Monthly Archives: January 2020

My Experience of Maths Through School

What are my thoughts about mathematics as a learner?

In primary school, I don’t remember finding maths overly hard or something which I didn’t enjoy doing. I was good at keeping up with the workload from my teacher and always completed my homework. It wasn’t until high school when our year was split into ability-based classes that I began to really struggle. Throughout high school, I was very fortunate to have dedicated teachers who were willing to put in extra time and effort often staying after school to help pupils. I was bused into school and therefore it was sometimes awkward to get a lift home if both my parents were working.

As I began national 5 maths I quickly realised the importance of passing the subject in order to apply for education at university. After failing my prelim I knew I had to work on improving my maths before I left it too late. My parents were very supportive and I ended up getting a tutor who came to my house once a week.  Before long I was quickly picking it up and actually began to enjoy maths again. I like to understand how things work and the one to one support with her was extremely helpful as she could explain things in more depth than my teacher could. I sat my national 5 exam and it turned out to be one of my best results. This gave me the confidence to sit higher maths and I ended up with the same teacher. I passed my driving test and therefore it was much easier for me to stay after school for extra support. It frustrated me that I wasn’t able to pick up higher maths as easy as national 5 but I kept working at it regardless. My teacher was very understanding and was good at showing me different methods to complete questions. I received my results and it was to my great delight that I got a B for my higher maths. It was very obvious that my teacher cared about our results and even though she had a young family she organised after school child care so she could help my class. I am very grateful for the support and the time she gave up for me.

Although maths wasn’t my favorite subject in school I hope I can be a confident teacher and support my pupils to help them through their own challenges with the subject.