Silly errors during math exams and effective methods of checking.

Question

I'm sure this is something that all math students experience many times in their career. I've noticed after completing my exam in the examination room that I would go back upon my paper and find myself not being able to find my mistakes! (Believing that I've done everything right, if it was wrong why would I write what I think is wrong.) After the exam is over and the paper is marked! I found that I have made many silly errors as I couldn't find them in the examination room. Can this be helped? Have you guys got any checking techniques that you can offer to people like me to **reduce** the silly errors? The ones known already are: - **Looking over the exam (not very helpful).** I am looking at the exam with the same frame of mind that made those ""unconsious mistakes"". So how does one find those mistakes? - **Sanity checks** for mathematical ranges and etc (those are often hard to come by) I'm sure this post would be very relevant to people! Please comment and ask me for edits before downvoting.

Answer 1

I would rework the problem using the answer. For example, 6×3=x. X=18. Rework the problem. 18/6=3. 18/3=6.

This may be an oversimplification but has always worked well for me.