PFMS Method: The Ultimate Guide To Boosting Your Child’s Score

“If at first you don’t succeed, try again” these simple instructions are on motivational posters everywhere. What if it doesn’t feel that easy? What if you try again and still fail? At what point does trying and failing just turn into giving up? This guide will show you the PFMS method of boosting your child’s score.

It is common for somebody to have a limit of failure before quitting altogether.

Students need to learn the value of failure when it comes to learning.

Think about learning something new, like golf. The fundamentals of golf include understanding the weather, specific clubs, and rules. If somebody has never golfed before, it is unlikely that they will walk onto a golf course and shoot a 72, following the rules and having fun.

But, if somebody really wants to learn the sport, they also won’t try once and quit.

For students, it can sometimes be easy to try something, fail, and stop trying. The frustration, annoyance, and blow to their egos make students more likely just to stop making an effort when things get hard.

ArgoPrep’s PFMS Method

When trying to understand a new concept in math, science, and even language arts, it’s easy to let failure derail us.

Unfortunately, when learning anything new, failure is a given and should be understood as a part of the process. That’s why ArgoPrep strongly encourages the PFMS Method of learning!

The PFMS or Practice, Fail, Master, Succeed Method focuses on the importance of practice and inevitable failure as a key to a more rich understanding of complex topics.

When using the PFMS method, students are more likely to develop deeper understandings and the ability to build on their knowledge base to grow more quickly than a traditional approach.

ArgoPrep has worked tirelessly to create a curriculum that supports students and challenges them without making it so hard that students only fail. This encompassing method gives students the proper building blocks to become lifelong learners!

PFMS – Practice

There is a 95% chance you have heard the phrase, “practice makes perfect!” at least one time in your life. The fact is: there are very few things in life that you can learn without concentrated practice.

Whether learning a new sport, instrument, or even a TikTok dance, practice helps achieve goals through consistent practice of the steps.

When it comes to education, the same principle applies. Through the consistent process of practicing, students can understand concepts more instinctively.

When you think of the simple problem 2 + 2, it is a knee-jerk response to say 4. That’s great! That means you’ve practiced basic addition enough not to have to think about how to reach that answer.

There was a time where that answer wasn’t readily available, though. In preschool, students use their fingers, beans, or even M&M’s to find the solution to this basic problem.

After enough practice with basic addition, students won’t have to use anything before they know the answer to this question.

Of course, as students age, the concepts become more complicated, which is why it is so vital to encourage practice.

Through consistent practice, students will be able to easily recall the information during high-stakes exams such as the SAT and apply it to even more complex concepts.

The PFMS Method realizes the importance of practicing to encourage learning, and

with the use of ArgoPrep materials, encourage students to continue to practice

concepts until knee-jerk responses are the norm to even the most complex of ideas!

PFMS – Fail.

Students must fail to grow. Unfortunately, because of the pressure of high stakes learning in today’s education, the opportunity for failure and growth is dramatically reduced.

Think about it: teachers’ jobs require them to generate data based on student understanding.

Then districts take this data and find ways to make the frequency of failure even smaller—the closer to zero, the better, more money, and higher test scores.

While this sounds like a great plan, it breeds a level of perfectionism that a student will never meet. Students should be allowed to fail!

When a student experiences failure, they can go back to the drawing board and stretch their understanding even more. If students were able to succeed immediately, their minds might tell them: “good enough!” and leave it at that.

Failure is a crucial component to fully synthesizing (or understanding) concepts. It creates more opportunities for conversation and practice, which will reinforce these concepts more clearly.

Additionally, dealing with failure is a crucial life skill for all adults. Being able to deal with failure and learn how to improve gracefully will help students to become better employees, spouses, and citizens.

While it is a nice thought to think that once you’re out of school, you won’t have to deal with failures anymore, the fact is that most people will cope with poor reviews at work, layoffs, not landing a contract, conflicts with friends and family, and more, during their lifetime.

With the PFMS Method, students will be learning the foundational skills to help them excel in school and adulthood!

Master

Of course, with any journey, there needs to be a finish line. While it is exciting to think of learning as a bottomless ocean that students can explore forever, it is unlikely that a student will be satisfied with never reaching the end.

That is why it is important to experience the mastery of learning new concepts. Mastery is the academic finish line that tells the student and teacher that they are ready to move on. Did you know that most new ideas expect an 85% mastery of a past concept (or concepts)?

Learning something new rarely requires a student to have no understanding of the concept. Instead, teachers take what they’ve already taught and just gently add something a little more complicated to the idea.

Mastery-based instruction’s design starts with the end-goal that students will be able to find the satisfaction of getting to the finish line of a concept.

In elementary classrooms, many students will get stickers on their assignments to let them know, “you did great on this!”. Mastery-based instruction is a similar sentiment!

The PFMS Method understands the psychological and academic importance of mastery and believes it is a cornerstone of high-quality instruction.

When using ArgoPrep, students will have the opportunity to experience the fulfillment of mastery whenever they finish a unit. By giving them the chance to master a concept, they are also getting the chance to feel successful with their work!

Succeed

Whether earning a high grade on a test or passing a course, whether scoring high on the SAT or getting prepared for the workforce, student success is unique for every child.

That is why the PFMS Method is so important for all students! The PFMS Method applies to every student regardless of age, grade, or goals.

To help students succeed, the PFMS Method relies on all previous steps to work. Students must walk through practicing, failing, and mastery.

Once a student experiences success, it is because of their hard work to learn a new concept. Students who experience success will be more likely to repeat it because they have the PFMS foundation required to tackle more difficult concepts in school.

To have a successful student, they should have many outlets for learning. This includes classroom, community, extracurricular, and enrichment. ArgoPrep supports students by providing high-quality enrichment for all students.

When students can develop in these various areas, they will experience more success in their academic careers.

Conclusion

A good educator understands the importance of putting the student’s needs first. The PFMS Method by ArgoPrep’s design focuses on the student. Using this method, ArgoPrep has been able to challenge students without making them feel incapable.

ArgoPrep offers numerous services and products to help students succeed. This includes online tutoring and coaching, workbooks, and an all-new K-8 online learning platform!

In a very cheesy example, think of learning like the life cycle of a butterfly. For a caterpillar to become a butterfly, it must first do the hard work of putting itself in a cocoon, turning into goo, and rebuilding itself. Once the entire process is complete, the butterfly reemerges and flies away, having successfully transformed itself!

Just like the butterfly, students must transform when it comes to learning. It sometimes is ugly, but with time and consistency, they will be able to master skills and move forward into new, challenging waters.

The PFMS Method gives students the building blocks to becoming lifelong learners.

Students will experience the challenges and satisfaction of learning new (and more complicated!) things while developing their skills in math, English, test prep, and more!

With ArgoPrep’s PFMS Method, students can experience the excitement that comes with fully understanding of complex concepts!