Checking Your Work- the Forest

Wouldn't it be great if you found an answer, and knew right away whether that answer was right or not?

Math can be hard, like really hard. Struggling through the lecture is hard enough. You think you understood what the teacher was saying... After all, they made it look so easy! 

The teacher has likely told you to check your work too. The phrase "check your work" is likely something you've heard before. So what does that even mean?

Checking your work can look like a lot of things depending on the problem. Generally though, there are a few things you can do to check your work:

• plug the answer back in to the problem
• plug the answer back in to a different step
• solve a different way

Did you notice anything missing from the list? There isn't a "rework the problem" on there. That is the worst way to check your work, and ironically the way people normally check their work too.

The other thing about checking your work is that it isn't necessary... Most of the time. If you don't have a lot of time left before you turn in the test, you won't have much time to check your work. Right?

Hmm. Well, it depends. Sometimes checking your work only takes seconds! It can take longer, but with the methods I'll show you it should take less than 30 seconds every time.

Each week, there will be three examples to look at from various math classes. Stay tuned!