Get rich quick. Get math quick!

Get rich quick? Get math quick? How does that work?

Hey math students and parents,

Today math gets compared to real life: Get rich quick! Get math quick!

One is frowned upon, the other encouraged.
One is recommended to avoid, the other seems to be engrained in our math culture.
Both encourage a, do less work to get high rewards.
Both skip steps, take shortcuts.
Both are difficult to repeat on an ongoing basis as key learning steps and habits are skipped – challenge for ‘rich quick’ would be replicating it and for ‘math quick’ it would be remembering it.
Both can lead to unrealistic expectations.

If someone approaches you with a ‘get rich quick’ scheme or a ‘get math quick’ trick, well,

just be careful. Want more insight?

Students, ask your parents what ‘get rich quick’ is and means. Parents, ask your child why they want to ‘get math quick’ and what’s the downside.

Yes, some do get rich quick, just as some students can get math quick, but for many students the desire to ‘get math quick’ is aiming for the stars when there is an unknown anchor attached.

What do the students do, have, who get math quick?

1.       See it once and remember it - e.g. photographic memory.
2.       Excellent memorization skills.
3.       Find math very easy (can ace tests w/o doing any homework) - e.g. a genius, natural talent.
4.       Spend hours and hours every night on what’s been taught to be able to do it quicker.
5.       Other: e.g. they do and teach themselves the course on their own before doing the actual course at school.

If you’re a student who is part of the 1. to 3. group above, I’ll share one thought: If this ‘get math quick’ ever stops working, then you’ll be like the students I’ve written this article for. In that situation, and I have seen it happen too many times, what’s written here will be beneficial.

As you progress up through math courses you have to be able to do past math quicker, that’s a given. But what I’m talking about today is when a math concept is taught for the first time, the approach cannot be, ‘get it quickly’.

Where does that, ‘get math quick’ desire originate?

Usually begins when a student: 1) Doesn’t like math and/or 2) Feels they’re not good at math.

I don’t like math. I’m not good at math!

And these two reasons make sense as ‘doing it quickly’ is a common trait most people have when doing a task they don’t like or don’t feel they’re good at. The objective becomes, get it over and done with, quickly (think of a chore you have to do but don’t want to do). But with math there’s the second objective that’s added to ‘quickly’, which is wanting to get the highest mark possible, and that creates a new problem.

What does a ‘get math quick’ approach impact?

I’ve listed 18 below:

1.       It’s a ‘do math quickly’ to ‘get math quickly.’

2.       But that goal creates a habit of doing math quickly, and that’s not the sole habit you want to have when learning math. It will limit what you can achieve.

3.       It’s ‘small efforts to get high marks’.

4.       For homework, the self-talk becomes, “get this done as quickly as possible.”

I’ll get this done as quickly as possible.

Steps skipped, Memorizing, rules, shortcuts.

5.       You have to understand that to do math quickly requires steps be skipped, and unfortunately, it’s the foundation and fundamentals that get skipped. E.g. the quickest way to add fractions (1/2 + 1/3) is via a shortcut, a rule - change the two denominators (2 and 3) to be the same number, (3/6 + 2/6) and then add the numerators (3 + 2) while keeping the denominator the same (the 6); to get an answer of 5/6. Sounds magical. But the fundamental step that gets skipped is understanding why those two numbers need to be the same. 

Important: I use memorizing fractions as an example because it’s the one concept taught before you’re 10 years old that keeps confounding students’ years and years later. Why? Students forget what they memorized.

6.       Memorization or rules are examples of ‘doing math quickly’ as they skip steps. When mastered, they’re quick to do (e.g. memorizing multiplication tables), but understanding why is ignored (e.g. why does 8 x 6 give 48?). Yes, that critical step slows things down, but it creates a habit of understanding and readiness for more demanding questions. Memorization is a part of learning math but should not be the only way to learn. 

It creates a frustrating cycle of ‘do quicker - forget quicker’

7.     Those shortcuts and skipped steps lead to math being forgotten quicker.

8. And though forgetting is a clue that this get math quick objective isn’t working, the objective will be difficult to change. Why? A habit has been created to do math quickly, and it’s difficult to get rid of a habit holding us back (aka a bad habit).

9. It’s the reason many students struggle in math, as a ‘get math quick’ approach does not lead to retention. It leads to a cycle of ‘do math quick, then forget it,’ which is a formula for frustration, as the math has to be continually redone to remember math already seen. 

Get math quick does not lead to retention.

A focus on getting the answer.

10.   Getting to answer as quickly as possible is the desired objective, sometimes by any means (e.g. not showing steps, getting answers from the back of the textbook).

