IB test!?!

[Naina90]

So i gave up my entire spring break to study, and have been studying like crazy, but still not as much as i planned to. Mostly however i've been studying for IB HL bio because being a pre-med student in the fall, its what I need. I've never really been a math whiz and as i sit here in the library studying for bio my IB Math Studies review packet fell out of my "IB STUDY BINDER", help!

I have NO idea how to study for math at all; these review problems don't help me at all...i have no idea how to do them nor do i know if my answer is right.

ANY SUGGESTIONS?!

[moneyfaery]

Do you have a text book? Go through that, make relevant notes, I guess, then do past papers.

I'm in the same boat as you... except with Math HL. Math is one of those subjects where only doing questions will help you improve. Reading over answers won't do much.

[philipb]

This is my technique but it is pretty time consuming:

Go over your topics one by one. Do the review questions/exam questions at the back of the chapter. If you don't get something go over it till you learn it-which means a lot of practice problems on that part of the unit.

Then go do a past paper, look at the mistakes you made and then use your textbook to look for more problems on that type of problem. Do another past paper; rinse, wash and repeat.

I was pretty ready for my math exam but it was either way harder than the other papers or I got totally stressed-which I don't think I did.

[JourneyTo]

Do tons of review problems and make notes of the basic overall topics. And practice papers.those are essential.

Also, for every topic, look at all the different kinds of problems they can give you.For example, in differentiation, they can give you a problem with a function and a graph and have you figure out the maximum and then they can give you a ball thrown in the air and an equation and you have to figure out the maximum height .Tthey're essentially the same thing- listing all the ways both mentally and in your notes can help you on the day of the exam concerning panic and freak-outs, also buying you more time.

[Tilia]

As far as possible, make sure you understand why it is like that (eg. if the discriminant is below zero, there are no real roots) and don't just memorize.

At the actual test, read the question really carefully (missing a "not" makes a huge difference) and control that you copy the correct values.

[Bend444]

past papers are the key to studying well for maths.. you can memorise all you want (which is important) but if you dont put this knowledge into practice questions that you will be facing in exams to come, then you are not taking advantage of your studying time

[Spriteling]

If you can, get your maths teacher to make review packets for you of past IB questions on certain topics. I did this for HL maths and it helped immensely. This way, you can practise IB style questions and get the hang of them while reviewing topics. After you've done that, I'd move on to past papers, and time yourself, so you are sure you can do them in the allotted time.

[sweetnsimple786]

I agree with the above suggestions. The past papers will also help you familiarize yourself with the terminology. Common example: "gradient" rather than "slope"

I'm guessing that your schedule is pretty hectic, so I suggest you do one of two things:

tackle the more difficult, slightly obscure concepts (maybe like graphing a rotated conic) and trust that you've grasped the other material well enough

or

skip the less common and focus on width rather than depth.

If there's not enough time for everything, I suggest the second method, because I really think that even if you see a problem you don't know how to do on the paper, you'll be able to receive some of the marks by setting up a formula or something.