9 Top Tips to Avoid Silly Mistakes in Your Maths Exam

Would you like to know how to not make silly mistakes in math? As Albert Einstein once said –

“Anyone who has never made a mistake, has not tried anything new.” So everything is just a learning phase, but it’s even better to learn from our experience!

Here are our top tips that will save you a lot of marks and could even save your grade:

1. Be careful with minus signs – the single most common source of error.

2. Don’t try to do too much in one step – break it down into smaller steps.

3. If your workings become overly complicated, check back in case you’ve made a slip.

4. Always feel free to check any calculation using your calculator.

5. In many questions, especially algebra, you can do checks on your answer to make sure you have got it right before moving on.

6. Ask yourself, using estimates and common sense – does this answer look right? If not, then re-check your work. This will heavily help in reducing silly mistakes in your maths paper.

7. Give answers to the correct degree of accuracy as requested e.g. to 2 decimal places.

8. Make sure you answer the question you’ve been asked – check this before moving on.

9. If you have enough time, recheck all steps and your final answer.

After following these points, we do hope you find your answer on how to avoid careless mistakes in math.

Be sure to check our guide on Pencil, pen, or both? What to use in the maths exam!