Very slow in maths

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ypkr
Posts: 42
Joined: Mon Oct 12, 2015 10:30 am

Very slow in maths

Post by ypkr »

Hi All,

My DD is going to take CEM exam Sept-2016.
She is extremely slow in doing maths problems.

I was trying to make her do Bond 9-10 maths, which she should be able to do at this stage (year-5), for which she takes 40-50 min.
To be frank, I get annoyed when she does it so slowly :( .

The fact is, even though she is slow, she does make it to 80-85% correct, which of course needs to be improved.
But my main concern is, her slow approach.

I just wanted to check on parents who have crossed that level and how they improved. Any suggestions I would definitely welcome.
Guest55
Posts: 16254
Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:21 pm

Re: Very slow in maths

Post by Guest55 »

Get her to talk out loud about what she is thinking - you need to unpick what is causing the issue.

It might be anything ... often it's working out what she needs to do with the information and underlining key words could help. Does she find problem solving difficult at school?
PettswoodFiona
Posts: 2134
Joined: Mon Mar 03, 2014 11:24 pm
Location: Petts Wood, Bromley, Kent

Re: Very slow in maths

Post by PettswoodFiona »

In one of the tests DD did she missed out the last seven maths questions - didn't even guess them and she still passed - actually quite more than just a pass so speed isn't everything. In her CEM test she had a bit more time but had to guess that last few questions. If you need a superselective score rather than just a pass timing is more important. As someone else had said try and find out what is slowing her down and go from there but perfect timing is not always needed.
Stokers
Posts: 358
Joined: Tue Aug 21, 2012 9:48 pm

Re: Very slow in maths

Post by Stokers »

DD was slow at the NR aspect of CEM right up until the Summer before the exams - it all seemed to click as it got closer so don't despair. In the meantime, I echo what Guest55 has suggested - or look over DC's shoulder to see where they are getting stuck so you can work on strategies to speed things up. And, maybe, rather than doing a whole test, do part of the test in a shorter period of time - it may be the prolonged concentration that is struggling - and build it slowly up. That's my plan with DC3 who is very bright but oh so easily distracted!
yoyo123
Posts: 8099
Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2007 3:32 pm
Location: East Kent

Re: Very slow in maths

Post by yoyo123 »

How is she on the basics?

I quite often find that children take a long time to answer a question because they donlt have good mental arithmetic skills. Knowing your tables and quick subtraction and addition mean that you can spend more time working out what the question needs.
ypkr
Posts: 42
Joined: Mon Oct 12, 2015 10:30 am

Re: Very slow in maths

Post by ypkr »

Thanks a lot for your suggestions.

Her understanding at basics is alright. I wouldn't say extremely good.
I do see her doing tough problems correct, which would need time to be spent. But at the same time, for those problems which she could do them in head (mentally), she does it by writing and trying to workout.
I did try to give lot of tips on how to ease away from solving completely, like partitioning, patterns etc., She seem to be picking them sometimes only.

I like the idea of splitting paper for now, into 2 or 3 parts and make her do and also will concentrate on pointing (or noting) her most weaker areas.
yoyo123
Posts: 8099
Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2007 3:32 pm
Location: East Kent

Re: Very slow in maths

Post by yoyo123 »

Her understanding at basics is alright. I wouldn't say extremely good.
There are some good online games, practise regularly to build speed and accuracy. Even use a pack of cards, deal 2 and the first one to multiply them correctly gets those cards, one with most cards at teh end wins. If you are quicker or more accurate yo can start off by claiming the pair if she gets answer wrong. You can modify it as you like , eg deal 3 cards and add them together.

Try
http://www.arcademics.com/games/meteor/meteor.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

and
http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/Gh ... /gbcd.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

or play against her
http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/gh ... nores.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
mystery
Posts: 8927
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:56 pm

Re: Very slow in maths

Post by mystery »

Yes, agree with everyone but particularly with G55 that you need to work out exactly what is causing the loss in speed. Generalities are no good.

Once you have worked out the various specific causes (just saying "the basics" is hopelessly vague still) then it's possible to work out the fixes.

Then the fixes need a lot of practice to become "automatic". Rome wasn't built in a day.

No point in being cross about slowness. And I'm not sure whether what you describe is particularly slow or not anyhow. Are you?
nyr
Posts: 1166
Joined: Thu Apr 04, 2013 11:39 am

Re: Very slow in maths

Post by nyr »

Are these the assessment papers? In which case, is her time really that slow?

I'm personally not a great fan of giving kids papers too early in their prep - I think these should be saved until they need to start working on exam technique which will only need a couple of months. Instead, if you can identify specific areas of weakness then it may make sense to give her a barrage of questions of those types. Say, do 10 problems about picking balls out of bags.

Could it be that she's bored? My children aren't quick at maths but they can find answers to all the tough questions. For example, yesterday DD did a Latymer paper in which there were 11 tough questions and she answered all these correctly. From the other 39 easy questions she answered 8 incorrectly - she'd drawn pictures such as flying saucers and ringed Saturn throughout the paper. Clearly bored. If your DD enjoys doing the tough questions then it may be that she just can't focus on the mundane ones.

nyr
ninanina
Posts: 188
Joined: Tue Apr 29, 2014 9:15 am

Re: Very slow in maths

Post by ninanina »

nyr wrote:Instead, if you can identify specific areas of weakness then it may make sense to give her a barrage of questions of those types. Say, do 10 problems about picking balls out of bags.

nyr
And where can we find these kind of 'barrage of questions' of the same type? I was trying to find exactly that and i don't know any book that is organised by question types so we can focus on practicing one type of problem. Could you advise us please?
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