How to conquer Maths Anxiety?

Math anxiety is a concern for many students. Some students experience occasional problems in understanding the facts of mathematics while others have deep performance related issues in this subject. Many students all over the world tend to freeze during Maths tests, even if they known the procedure to solve the problems, understand all the formulae, equations and arrive at correct answers. So far it has been observed that fear of maths is the biggest obstacle in the path of learning Maths. 

Learning Maths is just like learning any other subject where true mastery can be achieved through practice. Students can outweigh the fear for the subject if they are honest and brave to make mistakes and learn from their mistakes.

Origin of Maths Anxiety
Maths anxiety generally occurs from a limited understanding of the subject. It also arises as a result of poor teaching that leads to unpleasant experiences. Most of the students who don’t understand the concepts, procedures and rules of the problem but try to memorize it, face the problem of anxiety.

Fear factor for Maths would no longer exist if the students follow few simple tips mentioned below:

Ask for early help:
If students face difficulty in a particular chapter, they can ask for tutorial help. Extra help can provide right boost to overcome Maths anxiety and add to their confidence to perform well in tests.


Cramming should be avoided:
Cramming for exams can often enhance Maths anxiety. So, students are advised to avoid cramming. They are suggested to break their study sessions into small portions. It is also advised to deal with problem areas as quickly as possible. All these would help minimize Math anxiety upto a large extent.


Emphasis on regular practice:
The best way to overcome Maths anxiety is to show a student that he/she can solve it correctly and can derive right answers. For the same, students should regularly practice problems related to their weaker sections. Rigorous practice and meticulous efforts would help the students get rid of their fear of Maths and side-by-side would also promote their conceptual understanding.  More and more practice ahead of an exam would help students identify their problem areas, rectify it and consequently boost self-esteem.

Learn Maths in an innovative way
Students who are tired of practicing problems from boring and mundane books can surely add a punch to their study schedule by practicing Maths from online puzzles, quizzes, graphics and animations. Students can go through various animated videos where problems are explained in a simple language for a complete understanding of concepts. These online study material and videos are available 24*7. Students have complete freedom to access this content at their own convenience.

Ask questions if confused:
Students should start learning Maths with a positive attitude and determination. They shouldn’t settle for anything less during the instruction sessions by tutors or teachers. In case of any confusion, they should ask for clear illustrations, demonstrations and simulations.

Teachers and parents of the students can play an important role to make certain that students understand problems in Maths presented to them without any confusion or ambiguity. They can also encourage them to work hard and get more practice. Once the students realize that they can learn Maths like any of the other subjects, the whole notion that Maths is a ‘tough’ subject and the resultant Maths anxiety can become a thing of the past.

Tips and Tricks to Excel in ICSE Papers

Scoring well in ICSE papers is no easy thing considering the vastness of the ICSE syllabus! Scoring good marks in ICSE papers really takes a lot of effort. A disciplined study-regimen that includes regular revision sessions and is backed by good health is a pre-requisite to scoring well in ICSE papers.

To help all you students out there who are preparing for ICSE papers or for that matter any other board papers, here are a few tips and tricks that can help you excel in your exams.

