I'm afraid this will get buried, but i want to give it a shot anyway.
For as long as i can remember I've been terrible or, at the least, pretty bad at mathematics. I really started falling behind when i switched to public school and got into the more abstract mathematics such as algebra I, geometry, and precalc. It got to the point where I was spending 4 hours in tutoring after school and still not finishing the homework and still failing the exams. This was troubling to me as I was always good in science and english. I seem to be a strong abstract and philosophical thinker, but it just seems that standard methods in teaching math just do not compute. I've always been tempted to work the problems my own way, which to the teachers seemed far more arduous than it needed to be, and as it turned out would generally be the wrong way or would be too hard when it came to more advanced problems. Now that I'm going into my senior year of college, I realize that the only careers I'm very interested in require a certain level of math beyond which i can really do well (specifically statistics, some higher level algebra/programming, and perhaps some calculus as well). I'd really like to learn mathematics and feel comfortable with it. I recognize that I will never be an expert, but I'd at least like to become skillful enough that I don't start hyperventilating when I see too many symbols in a problem. What would you recommend that someone like me do to become more competent and more comfortable with the subject?
drrrraaaaiiiinnnnage4 karma
I'm afraid this will get buried, but i want to give it a shot anyway.
For as long as i can remember I've been terrible or, at the least, pretty bad at mathematics. I really started falling behind when i switched to public school and got into the more abstract mathematics such as algebra I, geometry, and precalc. It got to the point where I was spending 4 hours in tutoring after school and still not finishing the homework and still failing the exams. This was troubling to me as I was always good in science and english. I seem to be a strong abstract and philosophical thinker, but it just seems that standard methods in teaching math just do not compute. I've always been tempted to work the problems my own way, which to the teachers seemed far more arduous than it needed to be, and as it turned out would generally be the wrong way or would be too hard when it came to more advanced problems. Now that I'm going into my senior year of college, I realize that the only careers I'm very interested in require a certain level of math beyond which i can really do well (specifically statistics, some higher level algebra/programming, and perhaps some calculus as well). I'd really like to learn mathematics and feel comfortable with it. I recognize that I will never be an expert, but I'd at least like to become skillful enough that I don't start hyperventilating when I see too many symbols in a problem. What would you recommend that someone like me do to become more competent and more comfortable with the subject?
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