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How to Solve Math Word Problems Without Getting Stuck

You can solve equations in math class just fine. Then your teacher gives you a word problem, and suddenly it feels like you're taking an English test instead. Instead of seeing something like (3x + 5 = 20), you get a paragraph about movie tickets, the cost of snacks, and how much someone spent. Now you have to figure out what the question is asking, decide which numbers matter, and somehow turn all of that into math. The good news? Most word problems become much easier when you break them into smaller steps. 1. Figure Out What You're Trying to Find Before doing any calculations, read the question at the end of the problem. Are you trying to find a price? A distance? Someone's age? The number of items purchased? For example: Movie tickets cost $8 each. You spend $40 on tickets. How many tickets did you buy? The question is asking for the number of tickets. That's what you need to solve for. It sounds obvious, but it's easy to get distracted by all the information in ...

How to Read a Difficult Chapter Without Reading It Five Times

You've got 30 pages of reading for English class. You start reading. Ten minutes later, you realize you've been thinking about lunch for the last three pages. So you go back. Then you get distracted again. Before you know it, you've spent an hour reading and still aren't sure what you just read. Sound familiar? The problem isn't necessarily that you're a bad reader. Some school reading is genuinely difficult, especially when you're dealing with an old novel, complicated nonfiction, or a textbook chapter packed with information. The trick is to stop treating every page like it needs to be read the exact same way. Here are some ways to get more out of difficult reading without reading the same paragraph five times. 1. Know What You're Looking For Before you start reading, look at the assignment. If your teacher asks you to explain how a character changes, you don't need to treat every sentence in the chapter as equally important. You're looking for...

How to Study for a Biology Test

If you're taking biology, you've probably discovered that there are a lot of words to remember. Mitochondria. Ribosomes. Osmosis. Homeostasis. Cellular respiration. Photosynthesis. And just when you think you've memorized everything, your teacher asks a question that isn't simply, “What is ___?” That's because doing well on a biology test usually requires more than memorizing definitions. You need to understand how the different pieces fit together. Here are some practical ways to prepare. 1. Don't Just Memorize the Definition Suppose you're studying osmosis . You could memorize: Osmosis is the movement of water across a selectively permeable membrane. But can you explain what that actually means? Try putting the definition into your own words: Water moves through a membrane toward the side where there is a higher concentration of dissolved substances. Now give yourself an example. What happens to a cell if it's placed in a solution with a much higher c...

How to Start an Essay When You Don't Know What to Write

You've got an essay due. You've opened a blank document. And you've been staring at the blinking cursor for 20 minutes. What exactly are you supposed to write? Getting started can be one of the hardest parts of writing an essay. The good news is that you don't need to come up with a brilliant opening sentence right away. In fact, trying to write the perfect first sentence is often what keeps you from writing anything at all. Here are some ways to get moving. 1. Figure Out What the Question Is Asking Before you start writing, make sure you understand the assignment. If your teacher asks: “How does the main character change throughout the novel?” your essay isn't simply supposed to describe the character. You need to explain how the character changes and probably provide evidence from the book. Underline or circle the important words in the assignment. Then put the question into your own words. If you can't explain what the assignment is asking, it's going to...

An Early Check-In: How’s School Going So Far?

Remember those first few days of school when everything felt new? Now you're probably starting to get into a routine. You know your teachers, you've had some homework, and you've probably taken a quiz or two. That also means it's a good time to stop and check how things are going. You don't need to wait for your first report card to find out whether you're on track. A quick school-year checkup now can help you spot small problems while they're still easy to fix. Here are five things to check. 1. Look at Your Grades If your school has an online grading system, log in and take a look. Don't just check your overall grade. Look at the individual assignments underneath it. Are you doing well on tests but losing points on homework? Are there a couple of low quiz grades pulling down your average? Are there assignments marked missing that you thought you turned in? You don't need to panic over one bad grade. You're looking for patterns. 2. Find Any Missi...

How to Stop Losing Points on Math Tests

You studied. You understood the material. You felt pretty good walking into the test. Then you got it back and saw a bunch of points you lost on problems you actually knew how to do. Sound familiar? Sometimes the problem isn't that you don't understand math. It's that a small mistake—dropping a negative sign, copying a number incorrectly, or rushing through the last few problems—cost you points. The good news is that these mistakes are often easy to prevent. 1. Slow Down on the First Step A surprising number of math mistakes happen before you even start solving the problem. You copy a number incorrectly. You miss a negative sign. You don't notice that the problem is asking for something slightly different than you expected. Before doing any calculations, take a few seconds to read the entire problem carefully. Make sure you've copied the important numbers and understand what you're being asked to find. Those few seconds can save you from doing an entire problem ...

How to Get Better at Algebra: 7 Tips That Actually Work

For some students, algebra seems easy. For others, it can feel like someone took a perfectly good math problem and replaced half the numbers with letters. If you're struggling with algebra, don't assume you're simply "not a math person." Algebra is a skill, and like most skills, you can get better at it with practice and the right approach. Here are seven things that can make algebra easier. 1. Don't Skip the Basics Algebra builds on itself. If you're having trouble with equations today, the problem might actually be something you learned several weeks or months ago. Make sure you're comfortable with the basics: Adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing negative numbers Fractions and decimals Order of operations Exponents Working with variables If one of these areas gives you trouble, spend a little time reviewing it. Fixing a small gap now can make future lessons much easier. 2. Write Down Every Step When you're doing algebra in your head, it...