How to stop making stupid mistakes.

[_fruitcake_]

I sincerely have no idea how to stop making stupid mistakes.. i understand 100% of all the content but i cant stop making mistakes.. seriously i need help.
An example of this kind of stupidity happened in my last sac - an equation y=mx+c.. they gave me that and asked for the y intercept and i gave them m.. *_*, i dont understand why my brain told me to do that, and then of course i got every other question right, including the last question which out of 80 further students, i was one of 4 people who got it.

Is there any way to fix making stupid mistakes? Can someone share their technique or something?

[MJRomeo81]

Slow down.

[MightyBeh]

Examiner's reports are often pretty underestimated. Most people I know at school don't even know what they are, let alone read them, but they tell you the mistake and how to fix it. Here's an example from 2014's Exam 1: (Exam Link)

Most students decided that there were only two categorical variables (option C), possibly rejecting postcode because its data values were numbers. (...) These numbers only serve as identifiers. They have no other numerical properties. If students are in doubt about classifying a variable as categorical or numerical, they should ask "Does it make sense to calculate the mean of this variable?" If the answer is no, the variable is categorical.

(Report Link)

I personally use a highlighter to highlight the important aspects of a question or instructions. If you don't have a highlighter (why wouldn't you? It should be everyone's second favourite piece of stationary), underlining, dot points or big scribbly circles work too - just make sure you do those in pencil and/or don't cover the rest of the question because that would be a silly mistake in itself. Seriously, I have my doubts that my school and the VCAA actually know how to write a legible question; highlighting the important parts of their jumble of words saves you time when you check your answers because you don't have to check the question, too.

People have different ways to check their answers - I like to use the "CUTE" method because I think it's funny that I can use the word cute to describe a SAC or an exam.

CUTE Method

C - Calculations - Are you using the right formula? Are your numbers right? Do you get the same answer if you do it another way (etc. Different rule, or by calculator/hand)? Are there enough to get the full marks for working out? Can you read it? More importantly, is it near enough that someone who is tired and seen it 489 times before going to bother? *

U - Units? A mistake made commonly enough in further (and maths in general?) that it deserves its own letter. Pretty self explanatory, but make sure that your letters at the end don't look like numbers. (etc. 40 km or 401 cm? Maybe it's just me, but handwriting is the real test here)**

T - True? If you substitute your answer back into the equation or whatever, is it true? What if you use another method? Does it match up with the theory? (Sure, 1.1 + 0.9 + 1.75 + 1.25 = 5, but what kind of question on Seasonal Indices uses a five season period when your working out only includes 4?)

E - Explainable? Kind of like the context check, so mostly for worded questions, but does your answer actually answer the question? Sure, Billy is arrives at Narnia when t = 3.5, but the question says he left at 8am (so t=0 at this time) - you probably won't get the marks unless you write 11:30am.

*A note on this, if you don't use custom functions on your CAS, you're missing out. Saves time and silly mistakes that you could make typing it out or doing it by hand. Just make sure it's right before you go into an exam relying on it
**Similar to the other note, I use custom functions for conversions because I'm terrible at them. I also have a table in my summary book for checking by hand. Maybe you don't need it, but I, personally, am terrible but would still like a nice score at the end.

I also try and have enough time as possible to check my answers (and handwriting ). I aim for a quarter of the test but that's pretty wishful thinking - really, as long as you have any time to go over you're probably safe. A little note on that, I also add a small "ch" on questions that I've checked and if I have enough time to check time more than once I'll keep a tally and prioritise the questions with more marks.

Of course, the best way to minimise mistakes is to make them. Preferably in a no-pressure environment, like in a practice exam/SAC. Once you've done it, work out what it was. Was it really a silly mistake, or was it a big mistake? If it was a silly mistake, make a list. I have a page in each module's summary dedicated to listing mistakes I could make, and a quick method to fix it or a page reference if it's not as quick. If it's a big mistake, probably worth making a list too. Drill out some textbook questions on the same topic, read the theory, add it to your summary book - whatever. Just make sure that you know what you're doing before you try a challenging question on the topic again, because it's just frustrating and not particularly efficient to figuratively smash your face into a brick wall until you put a crack in it when you could go get a hammer or super neat lasery thing and obliterate it.

Good luck, anyway. Maybe if we sacrifice some sheep or something to the VCAA they'll have mercy on us.

[Joseph41]

Practise.

It sounds simple, but it works. I didn't do much work for Further during the year, but I was quite confident on the content. When I started doing practice exams, I was scoring about 75%. All of the marks that I lost were silly mistakes, with which it sounds you may be able to empathise. So what I did was just smash out as many exams as possible. The results weren't immediate - my performance actually regressed after a few - but were considerable.

In the end, I was scoring 97%-100% on each practice exam. I dropped one mark across the actual two exams at the end of the year.

If you're confident with the content, my opinion is that the most effective thing to do is practice exams.

Best of luck.

