Everyone makes careless mistakes.
At work, we forget to attach our file in the email (this is me, you’re not working yet). At home, we spill food on the sofa. In school, we make careless mistakes in tests or exams.
You know exactly how to solve a question. You happily write down the correct workings. But you get it wrong.
Why?
Because you copied the wrong number from the calculator. Or your mind told you 3 + 3 = 9. Or you left out a letter in the equation.
This happens all the time. More times than I’ve said “um” at the Subway counter ordering my same egg mayo sandwich.
It’s maddening. These are free marks thrown away because of a silly mistake. Which we call the brain fart.
Careless mistakes are here to stay. But all hope is not lost.
In the context of Math exams, there’s one question you can ask to eliminate 90% of them.
Does this answer make sense?
I’ve seen many ridiculous answers that could have dodged the bullet if students asked this question.
This works best for word problems, graphs and anything to do with shapes (like circles, triangles, etc.).
For example,
Many students would do this.
And they stop here, without taking another step to convert it to km. It’s horrible.
If you apply the theory of common sense here, you’d realise that a park can’t be 2,400 km. Unless it’s built for the dinosaur population. Like the Jurassic Park. (Even then, it’d be too big.)
Second example,
The question is – Showing all reasons clearly, find angle DEB.
So let’s say you used the correct angle property of circles — the angle in the centre = 2 times the angle at the circumference.
But you had a brain fart and did this.
Again, ask yourself, can that tiny little angle be 60º? Impossible, right?
I could list more examples. But you get the drift.
When there’s no time to check the full paper, use this to save some precious marks for that 2- or 3-grade difference.
mathcally
Grow your Math brain, 1% each day