The Phillips Exeter Academy math department teaches the subject of math in a very novel way. About a decade ago, teachers at Exeter, which is a top 9-12 boarding school in New Hampshire, developed a series of Exeter math books, and their problems, techniques, and strategies are now being used at other private day and boarding schools. Here’s an explanation of how Exeter math works:

The Process of Exeter Math

The math courses at Exeter are centered on the math problems written by the teachers.

The entire course is unlike traditional math classes in that it is problem-centered rather than topic-centered. While the traditional middle or high school math class generally presents a topic and then asks students to carry out a lot of endless drills based on mastering procedures for homework, the Exeter math classes involve little direct instruction and no drilling in procedures. Instead, students are given approximately eight word problems to complete per night. There is little direct instruction about how to complete the problems, but there is a glossary to help students, and the problems tend to build on each other.

Each night, students work on the problems, doing the best they can, and writing down their work. In these problems, process is as important as the answer, and teachers want to see all of the students’ work, even if the students do the work on their calculators. Teachers suggest that if students are stuck on a problem, they guess and check their work, make up an easier problem with the same principle as the given problem, or work backwards.

Since Exeter is a boarding school, students can visit their teachers, other students, or the math help center if they are stuck while doing their homework in their dorms at night. They are expected to carry out 50 minutes of concentrated work per night and to work persistently, even if the work is very difficult for them.

The next day, students bring their work to class, where they discuss it in a seminar-like style around a Harkness table, an oval-shaped table that Exeter uses in most of its classes to facilitate conversation. The idea is not to just present the right answer but for each student to have a turn presenting his or her work at the board to facilitate conversation, share methods, work out problems, communicate about ideas, and support other students.

What is the Purpose of the Exeter Method?

While traditional math courses emphasize rote learning that does not connect to everyday issues, the purpose of the Exeter word problems is to help students really understand math by working out the equations and algorithms themselves rather than just being given them. They also come to understand the applications of the problems. While this process can be very difficult, particularly for students new to the program, students learn traditional math areas such as algebra, geometry, and others by working out the ideas themselves. As a result, they really understand them and how they relate to mathematical issues and problems they could encounter outside of the classroom.

Many private schools across the country are adopting the Exeter math class materials and procedures, particularly for honors math class. For example, San Francisco Waldorf School adopted Exeter math for its honors students, and teachers at that school state that the program helps students own their work and take responsibility for learning it—rather than simply having it handed to them. In addition, perhaps the most important aspect of Exeter math is that it teaches students to accept that being stuck on a problem is acceptable. Rather than getting flustered or upset, students realize that it’s all right not to know the answers right away and that discovery and even frustration are in fact essential to real learning.