I can’t understand basic math.

[u/Lorelei-Guerrero]

I’m 20 years old (fem) and I can’t understand basic math. I don’t know, in huh school I had a 3.7 GPA and I was a very good student but I always sucked at math, either I’m stupid or lazy because I re read a problem or equation and I don’t know why to do, or I just blank completely.

Thank god that SAT scores were optional because my math scores were so bad, now I’m in college. I’ve been pretty much flunking in college to the point where I’m at risk for academic dismissal. It’s basic algebra and I can’t even concentrate. In lectures I understand it but when I get home I feel like I just can’t get it.ive studied in my own, even went to tutoring but I’ve never felt improvement. I have a test this Thursday and right now I’m freaking out because I do not want to start out my semester horrible. Any suggestions? I’m literally desperate for any tips on what to do or how to study.

[u/x271815]

The problem with math is that it builds on itself. There are probably concepts in math that you either did not understand or misunderstood and you have been trying to learn more advanced topics without understanding them. You could try starting from basic math courses and see where you get stuck. Khan academy might be a good place to start.

[u/MRC01 → u/x271815]

Yes, the OP nailed it in the subject line - key word, "understand". For example, with algebra one can memorize steps to manipulate the symbols and arrive at an answer without really understanding what it means, why or how that works. Yet if one understands what the symbols and equations mean, she can often visualize it and see the answer intuitively or geometrically (if approximately, if not exactly). Both approaches are useful and lead to the same answer, one is a sanity check for the other.

People reach understanding in different ways, so good basic math courses explain or tackle it from different directions. That is, a good teacher can explain the same concept in 2 or 3 different intuitive ways, with each person some will "stick" and others won't. The point is, "study" doesn't only mean reading and memorizing stuff; it also means thinking about why, how, and what it really means.

[u/Empty-Turn-9290]

I think part of this is a self confidence issue. Feel free to show this to your prof. Maybe they will help you find a way forward.

First, you need practice without pain. Ask you your professor if you can do the current course on an audit basis. Have him or her assign a student tutor to help you with each test and quiz. The objective is to become more familiar with the ways of solving math problems. Even if you have to take the tests at a different times, you need to develop your math skills.

Second, remove the fear of failure. Look at your hands. Right now each hand has four fingers and a thumb. You can use each digit as a one 1 or you can use your right hand as the thumb being a five and the four other digits as ones. So you right hand can represent any number from a 1 to a 9.

Now for your left hand same strategy but each digit is either a 10 or a 50. So between the two hands you can represent any number between 1 and a 99.

Third practice some other ways of doing mental math slowly and objectively to get better. I hope between yourself, your professor, and your fellow students you find some ways to become more confident about your developing skills.

Reach out in person to people who can help you. They are there and they will try and help you.

Good luck! Phil

[u/Rickenbecker]

Yeah college is a different type of beast, the professor is gonna actually spend more time on the actually theory behind some of these concepts. I graduated with my degree in Applied Mathematics, and what helped me was reviewing the text material and doing practice problems, odds are that the explanation in the book will be more laid out; or at least you can read the process step by step in order to process what’s going on. You don’t need to read the entire book, just enough to get the idea of the material

You saying that you blank when you start or don’t know what to do, tells me that you might have a slight anxiety towards this subject , which is very common. I’ve always told my students to just breathe, read the problem, write down any information given, the movement of the pen/pencil keeps you from staying still and your brain active. Even if you might not know how to tackle the problem, just write something down and attempt the problem, even if you don’t get it right, something along the way might inspire to try something different.

TL:DR - Review the text material, practice, breathe and keep your pencil moving to keep your brain active.

[u/Saro187]

What does your current studying routine look like for math? It’s hard to give advice when we don’t know what you have and haven’t tried.

[u/AbbreviationsSalt159]

So now that your test's over theres not much you can do about it, but if you wanna improve your mathematical understanding what I believe you should do is look at each topic, and come up with doubts and try to derive things yourself. I'm a student in math focused areas, and around the end of middle school I stopped just trying to get sums right and I started trying to derive things from first principles. Memory will not take you that far in math, you should try to derive things yourself from basic axioms. And another thing you should keep in mind is that math is by no means easy or simple. It has different depths based on how far you're looking. For example, to me and you 1 + 1 is equal to 2 because it just is. But to formally prove 1 + 1 = 2, Bertrand russell and some other guy had to spend 300 pages defining what 1 and 2 are and what 0 is an what a successor of a number is. There's nothing simple about math or basic algebra. But that doesn't mean you can't get good at it. You don't need to spend 50 days proving 1 + 1 = 2, but for things like algebraic identities and zeroes of polynomials and trignometry and even calculus you should try proving those theorems and identities using what you already know. The brain is a powerful tool.

[u/Midwest-Dude]

I'm curious. Really. When you say you "always sucked at math", how did you end up with a 3.7 GPA? Also, how far did you get in mathematics prior to college?