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I don't understand it either! I took both in High School and received A's while always receiving C's or B's in Algebra. Granted, I have yet to take Chem or Physics in College so that may change. I was in the regular classes in HS Physics and Chem, but we certainly weren't babied, we actually had to understand it. I never went passed Gen. Physics or Chemistry, but I don't have to take anything more than that. All I remember of High School physics was that we were given formulas, which I can easily work with. Physics and Chemistry always seemed logical to me, math never did. I also know they offer Non-calculus Physics at my college.
If someone told me I needed to take Organic Chemistry, I'd probably cry though. Like I said, I am sure high school chem/physics is different than that of College courses, but I am just basing it off my understanding and the ease I had with it in High School. I had to go back and look but my grade in HS chem was an A- and Physics was a B+.
Also note, I do much better in Earth/Environmental Science related courses more than anything else.
You may decide you don't like Chemistry or Physics much once you take college level classes. Depending on your major, those classes can be real humdingers. They do offer rudimentary, introductory versions of those classes, but only if you have a non-science major.
I am in an Intermediate Algebra course, and I did take two remedial ones before this. I do understand the basic concepts pretty well, which is why I am glad I retook the course. It helped a lot. Last semester, the problem was we did the homework online and it would basically tell you how to do it. If you typed in the answer one margin off it was wrong and it was horribly frustrating. I would BS through it just to get it done. This semester I am taking it again with a new professor and we actually do the HW from the math book and I work slowly through it. I e-mail him immediately if I have any questions outside of class, hence my better grades I was just a little upset about the way this test MAY have turned out.
I do believe I am much better at math than I was thanks to this teacher's teaching METHODS and the amount of work I actually put into it this semester.
Memorization. I literally had to do the same problems over and over again until I could do the equations in my sleep and be able to substitute any number and still be able to solve the problem through memorization of the steps.
I had to take my math classes separately from all of my other classes. I took them all during the summer 3 hours 3 times a week. Got a tutor and it was literally all I did until I finished everything I needed to take.
math is a very valuable subject and shows critical thinking ability. It is certainly difficult for most people, so try a tutoring session. I highly recommend not going the memorization route suggested above.
There are people who have weak skills at math THEORY, but can do math quite respectably when it is APPLIED math in a particular field. Math becomes understandable and doable when its connected to something, which is why people who "aren't good" at math can sometime do quite well at finance,
My rant is about the test I took last night. It was also worth 20% but I don't think I did as well. I feel like crying. I thought studying for 8+ hours would have helped. I don't truthfully know what I got but I think I may have done poorly. My teacher said he would e-mail me my test score when he grades them. I CANNOT fail this class again. We still have one more test worth 30% of our grade so I still have that I suppose but I am just nervous now.
Study more?
For engineering class midterms, I studied at least 15 hours, and for some of the finals, I studied 40 hours!
That is on top of being caught up on homeworks and reading and going to all the lectures.
I realize that might be a bit extreme if your goal is to pass, but still, if somebody told me they studied 8 hours for a test and might have failed it, I'd just say study more.
Yes, all science majors go through this even exceptionally brilliant ones. I don't remember anything from senior year. I just did what I could to get through it, I even paid a proven tutor for help. Plug and chug was the name of the game for me. Just put in the work. Focus all of your effort on it. I had a math and physics heavy class loads pretty much all the time. I was hermit for about a year. Just keep plugging away do whatever you need to do to pass. It sounds like math doesn't come easy for you. It doesn't really for me either. Once you get to your job a computer will tell you everything you need to do unfortunately...or fortunately. My GPA started sliding bad my junior year. I had to slap myself in the face look in the mirror and say, "You have to get this right, this is the rest of your life riding on this." You could do that, or... you could try to change you last name to Patel or Khan and see if that does anything.
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I was just a little upset about the way this test MAY have turned out.
They become financial planners.
