Reading Time
3 min read
Written By
Alyx JordanFounder, Ivy MathsIn this article
You sit down to do maths, read the first question, and twenty minutes later you've checked your phone four times and written two lines. Most advice on focus treats every subject the same, but maths has a particular problem that helps to understand first.
1. Why maths is harder to focus on
Many maths questions ask you to hold several steps in your head at once. Solving 4(2x − 3) = 3x + 8 means expanding the bracket, collecting the x terms on one side, keeping track of the signs and then dividing. If you look away halfway through, you lose your place in the method, and coming back usually means starting the question again.
That makes interruptions more expensive in maths than in a subject where you're reading or writing. It's also why a maths session can feel tiring even when you've got through very little: restarting questions wears you out.
2. Put your phone in another room
Face down on the desk isn't far enough. Even on silent, a phone within reach is the first thing you'll pick up when a question gets hard. Another room adds a few seconds of effort, and those few seconds are often enough to keep you in your seat.
If you use your phone as a calculator or a timer, swap it for a real calculator and a kitchen timer.
3. Start with a question you know you can do
The first five minutes are the hardest part of a session. Opening with the hardest topic on your list makes it very easy to drift before you've begun. Start with two or three questions on something you're confident with instead. An early correct answer gets you writing, and once you're writing it's easier to keep going.
4. Write every step down
Working done in your head is lost the moment you're interrupted. If every line is on paper, you can come back after a distraction, read your last line and carry on from there.
Written working also means that when an answer is wrong, you can find the line where it went wrong, which is the most useful thing a wrong answer can tell you.
5. Have a rule for getting stuck
Being stuck is one of the commonest reasons people drift onto their phone. The question feels impossible and anything else feels better. Decide your rule before you start. For example: if you've made no progress on a question for ten minutes, put a star next to it, write one line about where you got stuck, and move on.
Starred questions go to your teacher, a tutor or a worked example later. The session keeps moving, and you've written down exactly what you didn't understand.
6. Keep sessions short and stop on time
Thirty to forty minutes of real concentration is a good session. Set the length before you start and stop when it ends, even mid-question. Knowing there's a fixed end makes it easier to ignore distractions until you get there.
If you want to do more, take a ten-minute break away from the desk and start a second session.
7. A session with nothing to decide
Part of what breaks concentration is working out what to do next. Ivy Maths Daily Maths Practice gives you a ready-made set of questions for the day, so there's nothing to choose and nothing to search for. Put your phone in another room, set a timer for 30 minutes and start today's Daily Maths Practice.