Can you share study tips for getting a grade 1 in math?
I'm a senior in high school, and my math grade keeps staying at level 3. I don't attend a cram school and have gone through past exam papers three times on my own, but my grades just won't improve.
When I look at a problem, the solution comes to mind, but I make a lot of calculation mistakes, and I run out of time so I can't even attempt the later problems. I especially get stuck on function inference problems in calculus.
My Korean and English are grades 1–2, but only math is holding me back, so the regular admission track is difficult. Is there any way to improve in a short time? For reference, I'm putting in 4 hours a day on math.
6 answers
Agreed, math is ultimately a battle of time management.
Calculation mistakes are reduced when you write out all the intermediate steps. I also made a ton of mistakes in my senior year of high school because I only wrote down brief answers, but once I started solving problems with neat, organized work, they definitely decreased. Also, skipping the killer problems at the end and focusing on getting 100% of the earlier calculations right is a solid strategy.
Well, that's a bit... If you've read it three times and still got a 3rd grade, then isn't it just that you haven't solved enough problems? Don't just stick to past exams—try some private-sector problems or N-series question books too. Running out of time isn't about skill; it's about how much you've practiced.
For calculus function reasoning, you shouldn't try to solve it in your head — you should split it into cases and brute-force your way through.
Among Korean, English, and math, I was also stuck at a grade 4 in math, but during my retake year I went through a concept book again from the very start. I found that making the concepts completely your own matters more than doing past papers three times. Especially in calculus, if your foundational concepts are shaky, you'll get stuck on inference questions. Four hours a day is enough, so try changing your time allocation to a 3:7 ratio between concepts and problems.
Honestly, there's no way to improve in a short time, so focus on reducing your calculation mistakes. There are many test papers where you can get a grade 1 even if you skip the last two problems. If you're at grade 3, you should improve your accuracy on 2-3 point questions first rather than the difficult 4-point ones.