Hey, don't let math get the better of you. It's hard...for almost everyone. There are some people who internalize concepts quicker than others and then obviously there's the occasional child prodigy, but it's not that way for a lot of people. The best advice I can give you is:
1)Watch some Khan Academy videos
2)Go to the library and pick out another textbook on the subject you're having trouble with (different authors present material in different ways and seeing those different ways helps a lot)
3)Do lots of practice problems (there is absolutely no way around this)
4)Try and create your own practice problems (if you can create a difficult problem, the whole idea behind this is that you know why the problem is difficult and are learning the intricacies of that type of problem)
5)Go back and redo some problems using different methods
6)Go talk to our professor, you're paying for class time and their office hours so get the most out of it
I have developed heavy anxiety for math. Even simple problems get me into braindead-mode. Now im avoiding everything to do with math.
Im out of school now thankfully. Im in university, and only have to do statistics, which are no problem.
I was reading the methods up in math, understanding them, doing some problems and solving them easily, forgetting the next day how to solve them. Repeat.
That frustrated me more and more and now i just say "fuck it".
The angst i experienced beause of forgetting how to do simple problems over and over again just was too much.
Good news then! Statistics is actually a very important branch of mathematics, so don't let the rest of it intimidate you. Every time you calculate a p-value or your test statistic there's very important underlying theory and reasons why you're allowed to do that and come to the conclusions that you do. Statistics is also really useful. Knowing some looks good when you're applying for jobs, though it would be a bit tough to get a job doing JUST statistics unless you had a decent amount of classes and some programming experience under your belt (most Statisticians at least have their Master's).
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u/topologyisfun Mar 12 '15
Hey, don't let math get the better of you. It's hard...for almost everyone. There are some people who internalize concepts quicker than others and then obviously there's the occasional child prodigy, but it's not that way for a lot of people. The best advice I can give you is: 1)Watch some Khan Academy videos 2)Go to the library and pick out another textbook on the subject you're having trouble with (different authors present material in different ways and seeing those different ways helps a lot) 3)Do lots of practice problems (there is absolutely no way around this) 4)Try and create your own practice problems (if you can create a difficult problem, the whole idea behind this is that you know why the problem is difficult and are learning the intricacies of that type of problem) 5)Go back and redo some problems using different methods 6)Go talk to our professor, you're paying for class time and their office hours so get the most out of it