Home › Forums › Decaffeinated Coffee › Studying for a Really Hard Course
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February 15, 2013 5:58 am at 5:58 am #608224Torah613TorahParticipant
I’m taking a higher level math class, and totally overwhelmed by the pace we are learning. I study at least an hour a day for it. I am still only getting in the 80’s on quizzes and 70’s on the optional homework. The class is graded on a curve; I imagine the percentile correlates with grades in class.
Any tips for effective studying? I already rewrite my notes, go to at least one tutoring session a week, do the practice examples, have a study group and do the optional homework.
February 15, 2013 6:21 am at 6:21 am #933334SaysMeMemberfor math, there’s 2 things to do. 1- make sure you understand the concepts and ideas. 2- practice practice practice. Forget the notes, just keep doing examples. When you get back the homework with the 70, redo it looking at the answer key for help, then redo it again without the key. Thats the best math advice pointers i have… Good luck!
February 15, 2013 6:36 am at 6:36 am #933335WIYMemberTorah
I wish you the best of hatzlacha. Math and I never got along 🙁
I would say try more tutoring and make sure you make the most of those lessons come prepared with questions and difficulties.
February 15, 2013 7:17 pm at 7:17 pm #933337ThePurpleOneMemberwow sounds challenging.. watever u do pls dont drop the class!! i was in a regents math class two yrs ago and was in 7th grade and felt just like u!! got either very good marks (96,99 type) or very bad marks (75 type..) in the end i switched out of the class 2 weeks b4 the regent and soo regret it now!! first my skl x even let me cuz they knew was btr 4 me..after all that hard work i just failed the challenge and now gotta take another yr of hs math.. ull feel terrible abt urslef if u switch out!! jus keep ur head up and dont let urself down!! gluck!! and daven to Hashem for help!!
February 15, 2013 7:57 pm at 7:57 pm #933338Torah613TorahParticipantSaysMe: I redo all my quizzes to get points back. Thanks, those are good tips.
ThePurpleOne: Thanks for your encouragement. You’re right, I’ve been feeling like maybe if I’m just going to fail maybe I should drop it, and you’re right that it will be even worse if I drop out and have to retake it.
I loved the regents math. You don’t really need class, just do the practice problems and you’ll be fine. But if you want to go to college later for any math/science type field, make sure you know your trigonometry really well.
February 15, 2013 8:50 pm at 8:50 pm #933339supermeMemberGEOMETREY IS MURDER THIS YEAR LAST YEAR WAS ALGEBRA AND WAS SMICKS so last yrs mark lowest was 85and othersallabove 90 andnow highest mark was 80 but alot of 70 🙁
Good luck to you at least ur done hs I’ll hav to do itagain in college
February 15, 2013 8:58 pm at 8:58 pm #933340ThePurpleOneMembertorah-
i didnt mean ull fail the class, i meant ull fail the challenge…
superme- oh dear im so excited!! jk.. i better get at least a 95 or else im guna b rlly upset..
i plan on going to college for a science/med field so hopefully only math for prereqs rite?
February 15, 2013 10:09 pm at 10:09 pm #933341supermeMemberPurpleone stop worrying about It and enjoy life w/o tests in life noone cares if ur a 100 student what they care about is ur middos bein Adam lchvero derech eretz level of frumkheit personality etc I guarantee u someone will not take youout on a date and ask you what u got in math if so then he’s not the guy for you!!!!! Relax with the tests you end up doing btw that wy by not staying up till 3 am and waking up at 5 am to studymore no not the way and on ur thread about doc I can now see why your not feeling well u shod go into health store and ask them for a destresser or chill pill so u can relax…….
February 17, 2013 12:14 am at 12:14 am #933342Torah613TorahParticipantTPO: Nobody in real life cares about how you did in HS. Really. I can tell you from experience that if you get a near-perfect or perfect score on your SATs, GREs, or whatever standardized test there is, you’re set even if you’re a C student. So do not worry about high school level math tests.
February 17, 2013 12:25 am at 12:25 am #933343supermeMemberTorah613…- thanks for summarizing my post 🙂
February 17, 2013 1:23 am at 1:23 am #933344WIYMemberTorah
Why you giving her bad advice? If she doesnt try hard in highschool and doesnt know the material the odds of doing well on an SAT or GRE are quite low.
