1. Open up your heart and mind.

2. Get help. Don’t be afraid to admit to yourself that you need it. The strongest students are the ones who

realize their weaknesses and strive to improve those weaknesses.

3. Realize that math is all around you. Have fun relating life to it.

4. Find a comfortable study place and establish a study routine. Become disciplined.

5. Take the time to play. Your brain has limited capacity and attention span. Take study breaks and don’t

burn yourself out!

6. Listen and absorb. Be a “sponge” for knowledge. The best compliment I ever received from a teacher

was when he said in front of the whole class, “Be like Orlando, because he listens.”

7. There’s more than one way to solve a problem. Explore!

8. Use technology. Google and Youtube are your friends.

9. Develop a passion for math, even if you have to fake it initially.

10. Go back to basics since math is accumulative. Brush up on the basic concepts like fractions,

long division and multiplication, work with percentages, etc. Memorize your multiplication table.

11. Learn the concepts, and never just memorize answers to particular questions.

12. The best way to understand math is to derive the formulas. I did, and I still do!

13. Form a study group or, if you want a challenge, tutor others!

14. Read, READ, READ the chapters and do all exercises in each lesson. The following week, read

them again!

15. Know your fundamentals!

x = 1, y = 1 Given

x = y Equality

x^2 = xy Multiplication (by x)

x^2 – y^2 = xy – y^2 Subtraction (by y^2)

(x + y)(x – y) = y(x – y) Factorization

(x + y)(x – y)/(x – y) = y(x – y)/(x – y) Division

x + y = y

2 = 1

How can 2 = 1? Look at it again. Did you catch it now? It is because of fundamentals. Take a look at this line: —> (x + y)(x – y)/(x – y) = y(x – y)/(x – y). What does x – y equal to? Yes, x – y = 0. Fundamental Rule of Mathematics says that you cannot divide by ZERO! Thus this makes no sense.

Like a great athlete, you have to know your fundamentals. You have to follow these rules in order to develop a love for math, or any subject for that matter.

Have fun learning!

Orland Farinas

The Math Whiz