on the focus of most students. It takes a lot of discipline and effort to overcome these weaknesses, but one easy way to overcome them is to love mathematics... it generates immense self-motivation. By the way, I too much prefer the physical paper books which are easy to read and work from, rather than e-books which are just abstract directory entries on my computer screen.

[btsmochimi]

thanks for validating my overall sentiments. you made me motivated without butchering my feelings too much.

[Aaron-lpzt]

I am in my third year of electrical engineering, and I almost always start my homework the day it's due + hand it in 10 minutes before the deadline. I just can't stop procrastinating. I am trying to fix it by printing the materials off the internet and using a physical textbook so I can't use the computer.

[ardiris]

The first action I performed with any textbook was look through it, spending 2 or 3 seconds on each page. My main interest was diagrams, headings and bold words. If nothing else, it gave my subconscious something to chew on.

[roselienchen]

You‘re here when we need you the most. Thank you ❤