Positive Self Talk

One thing that I have noticed recently among a few of the students that I tutor is a discouragement with math.  These students however have turned their present lack of success in math into a harsh self criticism.

I have talked in previous posts about how math is completely neutral.  Your math book is completely unaffected by whether you love it or hate it.

Similarly, just because you make a numerical or calculation error is no reason to berate yourself.  I recommend just calmly taking a step back and seeing what it is you don't understand.  Once you understand where you went off track you can even completely rework the problem from start to finish.  Create the repetition for yourself of doing the problem correctly then pat yourself on the back.

You are excellent at the math that you know you just need to keep building on that strong foundation and keep moving forward.

​I recommend a positive approach and positive self talk.  Encourage yourself and congratulate yourself on your successes.  Look on your mistakes as part of the process needed to get to the understanding you want.

Tutoring can help accelerate the learning process but it is you that are doing the work, asking the questions, making the mistakes, correcting your mistakes and improving.  Adding some positive self talk can help you create a more conducive internal learning envirionment plus it makes you feel better too!

Image courtesy of stock images at freedigitalphotos.net