11. A desire to get the right answer, as right answers are ‘good’, and wrong ones are bad. But wrong answers are where the opportunity to ‘learn from your mistakes’ first surface.

The right answer to a math question is not the sole goal!

Thinking is quicker than writing but …

12.   Thinking is quicker than writing, and doing math questions mentally is vital to learning math. But, always doing math in your mind to do it quicker becomes a tough habit to break when required to write all steps - when your teacher asks for steps or is looking for a ‘show me what you’re thinking.’

13.   And if you look at a question and your first thought is, “I don’t know how to do this” (aka can’t get question quickly), then the odds are high you will give up as, 1) you’re not able to do it quickly, 2) a weakness in fundamentals and/or 3) not a habit to do questions slower which is a must on tougher questions.

Solving tough questions requires doing math slowly.

Objective to get math quick.

14.   An issue originates with the objective, ‘getting math quick,’ as that goal undermines learning - e.g. when a student gets stumped, the likelihood is that ‘get math quick’ will be replaced with a desire to want to give up. 

15.   The issue with the ‘quick’ is that key steps in learning are not done: Of the first 4 of 5 steps in learning, only the first two are done, and the third and fourth are not:
a.       #1 Objective (get math quick) and #2 Motivation (to get math quick) are done as time and energy focus there,
b.       But #3 Understanding and #4 Reinforcing that understanding are not done, which explains the struggles with remembering.

Creates a habit of always doing math quickly

16.   Points # 1 to #15 ultimately lead to ‘creating a habit of doing math quickly,’ resulting in a weakness, a gap, as thinking, problem-solving, and brainstorming are all skills that get pushed aside, as they’re slower to do!

17. Parents, on the one hand, we encourage speed in doing math and creating the

    ‘quick’ habit; but on the other hand, we wonder why students don’t want to or don’t know how to problem-solve. 

18. Problem-solving is the opposite of ‘get math quick’, as you cannot get it quickly so have to rely on another way to figure it out – thinking, connecting, writing what you know (aka brainstorming). At its core, problem-solving is a ‘get math slow’ approach.

Doing math quickly does not create habits needed for problem-solving.

If ‘get math quick’ isn’t working for you, what can you do?

Two options, A (go slow) or B (do more math):

Option A

#1 Need to understand how learning works. Read Teachers teach and students learn.

#2 Change your objective as the results and feedback are telling you 'get math quick' objective isn't working.

#3 Understand first before you focus on being quick at math. It's learning to walk before you try running.

Investing time in understanding fundamentals takes longer to do (as you’re building the foundation), which conflicts with the need for speed! Yes, math can be done quicker, but what's the point if you don't remember it?

Option B

Go back to fourth paragraph, titled, What do the students do, have who get math quick?, and do as students in groups 4. and 5. do: Spend hours and hours each night … or do/teach themselves course on their own before …

You’ve got four options: A) Understand math, b) Do more math, C) Do math quickly or D) Become a genius at math. Choose!

Review

How to get math quicky requires skipping steps, taking shortcuts, using tricks! A focus on ‘quick’, neglects key parts of learning and problem solving that will affect how well you do. It conflicts with the skill of problem solving, which is a ‘get math slow’ approach.

I liken it to a course being taught on ‘GET RICH’ … I don’t think much of the course would be about getting rich quickly as there’d be an expectation that the fundamentals are understood first! But the course on ‘math’ almost mandates and encourages a focus on doing and getting math quickly. Why is that? What’s the rush?

Final thoughts

No one yells, let's 'get rich slow' or let's 'get math slow,' but for the students that do math slow, it’s a deliberate and steady path to becoming a better learner. Yes, 'rich quick' is more interesting and exciting, but that kind of exuberance isn't matched in math. Well, it is sort of, as 'get math quick' is all the rage, and the fear of missing out (FOMO) on 'getting it quick' can be all consuming. FOMO is a Catch-22 as the dream of being like those students, who seem to do little work and excel, is a fallacy*.

Edison
Learning strategist for math students.
Strategies that help when doing math quickly isn’t working.

*PS
Go back and read paragraph four. Still not convinced?

Okay, think magic, a card trick. Think of what you see a magician doing - you don’t understand their trick with the cards as they’re doing it so quickly. But to get to that level of quickness, and perfection, wouldn’t the magician have had to first understand how the trick works, then spend countless hours mastering it, before even thinking about speeding it up? You see the final ‘quick’ trick and you’re impressed (and want to be able to replicate it yourself), but what you don’t see is all the behind the scenes work to master that trick. An objective to ‘get magic quick’ would be scoffed at.