Get Moving!
If someone asked me what I feel is most lacking in those that I tutor, my response would be one word: “Confidence.” I have not found a single person, ever, that I could honestly say was not smart enough to “get it.” What I usually find is smart people who have convinced themselves that they cannot do it. An occurrence far too common in tutoring, especially in math tutoring, is that students give up far too easily on themselves. They lack confidence in their capacity to solve their own problems. One of the most valued skills in business, so I’ve been told, is the capacity to assess and solve problems. A key component of this skill is acting and doing all we can before asking for help to do what we can’t do. In what follows I hope to suggest ideas that will improve our ability to act and do what we can for ourselves before we seek assistance.
What seems to happen with all of us is that if something looks hard we automatically assume that it is hard, panic and give up before we even begin. Instead of doing that we need to simply begin with confidence. We do this by first making sure what we are being asked to do. It seems rather obvious, but what we begin with is reading the question. When people ask me for help, usually I’ll ask them if they have read the question. Far too often the answer to that question is “No, I haven’t.” More than a few times, after we have read the question they’ll say “Oh, I do know how to do this.” Problem solved. So one thing that is a part of doing all you can is reading the question. Simple, but it works.
I have also found that many students, when they read, do not understand the question because they do not understand the words the question is using. I’ve personally had this problem more than I care to admit. I remember once when I was reading a physics article that used a certain word multiple times. Because I did not know the meaning of the word, I wasn’t really sure what they were talking about. After some time, I went back, learned what the word meant, then re-read the article. When I did that, it became clear to me what was being said. So if in reading the question you find words that you do not know, look up the definition. It doesn’t matter if you search for it in your notes, your textbook, and a dictionary or ask somebody, if you don’t know it, find out! That is one thing you can do.
After reading the question and making sure we know what it is asking, we may find, that we still do not know how to do the problem. Does that mean we have done all we can and can ask for help? No. Not yet anyway. When I first started tutoring there were quite a few math problems that I did not remember how to solve. What I’d usually do is ask the person to see their notes. I’d quickly look them over and more often than not, I’d discover how to solve the problem. I’d suggest doing likewise. If you have read the question and know what it is asking but still do not know how to do it, look in your notes! The answer is almost always there.
If we’ve reached this point and we still cannot understand then we need to ask for assistance. You may wonder why you need to expend so much effort if you’re probably going to ask for help anyway. Well I’ll answer that by saying it’s quite a bit easier to steer a moving car than it is a parked car. If you’re already moving in some direction, any direction, all that any tutor would ever need to do is help you steer. The same is true in any pursuit in life.
In all that I’ve said, I’d like to add a caution. Rarely does your best effort cover all that you will need to do in math, or in life. Do not hesitate, ever, to ask a question or seek help. If you need help, ask for it! Just make sure you’re doing your part!