O-level E-Math: Mastering Functions and Graphs (Part 1)

Are you an O Level E-math student trying hard to remember the graphs of power functions? One outdated yet common way that students memorize the graphs of power functions is to do it by rote learning. They look at the graphs, memorize it, sketch it and repeat these steps until they feel competent. One month zoom past and they realise they have forgotten everything and have to repeat the whole painful process again!

Today, I'd like to introduce a more efficient method which I personally created and used to memorize these functions and their graphs many years ago when I was a student. And after I learnt it using this method, I never had to relearn it again.

Before I show you the method, here is a table of graphs of the common functions that you are expected to know for both O-level E-math and A-math:

To help yourself remember the graphs of the first 6 functions, you need to draw a picture of the angry farmer (see below). You will notice that the first 6 power function graphs are all in the picture and in order of lowest to highest power.

For this method to work, you have to recall and draw this "angry farmer" once or twice and label the graphs on it. After that, you will realise that you have "magically remembered" all the 6 power function graphs easily and it has incorporated itself into your permanent memory (at least it will last you till O-levels). You will find it a piece of cake to recall these 6 power functions anytime, anywhere.

Hope this article has helped make studying math a little simpler and more interesting for you :)

If you want to learn more about this topic, do check out part 2 of Mastering Functions and Graphs.

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