Become a Test-Taking Machine: Tips for Acing Your Next Math Exam

all right so we need to take our test what I want you to think about is taking your test like a machine and what have you might take in your test like a machine is I want you to have a algorithmic approach to how you are answering your questions on a test okay because the best way I can the best way I can relate taking a test like a machine is thinking about a function and yes I'm a math teacher so obviously you know function is just like a machine right when we teach the idea of a function a lot of times we like show the relationship of like a machine whatever you put into it right you're going to get something out all right now just thinking about a machine and we want to talk about like a well you know a well fast well operated machine think about your body think about your brain as a well you know oil machine or whatever else we want that machine to operate as efficiently as possible we have to be very conscious of what we're putting into a machine right to get the best absolute result now obviously we're going to talk about studying and stuff like that that's for the other videos which I've talked you know a lot about in previous videos on how to prepare for your math test or a math exam like what are the techniques what are the strategies to do but now it's testing all right and regardless of what you've done I think if you follow these tips of these tips for taking your test like a machine you can improve your efficiency all right and the first one is going to obviously start with like the day of the test right you have to make sure that day of the test that you are in your optimal optimal frame of frame of mind right so that means like the night before you we're not trying to cram you're not staying up late you know trying to like shove as much stuff into your brain as possible right it should be a relaxing day hopefully you've already done all the studying up to that point but you know it should be something that is you got a good night's sleep you have a you waking up early in the morning you know maybe get some exercise get moving you've had some good food um we want your brain to be App working at optimal strength and I don't understand sometimes when you're taking exams you have multiple things that are going on you have a lot of stress a lot of anxiety but we need to understand when we're taking a test if we have poor sleep or if we ate you know foods that are you know not going to give our brain like good energy like that's working against us if we have Stress and Anxiety those are all going into like hinder our ability to be able to you know work opt or think optimally on our test I think one of the best things we can do because you can't always do everything right I mean obviously you're going to want to you know everybody has different diet restrictions and blah blah blah blah but you know try to make sure that if anything just try to stay away from like just make sure you're eating whatever good healthy food you can think of try to get as much sleep as possible but I think one thing that I would probably also recommend is give your brain some time to rest and relax now obviously that comes with sleep but also comes in I think with doing some meditation doing some thinking when you are taking your test right what happens when a machine overheats right or if you're working constantly are hard right it's you're going to overheat right you got to put like the oil in that machine to like make sure it's running operately I think a couple things you can do think about your brain as a machine if you start to feel overheated if you start to feel overwhelmed if you start to feel like your brain is you know like wants to shut off because like the test is just taking so much of your brain power Stop close your eyes and just relax I don't think there's anything wrong with taking a 30 second or a 45 second break you know obviously depending on how timed your test is and just give your brain drain a little bit of rest and relaxation right if you've ever been driving in a car and I used to have this summer it was like one of my first cars I had like a crack in the radiator and so it was always this game of like how long could I go before my car oh it started to overheat and literally what I would literally do would like drive from like gas station to gas station like and buy gallons of water to pour it into my radiator just so I could make it to like the next stop it was not a very fun game to play but I try to think about that sometimes like when you're taking a test I think sometimes students will just they try to like power through it and they try to like finish the test as fast as possible like slow down it's okay give your brain some time to rest and relax okay so don't overheat your machine it is the most important thing you have especially on test day we want to make sure that we're moving ahead not burning out and crashing all right now next next now the next thing I want you to think about when you're approaching something like a machine because when you're taking your test you take a math test and I think one of the biggest mistakes that students make is they get a math test and they immediately start doing question number one why would you do question number one right off the bat here's a couple things that you missed if you go ahead and do question number one right after bat here's some things that you didn't do one you didn't assess it what problems you know how to do right right or what problems are the easiest problems what are the most difficult problems what problems do you want to avoid right you also didn't assess like how long this test was going to take you as I mentioned like you know you might have to like that crash and burn well what if you have like I don't know a 40 40 problem you know question or 40 problem test right and you know you only have 60 minutes that's not a lot of problems per you know per question right so you're gonna need to like breeze You're gonna need to work really really fast and really really efficiency if you're spending too much time on a problem you need to know when to move on to the next problem um now obviously a lot of tests you're going to know how many problems there are so you can do a little bit of mental math there I think importantly for like the AP like AP exam or anything that has like frqs or like word problems like scan those problems see if you know how to approach them immediately so you're like okay I I you know this one is going to take a lot longer than this one like I know exactly you know what to do or like how to approach that problem but I think it's a really good good idea before you you know before you get going into something to to review all the problems and one thing I always talk about this I've talked about in many videos like when you before you've taken a test always scan for and what I always like to do is just kind of rank the problems like the easiest the medium and the most difficult and I always do the easiest problems first because I always kind of think about that as like priming the pump right you're just getting your brain moving you're getting a little bit building a little bit of that confidence you're remembering some of those things because especially if you've had like a long study time or anything like that like it can be overwhelming to remember all of that content that you had for them to test so if you kind of like knock off those little easier problems um one like that kind of you know one ensures that you're gonna at least get the problems you know how to do correct or at least you completed them um and then two I just think it like helps prepare you for those difficult problems that maybe are going to evolve like multiple multiple like pieces of content that you're going to need to remember the other thing which is like the cardinal you know issue that I always have with students is they always start with like question number one first right and let's say they don't then they don't have enough time and like question 40 through 50 on their tests they leave blank or they Christmas tree it right because they didn't have enough time and how do you know if question if you didn't review your test you didn't look ahead of your test before you took it maybe question 40 through 50 were actually really really easy right but if you ran out of time because you're spending so much time on problems that were taking way too long that probably you didn't know how to do anyways or you know you had a very less uh very or less likelihood of getting them right then you just wasted you know some opportunity to be able to um you just wasted some opportunity on those questions 40 for 50. so make sure that