Back to School Mindset: Staying on Top of Maths This Year

School is back, and with it comes that fresh-start feeling: new copies, a new timetable, and a new year of maths.

If the early motivation is fading and you want to stay on top of maths this year, here’s what you need to do...

Step 1) Redefine What Being “Good at Maths” Means

If this is the year you’ve decided to improve your maths grade, start by letting go of the idea that maths should feel easy.

For most people, progress takes effort, patience, and often frustration.

Struggling is part of learning, as are mistakes.

Progress isn’t about how quickly you answer or how easy it feels, it’s about how well you understand what you’re doing.
Once understanding is there, speed and confidence follow.

Mistakes = study plan. Every incorrect answer shows you what needs work. Identify the topic, fix one thing, try again. Simple in theory but difficult in practice.
Speed ≠ smart. Going too fast often leads to mistakes. Maths rewards reasoning, not rushing.
Many paths, same answer. Most problems have more than one valid method. If your approach is correct, it counts.

Step 2) Build a Sustainable Routine

Results in maths don’t come from monster 8-hour cramming sessions right before the exam.

Real progress is made through small, consistent practice that becomes a habit.

Daily 15: Getting started is often the hardest part. Commit to 15 minutes a day. It doesn’t matter if you finish a question or learn a new rule, consistency is what counts.
Without the pressure to finish a chapter or complete a full exam question, you’ll often keep going beyond 15 minutes.

Weekly “mix-it-up”: Don’t just stick to what you’re covering in class. Set three non-negotiable questions each week — one from this week, one from last week, and one from the week before.

This taps into spaced repetition and interleaving, which encourage revisiting old material while mixing topics so your brain doesn’t switch to autopilot.

Ebbinghaus’ forgetting curve and review cycle (Chun & Heo, 2018)

The Forgetting Curve

We forget new material quickly unless we revisit it.

Without repetition, learners may forget up to 90% of what they learned after the first week — with the sharpest drop in the first 24 hours.

Spaced recall flattens the curve and strengthens long-term retention.

Exit sentence: Take 30 seconds at the end of study to reflect: “Today I learned… Next time I’ll watch for…”.

Before your next session, reread the note and turn yesterday’s mistake into today’s progress.

Step 3) Study with Science (Not a Highlighter)

Highlighting notes or re-reading chapters might feel productive, but it doesn’t build lasting memory.

Real learning happens by questioning your methods, take things back to first principles, check your reasoning, and test yourself.

Here’s what the evidence suggests are the mosy effective study methods.

Recall > Rereading: Close your notes, try to answer from memory, then check.
This is one of the most powerful ways to implement active recall into your study routine.

Do not be fooled into thinking you understand what you did wrong by having the marking scheme open in front of you.

→ Put the marking scheme away and then try the question again.

Self-explain: After each step in your solution, ask yourself why each step is valid.

The act of explaining strengthens understanding and helps you catch gaps in reasoning.
Can you explain it to someone a year below you? If you can teach it, you understand it.

To put repetition into practice (in case you’ve already forgotten), two of the most powerful strategies we talked about in Step 2 are worth repeating here:

Space it out: Revisit a topic soon after learning it, then space out your revision from there.

24hrs → 3 days → 1 week → 2 weeks → 1 month.

Little and often is far more effective than big cramming sessions every exam season.

Interleave: Mix problem types, not just question styles.

At the start, it helps to practise several similar questions to build understanding. Once you’ve moved beyond the basics, challenge your brain by switching between different topics.

It may feel harder, but that’s exactly how you’ll be assessed in state exams — it’s a skill that needs practice.

Step 4) Tackle “Maths Anxiety” Early

Feeling nervous about maths is normal, but the way you talk and think about it makes a big difference.

Keep it low-stakes. Ask: “What do I notice? What can I try first? Is there a formula I know that’s related? Can I substitute something in?” You don’t need the whole solution to begin, just take one step at a time.

Parents, it matters. Students pick up on the way adults talk. Saying “I was never a maths person” may seem harmless, but it reinforces the myth that maths ability is fixed.

Instead, model curiosity: ask your child to show you their method, praise effort and persistence, and treat mistakes as part of learning.