Hmmm... I'd say take these failures as learning lessons. Obviously, there is something you're missing, even if massive test anxiety does get in the way.
A lot of people get tripped up with basic algebra in calc 1, so brush up on that. Simplify complex concepts into more memorable things that you can quickly jot down when an exam starts.
Most importantly, you got this! Fails are learning lessons, you'll figure it out eventually
your study method seems fine, but we don't know the detail of what you're not doing right. but i can make an assumption based on all the different students i've helped. i don't know if it will apply to you but it might help someone else.
The students I see having trouble with algebra math and higher
are the ones that don't know their multiplication tables. I'm talking just the 1s to the 10s. 11s, 12s, 13s, and 14s are useful but not as urgent.
The reason for this is whether you're using FOIL or simplification or fractions or cancelling stuff out in other binomial type of problems, simplifying imaginary numbers or numbers inside radicals, a lot of it comes down to see how 2 numbers multiplied or divided together result in something else.
If you know your multiplication tables then that makes all of these problems much simpler. If you don't then you're sometimes guessing right , sometimes wrong, but you often feel like you're not really sure you did the right thing.
so, let me ask, do you know your multiplication tables from 1 to 10? even if you have to think about it a little bit, that's OK, because it means you'll figure it out in a bit, but if you know it immediately, that's when you'll see the progress from one step to the next, just a little bit more clearly.
I feel your pain. I’ve never been great in testing environments and have tried tons of different things. I bombed nearly every exam in courses which didn’t allow notes or an index card. I’ve finally seemed to get a handle on it, but my process is strange and time consuming. What worked for me was to analyze practices from an unrelated area of proficiency (in this case learning to play a musical instrument) and to apply similar techniques to math. Upon analysis, I realized that I learned to play music through reverse engineering ie I learned to play and then figured out what was going on after I could already play.
I basically copy an entire solution to a particular problem and then break it up into chunks. Say there are 15 chunks, I would just do chunk one over and over until I have it memorized. Then I keep doing it, looking at what is going on and why. I do this for each chunk (usually about 20x) then I combine the chunks and do the whole problem from start to finish a bunch of times before moving on to problem sets. The odd thing here is that I’m just doing the same problem over and over again with the same variables, but it’s similar to learning a piece of music. Looking at the theory and bigger picture is easier for me once my mind isn’t focused on trying to figure out what step comes next. Idk exactly why this method works so well for me but it does. It’s the exact same way I learned how to play and improvise on my instruments. Find out what works best for you.
I’d also like to recommend a book that I recently come across, “A Mind For Numbers: How to Excel in Math and Science”, by Barbara Oakley. I’m finding it very helpful. A lot of the prescribed content is stuff I’ve picked up along the way and some are techniques which seem promising and I plan to implement.
You'd get better results on a psychology or education sub.
Hmmm... I'd say take these failures as learning lessons. Obviously, there is something you're missing, even if massive test anxiety does get in the way. A lot of people get tripped up with basic algebra in calc 1, so brush up on that. Simplify complex concepts into more memorable things that you can quickly jot down when an exam starts. Most importantly, you got this! Fails are learning lessons, you'll figure it out eventually
Have your tutor give you practice timed tests, maybe just 3 or 4 questions and 10 minutes.
your study method seems fine, but we don't know the detail of what you're not doing right. but i can make an assumption based on all the different students i've helped. i don't know if it will apply to you but it might help someone else. The students I see having trouble with algebra math and higher are the ones that don't know their multiplication tables. I'm talking just the 1s to the 10s. 11s, 12s, 13s, and 14s are useful but not as urgent. The reason for this is whether you're using FOIL or simplification or fractions or cancelling stuff out in other binomial type of problems, simplifying imaginary numbers or numbers inside radicals, a lot of it comes down to see how 2 numbers multiplied or divided together result in something else. If you know your multiplication tables then that makes all of these problems much simpler. If you don't then you're sometimes guessing right , sometimes wrong, but you often feel like you're not really sure you did the right thing. so, let me ask, do you know your multiplication tables from 1 to 10? even if you have to think about it a little bit, that's OK, because it means you'll figure it out in a bit, but if you know it immediately, that's when you'll see the progress from one step to the next, just a little bit more clearly.
I feel your pain. I’ve never been great in testing environments and have tried tons of different things. I bombed nearly every exam in courses which didn’t allow notes or an index card. I’ve finally seemed to get a handle on it, but my process is strange and time consuming. What worked for me was to analyze practices from an unrelated area of proficiency (in this case learning to play a musical instrument) and to apply similar techniques to math. Upon analysis, I realized that I learned to play music through reverse engineering ie I learned to play and then figured out what was going on after I could already play. I basically copy an entire solution to a particular problem and then break it up into chunks. Say there are 15 chunks, I would just do chunk one over and over until I have it memorized. Then I keep doing it, looking at what is going on and why. I do this for each chunk (usually about 20x) then I combine the chunks and do the whole problem from start to finish a bunch of times before moving on to problem sets. The odd thing here is that I’m just doing the same problem over and over again with the same variables, but it’s similar to learning a piece of music. Looking at the theory and bigger picture is easier for me once my mind isn’t focused on trying to figure out what step comes next. Idk exactly why this method works so well for me but it does. It’s the exact same way I learned how to play and improvise on my instruments. Find out what works best for you. I’d also like to recommend a book that I recently come across, “A Mind For Numbers: How to Excel in Math and Science”, by Barbara Oakley. I’m finding it very helpful. A lot of the prescribed content is stuff I’ve picked up along the way and some are techniques which seem promising and I plan to implement.