This step really solidifies the previous two steps of “learn the facts” and “follow the rules.” Nothing really is learned without practice, and “skills” combines facts and rules into problem solving situations. It is important to remember that the best athletes in the world don’t sit on their past performances and championship glories. They practice, practice, practice. That’s how they strive to maintain their skills and hopefully improve them.
The same is true for Math. If you’d like to truly learn math, really learn it (not just “get by” with a passing grade), then you will embrace practice as your friend, not your enemy.
I like to go one step further and suggest that, wherever possible, you “practice with feedback.” This simply means you find out whether an answer is right or wrong as soon as you respond. You get feedback (good or bad), right there in the moment, and you can learn from the mistake (“why did I get that wrong?”) or be reinforced with the correct answer. The easiest way to practice with feedback is to make and use flashcards: question or prompt on the front, correct answer on the back. (We’ll have future posts on some specific flashcard techniques you can use to reach mastery.)
Two additional ways of practicing with feedback are to use websites such as KhanAcademy.org, and ThatQuiz.org.
Next post will tie the previous three steps together with a mindset shift! Stay tuned.