February 17, 2013 1:35 am at 1:35 am #933345supermeMemberthats not what really matters in life
February 17, 2013 1:54 am at 1:54 am #933346Torah613TorahParticipantWIY: I didn’t try hard in high school and studied very hard for the SATs and did just fine.
February 17, 2013 1:56 am at 1:56 am #933347popa_bar_abbaParticipantWIY: I didn’t try hard in high school and studied very hard for the SATs and did just fine.
Anyone who doesn’t score in the 99th percentile is an idiot.
Anyone who does is also an idiot for taking the test.
February 17, 2013 1:59 am at 1:59 am #933348WIYMemberTorah613Torah
That doesn’t make it right. Also, you may be a lot smarter than she is and other factors likely came into play. Just because it worked for you in no way means it will work for others.
February 17, 2013 2:00 am at 2:00 am #933349Torah613TorahParticipantPopa: Correct. So I picked the lesser of two idiots. 🙂
February 17, 2013 2:03 am at 2:03 am #933350Torah613TorahParticipantWIY: Maybe. I think that most students in BY high school are way too stressed out. They can enjoy their high school years. You’re anyway going to be taking your high school classes again as per-requisites, so you should only study hard for secular studies if you are getting college credit.
February 17, 2013 2:28 am at 2:28 am #933351OneOfManyParticipantNobody in real life cares about how you did in HS.
Learning things is only kedai if people care in real life?
February 17, 2013 2:38 am at 2:38 am #933352Torah613TorahParticipantOOM: Yes for secular subjects. For Torah subjects, you are growing as a person, so you should study even more than for the tests. For secular studies, you just need it for a parnasa, so no need to obsess about it.
February 17, 2013 2:39 am at 2:39 am #933353OneOfManyParticipantbahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
February 17, 2013 2:41 am at 2:41 am #933354WIYMemberTorah613Torah
Nobody says be stressed out. The whole concept of stressed out kids is a fairly recent phenomenon and something that needs to be addressed, however the stress may not necessarily be due to the amount of work.
However, it is important that we should urge our kids to be responsible and try their hardest in all things they do. Its just bad chinuch and foolish advice to you tell teenagers that its fine to not try hard in anything.
“OOM: Yes for secular subjects. For Torah subjects, you are growing as a person, so you should study even more than for the tests. For secular studies, you just need it for a parnasa, so no need to obsess about it.”
You make it sound like Parnassah is something that comes easy. I would think that those who did well in highschool because they were diligent have developed an important skill that will enable them to do well in college and at their future job.
February 17, 2013 2:42 am at 2:42 am #933355Torah613TorahParticipantOOM: I take it you don’t agree?
February 17, 2013 2:49 am at 2:49 am #933356OneOfManyParticipantwhat clued you in
February 17, 2013 2:50 am at 2:50 am #933357Torah613TorahParticipantWIY: I learned diligence in other ways, then applied it when necessary.
We shouldn’t depend on school to teach diligence. Not every student will learn diligence from a standardized curriculum which involves being thrown in an arbitrary social system and learning 8 different subjects for 45 minutes each a day for four years.
February 17, 2013 3:27 am at 3:27 am #933358CRuzerParticipantTo be fair, they say that 4 credit classes could take 12-14 hours per week of studying. So an hour a day isn’t unheard of, especially for advanced mathematics. Keep studying and good luck!
February 17, 2013 4:07 am at 4:07 am #933359Torah613TorahParticipantCRuzer: Good point and thanks!
February 17, 2013 5:09 am at 5:09 am #933360supermeMemberOom- seriously?! For real life ye that’s what matters after 120 gurantee u god Wont ask u what u got on a test rather he’ll ask u what u did with ur haskafah lessons
February 17, 2013 5:23 am at 5:23 am #933361WIYMembersuperme
You do realize that the more knowledge you have the greater appreciation you have for Hashems greatness? Someone with no knowledge of biology or chemistry or knowledge in earth science is really handicapped in the department of appreciating the wisdom of Hashem that we can see in the briah. If you have the time read some of Rabbi Avigdor Millers books. You will see that he was very well versed in the sciences.
February 17, 2013 5:32 am at 5:32 am #933362OneOfManyParticipantsuperme: Who says He won’t ask you both?
February 17, 2013 5:43 am at 5:43 am #933363supermeMemberWiy- yeh but not math!!!! Totally a lot of stuff in earth science really makes u thinkand shows u wonderful creations of hashem and how he protects us it’s amazing I always think ????? ??????
