Being good at math is not a talent people are born with, according to a new study which found that practice, not innate skill, makes for better mathematicians.
If you want to be really good at all types of math, you need to practice them all, said scientists at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim.
This goes against the traditional view that if you are good at math, it is a skill that you are simply born with.
Professor Hermundur Sigmundsson at Department of Psychology and colleagues tested the math skills of 70 Norwegian fifth graders, aged 10.5 years on average.
Their results suggest that it is important to practice every single kind of math subject to be good at all of them, and that these skills aren't something you are born with.
"We found support for a task specificity hypothesis. You become good at exactly what you practice," Sigmundsson said.
Nine types of math tasks were tested, from normal addition and subtraction, both orally and in writing, to oral multiplication and understanding the clock and the calendar.
"Our study shows little correlation between (being good at) the nine different mathematical skills," Sigmundsson said.
"For instance there is little correlation between being able to solve a normal addition in the form of '23 + 67' and addition in the form of a word problem," Sigmundsson said.
Perhaps basic math is not a problem for the student, but the reading itself is, researchers said.
Sigmundsson also finds support in everyday examples.
"Some students will be good at geometry, but not so good at algebra," he said.
"At the same time this means there is hope for some students. Some just can't be good at all types of math, but at least they can be good at geometry, for example," he said.
It is this finding that might in the end help change the way math is taught, researchers said.
The fact that you are good at precisely what you practice is probably due to the fact that different kinds of practice activate different neural connections.
The study is published in the journal Psychological Reports.
