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I've read alot of the posts expressing so much frustration, "but I'm not good at math!" I recently passed a 100 level college math course and here's how I did it:
1. Don't give in to negative self-talk.
Ok, I'll be honest. I hate math. I mean I haaaaaaaate math with a passion I've never knew I had. But, when I have a math test in front of me and I have to pass it, I have to put that negative self-talk away. I've had two quarters of remedial math and one quarter of 100-level math, and while I'm still not crazy about math, I don't live in terror of it either.
2. Go back to the fundamentals.
If you get mixed up on the 7, 8 multiplication tables, memorize them. If you get confused over long division, do some long division problems. If you can't add fractions, review how to find a common demoninator and practice them. Oh, and put away the calculator for fundamentals.
3. To be good at math, you have to practice it.
It's just like picking up the trumpet. To be good at the trumpet, you have to practice every day. No different with math. I had trouble getting the distributive property down. It took nearly the entire 11 week quarter for me to learn it. I printed out practice distributive property problems and did a couple every day until I got it.
4. Find a good tutor.
If you need a tutor for help in math, find one you can relate with. Talking to some math tutors can be like Lewis and Clark talking with the first Plains Indian tribes they found. Grunts, gestures, and then you can sort of get what each other is trying to say. There are several ways to do things in math, and a tutor will teach you their way. If their way is confusing, just say, "My instructor taught us this way, and I'd feel more comfortable doing it his/her way."
So, I'm not a math genius, and no, I'm not in Advanced Calculus 20, but I lived my life in math terror, and overcame it. Hopes this helps.
I was always good at math, but this really changed my thinking about "everyone else". (I'm REALLY bad at learning languages, so now I feel there is some hope for me.)
I was a math major (operations research). The challenge with math is that the journey begins early in life. For most people, if they cannot grasp the concepts at the elementary level, it becomes harder in MS, HS and college. More granularly, if one fails to learn the lesson in Day 1, he/she will have a hard time in Day 2 because Day 2 builds on Day 1.
That's why it's important for teachers to spot struggling students quickly and bring them up to speed right away. My kid attends a private school and nearly everyone in class is doing well in math - there are only 16 students in the grade so the teacher knows what each one is doing and who needs help.
I have my two children do a lot of practice problems. They complain at times, but they are doing well in math. I am disappointed the school does not assign much math homework. My son brought home his math homework law week, 6 problems, for learning how to add 3 digit math problems. I did not know if I could laugh or cry.
There are few basic things -
(1) Understand basics of maths such as fractions, percentage, numbers etc.
(2) If you are unable to derive the formula then just cram it right now and make sure of their applications.
(3) Practice the problems in ascending order of their difficulty.
(4) Do not forget to revise.
(5) Take help of 3D models to understand geometrical problems.
(6) Last but not the least , never forget to take help of teacher and friends.
I have had great great success with the Khan academy. I had not done any math in 15 years and all of a sudden did college algebra when I went back to school. I did it online so I had no real teacher. Well, I found the Khan academy and it helped me pass with an A. All you do is search a type of math problem like " square root" and there are tons of great videos on the problem all done by Dr Khan. He makes all the videos .
It's an amazing website with 1000's of math problems and videos showing step by step directions.
This video for example is about long divisions. I showed my son who is in 3rd grade. He was able to pause the video , follow along in his own pace. https://www.khanacademy.org/math/cc-...hout-remainder
I was a math major (operations research). The challenge with math is that the journey begins early in life. For most people, if they cannot grasp the concepts at the elementary level, it becomes harder in MS, HS and college. More granularly, if one fails to learn the lesson in Day 1, he/she will have a hard time in Day 2 because Day 2 builds on Day 1.
That's why it's important for teachers to spot struggling students quickly and bring them up to speed right away. My kid attends a private school and nearly everyone in class is doing well in math - there are only 16 students in the grade so the teacher knows what each one is doing and who needs help.
That's great in theory, but in reality, not all math teachers are professional in how they handle struggling students. They can be mean, refuse to help, or may ridicule the student, embarrassing them in front of the class. All kinds of things happen in grade school.
I have had great great success with the Khan academy. I had not done any math in 15 years and all of a sudden did college algebra when I went back to school. I did it online so I had no real teacher. Well, I found the Khan academy and it helped me pass with an A. All you do is search a type of math problem like " square root" and there are tons of great videos on the problem all done by Dr Khan. He makes all the videos .
It's an amazing website with 1000's of math problems and videos showing step by step directions.
This video for example is about long divisions. I showed my son who is in 3rd grade. He was able to pause the video , follow along in his own pace. https://www.khanacademy.org/math/cc-...hout-remainder
It's mind-blowing that something like this is available for free! It's free tutoring.
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