• Study regularly! An important secret to scoring well in ICSE papers is to have a consistent approach towards studies. Regular study sessions will help students stay abreast with the overall pace required to complete the syllabus within the given time-frame. When compared to the various other educational boards operating in India, ICSE has the most expansive syllabus for class 10 examinations. As a result many a times students preparing for ICSE papers find handling the sheer volume in so many subjects, a little difficult. As a precautionary step to avoid last moment chaos and to facilitate effective understanding of concepts, students are advised to study regularly for their ICSE papers. Students can also seek help from various websites that provide ICSE curriculum aligned study material. The study material by these websites provide study content in interesting and fun format in order to accelerate the pace of learning.
• Stay in touch! Ideally, students should study all the major subjects regularly in order to excel in their ICSE papers. But keeping in mind the time that is typically spent by most students in extra curricular activities, tuition sessions, relaxation activities etc. leaving them with very little time for self-study, it may be a little unrealistic to be able to touch all the subjects in a day. However, in order to score well in the ICSE papers students are advised not to lose touch with any of the subjects for more than 2-3 days. If students do not study any subject for a longer period, chances are that recall for that particular subject will be far lesser, and as a result they will lag behind. To help students schedule their studies better, a few websites provide online Study Planner. The Study Planner by these websites is an online organizer that helps students stay abreast with their progress and their level of preparation for each chapter.
• Self-study is a must! Self- study does not mean completing homework, but investing time in studying alone with the primary objective of improving grades in school. To perform well in ICSE papers, students should devote majority of the available time to self-studying. This will help in better and instant understanding of the subjects and lead to a speedy memorization of concepts.
• Study with breaks! In order to break the monotony that is usually a result of long study sessions, it is very essential for students preparing for ICSE papers to inject short breaks in-between their study routines. These short study breaks will help the mind to stay fresh and focused for a longer period. As a result studying for ICSE papers will become easier and also more fun.
• Revise using past year ICSE papers! One of the very important tricks to score well in ICSE papers is to test your knowledge using previous year papers and sample papers. An activity like this helps students assess their preparation levels for the final ICSE papers. As students practice using previous years’ ICSE papers, they can also identify their weak areas and evaluate their time management skills and accordingly work upon it. Students can browse through a lot of websites that provide ICSE curriculum aligned practice and model tests to prepare better for their ICSE papers.
• Eat healthy! The last and the most important tip to score well in ICSE papers is to eat healthy and stay fit. Students should try to increase their intake of fresh fruits and vegetables as it keeps both the body and brain healthy. With ICSE papers approaching, students should restrain themselves from eating food that can hamper their health in any way.

I hope all these tips and tricks will benefit students in many ways and will help make scoring good marks in ICSE papers easy. All the best for your exams!

CBSE Physics

Get your act together for CBSE Physics if you aspire to crack the toughest entrance exams in India and secure a seat in the best engineering college. Thousands of students each year sit for these competitive exams that just have a few hundred seats to offer. With increasing number of students aiming to crack these entrance exams each year, competition levels are soaring. In a situation like this how to keep stress levels under control and prepare well for these entrance exams and also be sure of the performance? After reading this article, questions like these will no longer trouble you. This article will help you arrive at ways that will make cracking the most difficult engineering entrance exam easy. 

• Plan for the academic years in advance! If you are in class XI, now is the right time to start planning and preparing for your engineering entrance exams. Students in class XI and XII should lay emphasis largely on three subjects i.e. CBSE Physics, Maths and Chemistry. Thorough understanding of concepts in these subjects is imperative to help them emerge with flying colours. The engineering entrance examination papers are primarily geared to check the conceptual knowledge of students majorly in these subjects. Therefore, students are advised to start planning for their entrance exams while they are studying in class XI. However, if you have lost out on some precious time, there is no point getting stressed out. Start preparing for these entrance exams right away!
• Get your basics clear! It is of utter importance for students preparing for these engineering entrance exams to have their knowledge of basics concepts and processes in CBSE Physics, Chemistry and Maths crystal clear. The questions asked in these entrance exams are based on the concepts taught in CBSE Physics, Chemistry and Maths for classes XI and XII but of a higher difficulty level. Therefore, before starting to prepare for these engineering entrance exams students are advised to thoroughly go through their NCERT books for CBSE Physics, Chemistry and Maths. While preparing for the entrance exams students should practice hard the end-of-chapter questions in these NCERT books. Students can also choose to seek help from various websites that provide free NCERT solutions for CBSE Physics, CBSE Chemistry and CBSE Maths.
• Pass your CBSE board exams with more than 60% marks! Some students may not know that majority of the engineering institutes in India have an eligibility criteria for admission. As per this eligibility criterion, students should have passed their CBSE board exams with more than 60% marks. A condition like this gives more reasons to students preparing for these entrance exams to take their NCERT books for CBSE Physics, Chemistry and Maths seriously. While preparing for the board exams, students should also practice from the previous years’ board papers for CBSE Physics, Chemistry and Maths. There are a few websites that provide previous years’ solved board papers, model tests and practice tests for these subjects to help students score well in their board exams.
• Seek help from entrance exam aligned test papers! After preparing for your board exams, students should practice concepts from the model question papers and test series for entrance exams. This will help students get a hang of the type of questions that are usually asked in these engineering entrance exams from CBSE Physics, Chemistry and Maths.

Now that all you students know how to prepare for your engineering entrance exams, I am positive that cracking these exams won’t be difficult.

All the best!