Hi Gigi,
I can imagine you're feeling pretty frustrated right now, hey.
I think it would be helpful to reflect on your approach to a) practicing maths outside of test conditions (e.g. textbook questions), and b) completing maths in test conditions.
When it comes to the test that's right in front of you though, what type of errors did you make? Were they silly mistakes because of time pressure or did you not understand how to do the questions at all?
If your errors are silly mistakes, perhaps you could try quickly checking over your work as you go. If you don't understand how to do a question, try to work out what concepts the question is testing and go from there, but try not to spend too long on a question if you're just not getting it.
I suggest going through your paper (with a teacher preferably) and reworking the solutions.
When it comes to studying for maths:
- are you understanding the concepts that you are learning? If you are having difficulties with any concepts, asking your teacher or popping a question on the maths question threads across the forum can be really helpful.
You can post a question on the forum by clicking on the link to the board of the math subject you are doing and at the top of the page, there will be a question thread. I'm not sure which state you're from but I've linked the VIC math board
here, the NSW math board
here and the QLD math board
here.
- are you doing practice under timed conditions? Doing so can help you get used to doing math under timed pressure.
Some other things that may be useful:
- keeping an error log - if there's a type of question that you are consistently not getting right or type of error you are consistently making, keeping an error log can help you identify what these are, so that you can develop strategies to combat them.
- using a variety of practice questions - sometimes the questions in the textbook aren't really up to SAC standard as they're meant for the initial consolidation of what you've learnt in class. Sourcing questions from past exams / practice SACs / tests from your school can expose you to some questions with more depth and variety.
Edit: Justin posted while I was typing so there may be some overlap!