Oom- do u rly thunk hashem will ask youhow did u do in math? No Moshe rabbinu avrohom yaakov yitzchak etc didn’t learn math and I guarantee u that therein the best place!!!!
February 17, 2013 6:20 am at 6:20 am #933364OneOfManyParticipantHow do you know they didn’t learn math? And putting the actual learning aside– what about making the most out of every opportunity Hashem gives you? He might not care if you got 100s on all your tests, but maybe He does care about how you dealt with the situations He put you in (not to mention how your parents and mechanchim feel about the money and effort they are investing in you).
Also, if you continued your math classes, you would learn how mathematical principles are of utmost importance in all fields of investigative study–including earth science.
February 17, 2013 7:00 am at 7:00 am #933365ThePurpleOneMemberguys, trust me i am enjoying my hi skool yrs!!! but dont sems look even at the 9th grade transcript?? see i have a point here.. getting into a good sem= good shidduch..
February 17, 2013 7:29 am at 7:29 am #933366Torah613TorahParticipantOOM: Learning about pi and primes and the golden ratio and trigonometry will help you much, much later on, but the high school curriculum is really not that helpful in college.
February 17, 2013 8:27 am at 8:27 am #933367snowbunny3318MemberAt least when I was in public school, I was the chiller- type of girl, I would panic about how I did in school because I have some anxiety issues, but that did not really come into play until my junior year when I was determined to get amazing grades in order to be accepted into a bais yaakov the next year. Over all, I was an A, B, occasional student (except for junior year/ grade 11, I didn’t get any C’s…) but since some of my courses were not exactly college preperatory (they were all mainstream classes but in my district, there was so much funding available that they had so many levels, so I was in a level with kids who never really tried because math is harder for me than other subjects, same with science), I would get A’s and B’s in them, but I still did somewhat poorly on my ACT tests (my highest score was a 21, and I got extended time…).
I would say that you do need to work very hard in your classes, but try not to get so stressed out, most people in real life don’t go to Harvard, even if they are straight A students. The things that stick out on applications to post high school programs are standardized tests, overall gpa, the fact that Jewish schools have a dual curriculum stands out because that looks challenging (and it is!), your extra curriculars (were you on mishmeres, G.O, what did you do in your production, what chessed did you do, did you do more than the required chessed hours?) and the way you act during an interview (if applicable) along with admissions essays stand out as well.
I am not from New York, so I don’t know what it is like to have to take regents, but the reality is that most people in middle school don’t take high school math (my brother was taking a high school level math course in seventh grade because he is gifted, but he had to drop out of it because it was to difficult, and then he ended up taking honors geometry his freshman year of high school). The people who do and end up passing the courses at that age are typically in MENSA (society for people with extremely high IQ’s like 150 points at their age – you have to take an IQ test and get that score to join and you have to pay membership fees…).
The point is that it is good to care about your grades- but to a point. Sometimes, people are getting all the help that they can possibly get, but that particular course just is not so easy for them no matter how much help they are getting, I took algebra one four times, passed it the first three and audited it the fourth time because I was only taking it because my geometry teacher wanted a nice student in her summer school class. When I got to advanced algebra, I went to my teacher two- three times a week outside of class for help, and that is how I got an A that year in that level, but that is because I was finally ready to take algebra (brain wise), the first three times I took algebra one, I was in seventh, eighth, and ninth grade, and it was really hard because I was just being diagnosed with a learning difference, but at the end of the day, when I was told that I was going to geometry in tenth grade, I was jumping for joy and my mom took me out for ice cream, because all that mattered was that I was going to the next level, not the grade in the current level.
My bracha to you Torah613Torah, is that you should be able to relax, and that you should be able to do well in your math course, and in all of your classes without having to worry about what the future wil bring as a result of any mistakes you feel you have made.
February 17, 2013 9:43 am at 9:43 am #933368haifagirlParticipantThe people who do and end up passing the courses at that age are typically in MENSA (society for people with extremely high IQ’s like 150 points at their age – you have to take an IQ test and get that score to join and you have to pay membership fees…).
Where did you get that information? Totally not correct.
To qualify for membership in Mensa one needs an IQ at or above the 98th percentile. The actual number (150 in your example) varies depending on the test.
