Tips for improving your mental maths skills
LikeMental maths is an essential aspect of maths lessons that we generally learn to master in childhood. However, improving our mental maths is something we can do throughout our education and lives as it comes with a host of benefits.
Before we explain to you how you can improve your mental maths skills, we've outlined some of the benefits of mental maths in order to highlight the importance and necessity of this skill.
The benefits of mental maths skills
- You can improve your problem-solving skills. Understanding and using mental maths improves your general problem-solving skills as you often have to break problems down into smaller chunks in order to find the solution. Practising regularly can improve your cognitive abilities.
- You´ll have a foundation for learning other maths skills. There´s no doubt that mental maths is a must-have skill if you want to progress further in mathematics. This skill is the basis for many other maths topics and further skills that you´ll learn in the subject.
- You can make calculations faster. Through regular practice of mental maths problems, you´ll gradually increase your speed in carrying out calculations in your head.
- Mental maths is used in everyday life. Mental maths is something that will benefit you in everyday life, not just in school. Having skills in mental maths allows you to quickly calculate things like how much you'll owe when paying for groceries.
- It can improve your memory. Practising finding maths solutions in your head is a brain exercise that can help improve your general memory.
- You won't always need to rely on technology. While the likes of calculators and phones are very useful if you need to quickly solve a maths problem, you may not always have them readily available. It's beneficial to have your mental maths skills down so that you´ll be able to make calculations in these cases where you won´t have technology available to you.
- You can increase your confidence and self-esteem. Improving your abilities in maths can give you a greater sense of achievement and therefore confidence.
- Mental maths is a requirement for most studies and careers. There are many careers where mental maths skills are a basic requirement or are highly valued. While maths is clearly essential in roles related to finance and engineering, it is also hugely beneficial in sectors such as retail and hospitality.
8 tips for improving your mental maths skills
Below we´ve outlined some of the top tips you can use for yourself or for helping your child with their mental maths skills.
- Memorise the key aspects of maths. There are some key topics and facts in maths that require memorisation. A good example of this is the multiplication tables. This is something we should try to master in childhood as it´s the basis for a lot of other topics in maths. If we learn these key facts by heart, mental maths will become a lot easier.
- Break down complex problems into smaller steps. With more complicated mental maths problems, we should aim to understand the steps needed in order to come up with a solution. Breaking complex problems down into smaller and more manageable steps allows us to better visualise and understand the problem.
- Learn to estimate. A good practice when starting out with mental maths is to learn to estimate where you can. If you are able to come up with a quick estimation when doing mental maths, you can then compare your answer with the real answer. The more you do this, you´ll find you'll soon get closer and closer to the correct answers.
- Ensure to regularly practise maths problems. It might seem obvious, but the absolute best way to master anything is through practice, practice, practice. The more you practise doing mental maths, the easier it will become and the faster you´ll get.
- Apply mental maths to real-life scenarios. If you incorporate mental maths exercises into your daily routine, for example in ways that are relevant to your daily life, such as calculating the cost of your groceries in your head, you´ll find it will become much easier and you´ll start doing mental maths without thinking.
- Try visualisation. When you're starting out with learning certain maths problems, a good way to find the solution is through drawing pictures or diagrams. When you move onto mental maths, you can draw diagrams or images in your mind in order to visualise how to solve the problem.
- Use maths exercises and resources to help you. There are a number of websites that you can use that offer games and resources to help you or your child in improving your mental maths skills. Using these types of websites can make learning more interactive and enjoyable, meaning you´ll likely internalise your learning better.
- Teach maths problems to others. One of the most beneficial ways you can learn and internalise maths is by teaching it to others. Once you've gained a basic understanding of a topic within maths, try explaining it to a friend, peer or family member. Doing so allows you to gain a deeper understanding.
- Find a maths tutor. If you find that you´re struggling to get to the basics of understanding maths and applying problems that you can use for practising mental maths, a private maths tutor might be able to help you. They can provide you with one-to-one attention and cater maths lessons to your own personal learning style so that you can quickly become comfortable with the subject.
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