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[Gamerlord]

Look, I have exams coming up. One of the most difficult will be the maths exam. One of my worst things in maths is questions where you must show that something equals something else or prove that something equals something or etc. Can someone give me any tips on how to do this better? (In context of calculus (integration and differentiation), matrices and statistics) I would really appreciate any help.

[ed boy]

Do it step by step. Make sure you know before hand what stuff you can assume, and what stuff you can't, and learn how to get what you can't from what you can.

If you can give example questions, then I can be more specific, but until then, I can't say more than keep practicing them.

[Eagle_eye]

If you have absolutely no idea what to do, just transform things in a direction you feel might possibly be right. That's really all you can do if you don't have any idea how to do it on seeing it.

[kaijyuu]

If you don't know what the fuck to do, start deriving things. Assuming this is the type of test that gives partial credit, so long as you do something, that's better than nothing.

[Nilik]

Yeah, at the highest level what you're trying to do is get from the things you know, to the thing they want you to prove by modifying each side of the equation one at a time. Don't know if you've heard of the "therefore" symbol before (∴), but I would use it a ton. Stating your assumptions is also helpful.

For example, one you've probably heard before:

Assumptions:

Time = Money

Women = Time x Money

∴ Women = Money^2

Assuming money is the root of all evil:

∴ Money = √All Evil

∴ Money^2 = All Evil

∴ Women = All Evil



Now in multi-part questions they should still give you some marks if your answer is wrong, so long as you state your assumptions, and at least part of the math is correct given those assumptions. This is why I would also use "assuming" a lot; because if you screw up the first part of a problem and say "assuming the above is correct" and do the second part correctly, it should be worth some marks at least.

I.e "Assuming X = 2 and Y = Banana, then XY = 2 Bananas" should be worth some marks even if the math you used to work out X and Y is wrong. Of course if you find Y does equal Banana you've probably done something wrong.

Something very very wrong.

[Gamerlord]

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. Any tips for integration and differentiation?

[Reelya]

Unless you get a bit more specific the only tip is rote-memorizing all the rules for integrating/differentiating different things.

[Gamerlord]

Area undern curves (both over/under-estimates and exact) and definite integrals. They drive me insane.