My inbox is always full of people asking the same question:
“What is the hardest year for maths?”
And it’s subjective. There’s not one year particularly harder than others. But I can identify which is the year that I see students struggle the most.
For me it’s always 2nd Year.
I’m going to run through the pitfalls for 2nd year maths here and what you can do to avoid them too.
The shock factor
The jump from 1st year into 2nd year catches a lot of students in maths. Within the first or second week of second year maths, you’ll be working on algebra. Often times the teachers will up the ante in the level and standards of algebra that you try and practise. So stuff like:
- quadratic equations
- simultaneous equations
- minus B formula
- algebraic division
All of these topics look a lot more complex on paper and students get very confused. It’s a world away from basic linear algebra, first year, Venn diagrams, and probability and statistics. All of that looks really rosy and lovely now from the vantage point of doing complex algebra.
Confidence dips
The most common person who signs up to our grinds is actually 2nd years and that flabbergasts people considering we teach almost 3,500 students every week. It goes back to this point: the drop-off in results. Someone doing very well in first year to struggling by November or December of 2nd year is really common.
The problem with maths is that it’s cumulative. If you miss one part of algebra, it has a knock-on effect for the rest of algebra and for the other topics. And so this really begins to show face in 2nd year. You will see the biggest drop-off by the November or Christmas test of 2nd year. It can often be a world away from their results in first year.
I think a lot of this comes back to the age of the child. This child is usually 13 or 14 years old. They struggle with complexity. When things go wrong they can often just put their head down, lose their confidence, and the results just spiral. They’re not mature enough to have that resilience yet.
The hardest 2nd year topics
Again this is all subjective. But what I see students struggling with the most is, 90% of the time, algebra. It starts off with the basics that they struggle with: the four forms of factorising. That is the point I tell students to go back and start there. Get your linear algebra right. Know your four forms of factorising. Get your simultaneous equations right.
That is step one. The next topic students struggle on is functions. You can’t really do functions without a good understanding of algebra so before you tackle functions, get your algebra right.
In most schools these are the two topics that will be on the 2nd year Christmas Maths Test: algebra and functions.
How to improve in 2nd year maths
The first thing I always tell students to do is to get grinds. With systems like Breakthrough Maths you can just jump in for a couple of weeks. In 5 or 6 weeks I often see students turn around. The way the grinds and the world of grinds has changed is it’s a lot more accessible now using programmes like us. You’re not tied down to any contracts. You can jump in, jump out.
That’s really handy because a lot of the time it’s hard to help at home. These are teenagers, emotionally all over the place, and it can be hard to try and help and support because they simply just won’t face it.
That’s why I think our grind is like a third space. It’s not school, it’s not home, it’s something fresh, something different, and they actually apply themselves because they like the teacher and they like the space of the grind to do it online.
If you do want to do our 2nd year grinds, it’s going to be Tom teaching the grinds this year. The class is on at 5:30 pm Monday to Thursday, four grinds every single week, and we’ll be covering all the key topics for 2nd year.
If not then I would just recommend our YouTube channel as a great source for 2nd year maths and just continue on with learning your notes and doing the work at the back of each chapter.