you do those problems first and I think it's really important that you know as a machine that we are kind of scanning all the information right because remember it's all about that input output effect right when you are taking your test you want to be able to acquire all as much information as possible so scan the test look at the types of questions look at you know look at the problems that are easiest our hardest look at the free response questions like plan out your time so therefore you can work most efficiently because again I'm saying this on purpose I want you to be thinking about taking your test efficiently right the first one was taking the time taking those breaks number two was like assessing all the information knowing where you're going to you know start and what problems you're going to do first and what problems you're going to do last and the third thing gets just a little bit more granule but again it goes into that taking your test like a machine taking all the information when you are reading a problem here's one of the biggest mistakes that students will do because again I think that they and I'm guilty of this as well but they will read the problem they're like oh I know how to do this and then immediately do the work in their head answer the question and then move on to the next one right they don't take themselves to pause and I think we've all been through this problem all right you know maybe you've seen like those questions and they're very good like on Sat questions the AP has very good questions like this they're just good math questions and a lot of times like you might think oh this is what I need to do but once you actually read the question you realize that maybe your first like thought about the question was actually kind of like a I want to say like a little they were trying to trick you sometimes they are but a lot of times it's like it's just it's an added word or an added form or anything I like to push you kind of like in One Direction but if you're not careful then you could actually not even doing what the problem is asking right so read the problem carefully okay and also make sure you're showing your work so obviously there's some problems that you can do quickly in your head and you're good and obviously some students are better at doing math on their head than not right but I think one of the important thing is is you can if you can at least show your work when you have time to go back through your test um then you can go ahead and identify like oh did I do my work correctly like if you did everything in your head it's very hard to check your work right it's very hard to be able to make sure that you got the problem right and again good math questions or good math tests will have problems where you could have done it incorrectly in your head or you could have done like the biggest like the the most common mistake in your head and that answer will show up as the answer choice and that's a that's kind of like that um that uh that's easy to fall for because like you made the mistake but you see the answer choice and you're like oh it has to be that one or you see an answer Choice that's very close to it you're like oh that has to be the answer right and then you're gonna choose it then you get it wrong and you're like oh I already I know I got that answer right and then you don't go back and check it so when you are looking on question not a problem what I want you to do is look at the question read the question read it carefully read it all the way through right and try to just don't always adjust to your assumptions but just to make sure like double check yourself like read it they'll say oh here's my assumption but then just cross check yourself one more time like make sure like all right am I 100 correct like that is the correct assumption like was there anything tricky or any way that you know this problem could have like actually meant for me to do something different right because again that's where a lot of students are at least for me all right and maybe I'm just speaking for my personal experience that's where I used to make a lot of those mistakes but a machine right we're systematic okay so we're going to read that question all the way through we're going to extract all the information and this is also very important for like word problems or those frqs like extract all the formulas extract all the information that you have um you can also do a brain dump like write down all the information that you know about the problem right if it's talking about like quadratics or you know um derivatives like write down everything that you know write down write down on that on the test or on the piece sheet of paper right and then once you have all the necessary information look at the answers if it's in a multiple choice question right try to see like if sometimes you can extract um so the the um the method or the process that you're going to do to be able to solve a certain question problem sometimes you can identify questions that definitely cannot be the answer right or just kind of like throwaway answers and and then once you have all the information then go ahead and attack it but it's very very important to I think not just rush into doing the problem right do try to do in your head and then kind of move on right to get this test done as fast as possible because I get it I know taking a test guys it can especially math test it can be boring and actually my my daughter the other day she she does pretty good I mean she's in kindergarten so it's not like it's uh she's you know basically adding numbers under 10 you know under 20 and stuff like that but again like uh one thing she started interview she was she was kind of like mocking me because she knows I teach you know teach math but she was like kind of singing like math is boring math is boring and like I get it like I know a lot of those the fundamentals that we you know practice with there cannot be very exciting and to take in a math test is not very exciting for a lot of people even myself even though I do math every single day like taking a math test like is not that exciting but I don't want you to just feel like oh I'm just going to do it as quick as fast as possible to get over it if there's anything guys slow down take your time right the better inputs you put in to your machine to your function to your body to your brain the better outputs you're going to get out of it and um and then also like make sure you're showing your work right because what's the one thing if you have this systematic approach right you've found the problems you know how to do first right you no problems like maybe maybe like take a little um check mark or a star next to problem like um that one might have been a little confusing I might have made a mistake there or go back through and check your work there if you have enough time at the end at the end of your test then go back through those problems look at your work re-read the question make sure you answered it correctly um from on there and I think going through all of that you know process is just going to ensure that one you're going to check on those mistakes and then two that you're going to be in that optimal form to approach the problem because here's one more thing that I want you to remember about taking a test right you are a machine okay so you're not going to be you're not going to be overtaken by anxiety you're not going to be overtaken by stress close your eyes if you get one of those panic attacks slow down okay there's going to be problems that you might not know how to do that is okay focus on the problems you know how to do and focus on moving forward there's going to be problems that you're going to mistakes on that is okay try to identify as many as they can right what is the best thing that we love about you know machines and everything else is they're not emotional right they don't make mistakes you know based on emotion or based on fear or stress or anxiety right they make mistakes on not being pro of not getting the best input stuff now we're human we're not technically machines but I want you to try to and um um I want you to try to be like a machine as best as possible taking your test avoid everything else that's going around you just focus on putting in the best inputs right prepare for your tests as best as you can make sure your scan and analyze the test do the problems you know how to do first right and then also make sure you're reading through the questions showing your work and then you know checking your answers at the end and if you follow those steps I think you're going to be successful for your test I wish you guys the absolute best on your tests and your exams and now it is time for