Problems tend to crop up practically every day - at home, at school or college and at work. Some solutions can be quick and simple, but sometimes it takes a bit of thought and effort to solve a problem. Once you look into any problem, you'll realise that there are loads of different ways to deal with it. The trick is to know how to come up with a variety of options for dealing with your problem and to pick the one that will work best.

Rather than rush in to solve your problem, it's definitely worth thinking about all the consequences and planning out what you could do, before you do it. That way, you'll stay in control and you'll feel far more confident about what you're doing.

Knowing how to tackle a problem properly is a skill that takes practice. Problem solving will teach you how to:

• identify where the problem lies;
• understand exactly what the problem involves;
• look for different options to solve the problem;
• plan out a plan of action for each option;
• decide on the option that is most suitable and put that one into action;
• find different ways of checking that you've solved the problem;
• describe how you went about solving the problem and explain how you did it.

Problem solving, like Improving your own learning and Working with others, will teach you skills that you can use anywhere and at any time throughout your life.