[brenden]

I used to just make sure I didn't screw up. Like in the same way you make sure you've locked the door by opening the handle and pushing. (And if you want to make REALLY sure you grab the handle and shake). I'd just really deliberately look at the question and be like "O-KAYY. THEY WANT THE YYYYY INTERCEPT...  I WILL NOW PROCEED TO LOCATE THE YYYYYY INTERCEPT. *locates*. O-KAYYY. I NOW HAVE THE YYYYY INTERCEPT. LUCKY I DIDN'T MAKE A MISTAKE".

I did this to the point of paranoia even, doing basic calculations 2-3 times with 1 second for every button pushed, so my eyes could verify my fingers were hitting the correct buttons. Very slow, but I didn't make stupid mistakes

[_fruitcake_]

I used to just make sure I didn't screw up. Like in the same way you make sure you've locked the door by opening the handle and pushing. (And if you want to make REALLY sure you grab the handle and shake). I'd just really deliberately look at the question and be like "O-KAYY. THEY WANT THE YYYYY INTERCEPT...  I WILL NOW PROCEED TO LOCATE THE YYYYYY INTERCEPT. *locates*. O-KAYYY. I NOW HAVE THE YYYYY INTERCEPT. LUCKY I DIDN'T MAKE A MISTAKE".

I did this to the point of paranoia even, doing basic calculations 2-3 times with 1 second for every button pushed, so my eyes could verify my fingers were hitting the correct buttons. Very slow, but I didn't make stupid mistakes

How did you find time management in the exam?

[_fruitcake_]

Examiner's reports are often pretty underestimated. Most people I know at school don't even know what they are, let alone read them, but they tell you the mistake and how to fix it. Here's an example from 2014's Exam 1: (Exam Link)
(Image removed from quote.)(Report Link)

I personally use a highlighter to highlight the important aspects of a question or instructions. If you don't have a highlighter (why wouldn't you? It should be everyone's second favourite piece of stationary), underlining, dot points or big scribbly circles work too - just make sure you do those in pencil and/or don't cover the rest of the question because that would be a silly mistake in itself. Seriously, I have my doubts that my school and the VCAA actually know how to write a legible question; highlighting the important parts of their jumble of words saves you time when you check your answers because you don't have to check the question, too.

People have different ways to check their answers - I like to use the "CUTE" method because I think it's funny that I can use the word cute to describe a SAC or an exam.

CUTE Method

C - Calculations - Are you using the right formula? Are your numbers right? Do you get the same answer if you do it another way (etc. Different rule, or by calculator/hand)? Are there enough to get the full marks for working out? Can you read it? More importantly, is it near enough that someone who is tired and seen it 489 times before going to bother? *

U - Units? A mistake made commonly enough in further (and maths in general?) that it deserves its own letter. Pretty self explanatory, but make sure that your letters at the end don't look like numbers. (etc. 40 km or 401 cm? Maybe it's just me, but handwriting is the real test here)**

T - True? If you substitute your answer back into the equation or whatever, is it true? What if you use another method? Does it match up with the theory? (Sure, 1.1 + 0.9 + 1.75 + 1.25 = 5, but what kind of question on Seasonal Indices uses a five season period when your working out only includes 4?)

E - Explainable? Kind of like the context check, so mostly for worded questions, but does your answer actually answer the question? Sure, Billy is arrives at Narnia when t = 3.5, but the question says he left at 8am (so t=0 at this time) - you probably won't get the marks unless you write 11:30am.

*A note on this, if you don't use custom functions on your CAS, you're missing out. Saves time and silly mistakes that you could make typing it out or doing it by hand. Just make sure it's right before you go into an exam relying on it
**Similar to the other note, I use custom functions for conversions because I'm terrible at them. I also have a table in my summary book for checking by hand. Maybe you don't need it, but I, personally, am terrible but would still like a nice score at the end.

I also try and have enough time as possible to check my answers (and handwriting ). I aim for a quarter of the test but that's pretty wishful thinking - really, as long as you have any time to go over you're probably safe. A little note on that, I also add a small "ch" on questions that I've checked and if I have enough time to check time more than once I'll keep a tally and prioritise the questions with more marks.

Of course, the best way to minimise mistakes is to make them. Preferably in a no-pressure environment, like in a practice exam/SAC. Once you've done it, work out what it was. Was it really a silly mistake, or was it a big mistake? If it was a silly mistake, make a list. I have a page in each module's summary dedicated to listing mistakes I could make, and a quick method to fix it or a page reference if it's not as quick. If it's a big mistake, probably worth making a list too. Drill out some textbook questions on the same topic, read the theory, add it to your summary book - whatever. Just make sure that you know what you're doing before you try a challenging question on the topic again, because it's just frustrating and not particularly efficient to figuratively smash your face into a brick wall until you put a crack in it when you could go get a hammer or super neat lasery thing and obliterate it.

Good luck, anyway. Maybe if we sacrifice some sheep or something to the VCAA they'll have mercy on us.

Great answer thanks