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To all maths students everywhere, but particularly to my maths students,
You know how, in non-mathematical subjects, you have to explain things clearly when you're answering questions? Yes? And you know how sometimes you have write things down in such a way that somebody else might have a hope of understanding it? Yes? Well, here's the thing. You should probably do that when answering maths questions too.
So, as well as making sure you do all the obvious stuff like writing legibly and neatly, try including some actual words as part of your answer. Yeah, I know what you're thinking; maths is all about calculations using symbols, right? Well, no. Maths is about ideas. Sometimes those ideas can best be expressed using symbols such as + or = or f(x), but sometimes everyday language can express those ideas best. Besides, including brief sentences -- yes, sentences made out of words -- stating what you're attempting to do at each stage of your working will help you keep track of your thoughts just as much as it helps somebody reading follow what you're up to.
Also, and please do try your best to respect the fact that people generally read from the top of a page to the bottom of a page. It's just a silly convention we have. I'm sure that if the world had developed differently then it'd be perfectly typical for text to start in the middle of a page before moving down and to the right and then finally jumping unpredictably up to the top left, jumping around and filling in any blank space wherever it may happen to be. But written communication didn't develop that way so do stick to going from top to bottom. Left to right within that would be good too.
Oh, and do try to remember what you did in class too. It helps.
Finally, don't bother mentioning any irrelevant stuff like the fact that Jo had a bit of a shocker on today's Deal or No Deal. Although she did still win 2700 quid.
Yours sincerely
Mister Al
You know how, in non-mathematical subjects, you have to explain things clearly when you're answering questions? Yes? And you know how sometimes you have write things down in such a way that somebody else might have a hope of understanding it? Yes? Well, here's the thing. You should probably do that when answering maths questions too.
So, as well as making sure you do all the obvious stuff like writing legibly and neatly, try including some actual words as part of your answer. Yeah, I know what you're thinking; maths is all about calculations using symbols, right? Well, no. Maths is about ideas. Sometimes those ideas can best be expressed using symbols such as + or = or f(x), but sometimes everyday language can express those ideas best. Besides, including brief sentences -- yes, sentences made out of words -- stating what you're attempting to do at each stage of your working will help you keep track of your thoughts just as much as it helps somebody reading follow what you're up to.
Also, and please do try your best to respect the fact that people generally read from the top of a page to the bottom of a page. It's just a silly convention we have. I'm sure that if the world had developed differently then it'd be perfectly typical for text to start in the middle of a page before moving down and to the right and then finally jumping unpredictably up to the top left, jumping around and filling in any blank space wherever it may happen to be. But written communication didn't develop that way so do stick to going from top to bottom. Left to right within that would be good too.
Oh, and do try to remember what you did in class too. It helps.
Finally, don't bother mentioning any irrelevant stuff like the fact that Jo had a bit of a shocker on today's Deal or No Deal. Although she did still win 2700 quid.
Yours sincerely
Mister Al