Students find Maths the most challenging subject, says survey

The undue expectations from parents make it even more challenging for the kids to perform well in Maths. The stereotype can be seen in all parts of the country, reveals a survey.

By: Parenting Desk
June 4, 2019 05:30 PM IST

3 min read

Maths can be made easy for kids to learn. (Source: Getty Images)

Mathematics is the most challenging subject for students and Indian parents often use the subject as a benchmark to measure the intelligence of their wards. They tend to ask their children addition/subtraction related questions more than that of any other subject. Rather than investing their time in the subject they like, children are bound to pay more time and attention to maths because of the pressure build on them by their parents. The undue expectations from parents make it even more challenging for the kids to perform well in Maths. Schools across the country are implementing new methods for teaching maths, especially from class 1 to 5.

The stereotype can be seen in all parts of the country. Maths scores do not show any correlation with demographics or geography, reveals iChamp, the gamified practice app for kids, during a survey among 5,000 students between the ages of 5 to 13 years and their parents to gauge learning trends. The survey reveals some interesting insights about the likes and dislikes of students for different subjects and the areas that they need to improve.

Competition and rewards drive students, says the release. Some students like to compete with others, rather than taking the same tests individually. Linking rewards with tests increases the chance of a student taking that test by more than 120 per cent. Even virtual rewards like stickers and badge on the app are a big motivation for students.

Students like no subject in particular

iChamp’s study and interaction with students did not find any pattern of affinity for any subject. Most of them could highlight subjects they liked more when compared to other subjects.

Linguistics play an important role across the nation

Students from metropolitan cities, i.e., Delhi, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai scored about 15 per cent more marks in English compared to rest of the country in iChamp tests. Students in tier 2 cities such as Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Patna, Jaipur, Indore, Chandigarh etc. scored more marks in English compared with students from tier 3 cities. However, their scores are less than those scored by tier 1 cities students. Students in South Indian states scored about 8 per cent more marks in English compared to the rest of the country.

Hindi a challenge in metros

Hindi is a big challenge for students in metros. Students in tier 1 cities take more Hindi tests on the platform as compared to students from other cities. Feedback from parents in metro cities is also to add more Hindi content than any other subject.