And if you’ve ever taken an IQ test, you can submit the score and there is no need to take another test.
Some qualifying scores, as noted on their web site, are:
Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) Composite SAS of 132
Differential Ability Scales (DAS) GCA 132
Otis Lennon School Abilities Test (OLSAT) Total SAI 132
Otis-Gamma Test IQ 131
Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test (NNAT)
Individual and Multilevel Forms Nonverbal Ability Index Score of 130 or above
Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test 2 (NNAT)
Individual and Multilevel Forms Nonverbal Ability Index Score of 132 or above
Stanford Binet IQ 132
Stanford Binet 5 IQ 130
Woodcock-Johnson Test of Cognitive Abilities
(not the Woodcock Johnson Achievement Test) IQ 132
There are other tests listed, also, such as SAT, ACT, LSAT, GRE, etc. And by the way, the number “150” is not to be found anywhere.
And where did you get the idea that people with high IQs are “typically in Mensa”?
The current population of the U.S. is more than 311,000,000 people. Two per cent qualify for Mensa. That would be 6,220,000. Since the current membership of American Mensa is approximately 56,000, people with high IQs typically ARE NOT in Mensa.
February 17, 2013 10:03 am at 10:03 am #933369interjectionParticipant“do u rly thunk hashem will ask youhow did u do in math? No Moshe rabbinu avrohom yaakov yitzchak etc didn’t learn math and I guarantee u that therein the best place!!!!”
Moshe built the mishkan…not sure how he could’ve done the measurements without some grasp of math.
Hashem will not ask you how you did in math but it is likely you will be asked if you tried your best. But if you’re getting physically sick from the stress, chances are you’re doing too much.
February 17, 2013 10:07 am at 10:07 am #933370supermeMemberPurpleone-nope 10th grade!!!!!
February 17, 2013 5:24 pm at 5:24 pm #933371ThePurpleOneMembersuperme-
u sure??
do any 12th graders know??
February 17, 2013 6:49 pm at 6:49 pm #933372supermeMemberAsk the teachers we were told 10th grade!
Moshe wa on a high madrigah I’m sure that he didn’t study math I’m positive!!!
February 17, 2013 9:46 pm at 9:46 pm #933373WIYMembersuperme
Moshe Rabbeinu knew everything including math. Certainly any math that was required for Torah and quite a bit of math is. You may not know this but he grew up in Paraoh palace so he likely got the best education available in the world at that time. He was likely taught everything the people at that time knew in math,science…
February 17, 2013 11:19 pm at 11:19 pm #933374Torah613TorahParticipantScience still hasn’t figured out how to copy the pyramids.
February 17, 2013 11:32 pm at 11:32 pm #933375OneOfManyParticipantWhat does being on a high madreigah have to do with not learning math? -_-
February 20, 2013 10:09 pm at 10:09 pm #933376supermeMemberI didn’t say that one of many…and I can be an amazing spouse, parent, child, sibling, etc without having to know math fine earth science I get y some of it we should know praises Hashem and shows us his cheesed but geometry?!
February 20, 2013 10:14 pm at 10:14 pm #933377snowbunny3318Memberif you want a parnossah in the future as an adult, you need to pass high school geometry.
February 20, 2013 10:16 pm at 10:16 pm #933378OblateSpheroidMemberHow could Hillel Hazakein have created the calendar without knowing science?
February 20, 2013 10:32 pm at 10:32 pm #933379Torah613TorahParticipantB”H I did slightly better on the latest quiz. Please Hashem help me continue to improve!
February 20, 2013 11:16 pm at 11:16 pm #933380Veltz MeshugenerMemberIn this thread, ignorant people debate the relative importance of things they don’t know they don’t know; using undefined words and uncertain norms.
February 20, 2013 11:53 pm at 11:53 pm #933381ThePurpleOneMembertorah-
whoohooo good 4 u!! rem its all from hashem and keep on continuing to do good!! u cud do it!! and go out 2 celeb if u get a good mark on da test;)
February 21, 2013 1:50 am at 1:50 am #933382OneOfManyParticipantThem’s fighting words, Veltz.
(Unless you are once again making generalizations without taking all factors into account?)
February 21, 2013 4:17 am at 4:17 am #933383WIYMemberTora
Glad to hear it Baruch Hashem. Keep it up!
Veltz
I hope you are speaking to yourself about yourself.
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