14 Tips for tackling mathematical questions
14.1 Getting started
Many students struggle to answer mathematical questions in science modules. The following tips may help.
- Read the question carefully and make sure that you understand what you are being asked to do. There are a number of keywords (‘process words’) you should look out for, since they give clues as to what is expected. Some commonly encountered process words are explained in Table 14.1.
- Write down the values and equations that have been given in the question, and also write down what it is that you are trying to find.
- It can be helpful to draw a diagram of the situation.
- Think carefully about how you are going to get from what you have been told in the question to what you are trying to find. What other equations etc. might be useful? (Write them down too.) Try to devise a strategy for answering the question.
- Have the courage to start to answer a question, even if you can’t see how to get to the end. The way forward may become clear as you work. Even if you have to give up part-way through, you may get some marks for what you have written. Remember that in a typical science question involving a calculation, most of the marks are for the working, not the final answer.
| Process word | What you are required to do |
|---|---|
| evaluate | Work out the value of an expression. |
| calculate | Work out the value of a quantity from formulae or other information. You will be expected to give the correct units of the quantity you have calculated, and to state your answer to an appropriate number of significant figures. |
| simplify | Reduce an equation or expression to its simplest form. |
| plot | Draw a graph. You will be expected to choose appropriate scales for the axes, label the axes correctly (with units if appropriate) and to show individual data points. You may also be expected to draw a line of best fit to the data. |
| sketch (a graph) | Draw the general shape of a graph. You will be expected to label the axes, but not indicate numerical values on them (although it is usual to indicate the origin). You will not be expected to put any data points on the sketch, but merely to indicate the graph’s shape. |