The World Maths Championship by GEMA is one of the most well revered platforms for young maths geniuses to shine. Moreover, the international exposure and competitive atmosphere have a positive impact on a child’s maths journey.
But not all children are made for competitive spaces. The anxiety that comes with competing on a big platform paired with the anxiety that comes with a crunched time limit can put down even the brightest mind’s morale. In this blog, we will explore the top five hacks to manage time efficiently so as to ace all your maths competitions and keep calm even in tricky situations.
How to Quickly Analyze a Problem Before Solving
Under stress, most participants have admitted to not being able to focus on the problem properly. The key to being able to get done with questions in the given time frame is being able to understand its basics first.
- Step 1: Read the question twice. Some questions can be intentionally misleading, try to form the simplest idea in your head.
- Step 2: Identify the given values. Know what you’re dealing with.
- Step 3: Identity the method or formula used to solve the question. For example, any question that asks for “halves” will most probably be related to fractions or divisions. You can narrow down your possibilities as you read.
Knowing your problems is the only way you can figure out your answers.
Pace and Strategy
Knowing your formulas, methods, and tables isn’t the only winning move. Competitions with time limits require quick thinking and fast calculations. By practicing problems beforehand under time limits, you can increase your speed to prepare for the big day. Start with a duration you’re comfortable with and decrease it as you grow confident.
Tricky questions with long solutions may take up your time. Try to skip unnecessary steps. Your strategy should always be– read, skip, solve, and return. Understand your problem, skip it if you can, solve the next, return to the one you didn’t.
Practice Drills Ideas for Accuracy
Practice always makes perfect. No matter how good you are at maths, competitive spaces require technique, quick thinking skills, and good time management. Being fast enough won’t gain you marks, you need to be quick and correct.
By practising these few drills, you can help yourself grow confident with your time management skills while being accurate:
- For problems you are unsure about, solve using two different ways if you have time. Self verification during examination will allow you to be sure about your answer.
- Replicate exact competition timing and solve questions to know how it will be on the day of the competition.
- After solving, quickly re-check answers: your values, formula, and calculations to avoid silly mistakes.
- Track every mistake during practice. Redo those problems later until you never miss them again.
How to Stay Calm Under the Clock
Anxiety is the biggest reason most students end up making obvious mistakes despite knowing the answers. If you’re stuck, write down what you do know, mark the problem, move on. Returning later with a fresh mind is often faster and will save you time and energy. If your mind blanks, pause for slow breaths. It can help clear your head faster than staring at the clock and fidgeting.
Simulate competition pressure during practice. By regularly doing timed mock contests, your brain gets used to working under pressure. You’ll feel less panic on the real day if you’re already used to it.
How To Deal With Difficult Questions
Tricky questions are the biggest hurdle you will face under a time crunch. They are annoying, confusing, frustrating, and intentionally try to put down your morale. By referring to the steps mentioned beforehand and practicing diligently even tough questions may feel like a breeze.
Let’s go over these points quickly once again:
- Skip and Return: If a question is too confusing, skip it and move on. You can always return to it later and solve it.
- Easy first: Solve easy questions that you’ll be sure to get correct to have enough time to focus on the difficult ones.
- Self verification: If time allows, solve the same problem using different methods and compare answers to make sure you get the right one.
- Recheck always: Check your values, your formulae, your method, your calculations, even your rough work to make sure there are absolutely no mistakes.
- Keep calm: The pressure will be intimidating, but only a clear mind will help you keep focus and think quickly.
By following these easy steps, you can ace even the most difficult question—given you have worked hard.
Conclusion
In this blog, we covered the most common mistakes students make under pressure, practice drills for better accuracy, time management tricks, and professionally approved approaches to deal with stress and difficult questions under pressure.
By following these steps and techniques carefully and with good practice, you’ll be able to ace any major maths competition in life.