Want to ace your A Maths at the O levels....???

...then you would have to practise.  Sorry, there are no short cuts here. Practise like it's a competition. It is a tug of war between the math question and you. Do you want to let the question prevail, or will you better it?

I read an article about a Chinese lady who shares her parenting role. She says the Chinese parents will always push their children to greater heights. They will do everything in their power to ensure that their children put in 100% effort to get things right. If they are not right, they will look at what happened and will set the motion to correct it. Then and there! Not tomorrow, not next week. Now! They will master it before they retire.

While I don't fully subscribe to the lady's child-rearing methods, some things she said did make sense. If you want to enjoy doing something, you must first be good at it. Hence, you would have to break into the system and get the body and mind moving together as one. It is the same for music, for sport and for A Maths.  You must first put in the hours. You have to master the subject; not let the subject master you.

No one who ever amounted to anything took the short cut. There is no greatness in the easy way. As the Chinese say, "You have to eat hardship before you can enjoy the spoils."  There is certainly truth in that.  So, this is the first step kids. Learn, practise, preactise and practise some more. Soon you will see the patterns and the answer will jump at you.

Don't believe me? Why don't you try it out?

You will be amazed at what you can achieve by it.

Take care!

For those of you starting your A Maths journey this year...

I thought I'd start the 2011 series of A Maths blogs on an advice: "Don't give up". I know this is a cliche and we have heard it too many times before, but it is so true, especially for A Maths. And for those of you who are just starting on it, you might feel overwhelmed by it in the beginning.

Don't give up.

It is important to understand that A Maths is training you for higher order thinking. You would not have had any such subjects before and it may be daunting.

Don't give up.

You must always look for connections; understand the basics and.... you got it -

don't give up.

Lastly, you must bone up on your algebraic manipulations, solving of algebraic equations and the like. A Maths takes your understanding of these things and projects them to a higher plane. So if you think that your algebra is shaking, it would be best to start practising on it. It will save your A Maths life!

Have a great 2011!