Students engage in different activities when they study mathematics. These could range from traditional work like doing homework and asking for help to newer ones such as exploring mathematics with software and working with buddies. There are few studies about how often students use these activities and how useful they perceive these activities to be as their repertoires for studying mathematics. No study has been found that examines these perceptions by ethnic groups.

A CRPP-funded project entitled Enhancing Mathematics Performance has one of its aims to understand how mathematically weak students handle the study of mathematics. Data were collected from Primary 5 and Secondary 1 students about their perceptions of different study techniques and home environments for studying mathematics. Findings by Chinese and Malay groups will be reported in this paper. The information will contribute toward the discussion about home and ethnic factors in mathematics learning, which have not received much attention locally and internationally. Pedagogy needs to be "re-designed" to take into consideration some of these factors, in particular for teachers who teach students of different ethnic groups in their classes, often the case in Singapore.