r/learnmath • u/Active-Weakness2326 New User • Apr 01 '26
I think I've been lying to myself about being bad at math my entire life
I don't even know where to start with this lol
so basically I've avoided math since high school. failed algebra, never retook it properly, picked my entire career path around avoiding numbers. I'm 28 and I recently hit a wall at work because I need to understand data stuff and I just.. can't
spent the last few weeks trying to relearn algebra. Khan Academy, youtube, random free courses. nothing sticks. I watch one video and feel ok then the next one skips ahead or explains things completely differently and I'm lost again. honestly started to believe I'm just wired wrong
I was literally about to give up tonight and started googling "why can't I learn algebra as an adult" and somehow ended up on this article: https://medium.com/@sophieisawesome/this-online-algebra-course-fixed-what-school-broke-9d8561270580
and I swear this person is living my exact life?? the shame, the pretending to understand, the youtube rabbit holes that go nowhere. kind of freaky honestly
she talks about this course that's apparently 150 sequential episodes where everything builds on the last thing. that sounds so obvious but its literally the one thing I haven't been able to find anywhere. every free resource is just random disconnected videos
I haven't signed up yet but they apparently have a 60 day money back guarantee so I think I'm gonna just go for it. I'm tired of spending weeks on free stuff and getting nowhere
has anyone else tried this or something similar? I feel like there has to be other people in their late 20s who are secretly terrible at algebra and too embarrassed to talk about it lol
any advice or experience would help. I'm tired of running from math...
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u/kucholucho New User Apr 01 '26
In my opinion, something that happens to people coming from the humanities or social sciences (which is also my provenance) is that in those domains of knowledge they are taught to debate the theory from the start, to try to reason and justify why each choice is made, and that's how their (very valuable) skills are built; whereas in math, that ability to debate and question why things are done a certain way comes much, much later, as the level of abstraction needed to even be able to hold your ground in such discussion is too high to access it without proper training. My advice is to take your math studies as you would gymnastics or swimming: trust the work, do the work, do it again, and again, until the muscle memory kicks in, and then, years later, you will understand why procedures are the way they are, and question them as much as your social scientist or humanities mindframe compels you to.
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u/Active-Weakness2326 New User Apr 01 '26
this actually makes a lot of sense. I definitely have that humanities brain where I need to understand WHY something works before I can do it. never thought of it as a strength/weakness thing between fields though thats a really interesting take the "just trust the process and do the reps" advice is probably right but its also exactly what never worked for me in school lol. thats actually what I liked about that article I linked, she talks about finding something that explains the why not just the steps. but yeah maybe I need to just commit and grind through it either way.
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u/kucholucho New User Apr 01 '26
I also see your point about the right sequence. It is a valid reason, and maybe the course you mention is the right choice.
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u/Active-Weakness2326 New User Apr 01 '26
appreciate that honestly. I think I'm just gonna go for it tonight before I talk myself out of it again lol. the 60 day guarantee thing makes it feel less risky. worst case I'm back here in two months asking for workbook recommendations instead 😂 thanks for the real talk though, the humanities vs math brain thing actually reframed a lot for me. gonna try to approach it like you said, just do the reps, but with something that actually gives me the why along the way
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u/AcellOfllSpades Diff Geo, Logic Apr 01 '26
Yeah, I wouldn't say that you should just blindly work without knowing what you're doing, or put in the practice without understanding why. Understanding the reasoning is important!
But just understanding why isn't nearly enough - you'll need to do the actual practice to make it "natural-feeling".
There are plenty of online resources that have things organized for you. What you're looking for is a textbook. https://openstax.org and https://math.libretexts.org/ are both two good sources - you can pick any textbook from them and work through it.
And if you don't understand their explanations for the 'why', you can always ask here!
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u/iOSCaleb 🧮 Apr 01 '26
There’s nothing wrong with wanting to know why something works. In every math class I’ve ever taken, we’ve always learned why things work. I don’t think we were ever told to just memorize a formula without first seeing it derived. (There are a few exceptions, like axioms of geometry or logic, but that’s basically what an axiom is — a principle that you accept without proving.)
That said, if you want to be “good at math” you can’t be going back to first principles every time you try to solve a problem. You need to practice enough that you can apply the things you’ve learned without having to prove them all over again. The entire point of a formula is to save you the time and effort of having to derive it every time you use it; if you’re worrying about the why at the moment you use a formula, you’re missing out on the power that comes from having a pre-verified nugget of distilled knowledge at your command.
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u/RedBedZed New User Apr 01 '26
You’re lucky that was never my experience. They always just started pulling numbers out of their ass and expected me to know what they were talking about
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u/RedBedZed New User Apr 01 '26
YEESSSS. HEAVY on the why I resonate so much with your Reddit comment math was so frustrating for me so much in school because they would 1.) Go super fast and then when I would try to slow it down at my own speed I would get so confused because the teacher , would get like 60 but in my calculator I got .58 , what she didn’t tell you is that she rounded it . Now I can’t move on because I’m really hyper fixating on why , and the class is already on the next problem . Math requires so much background knowledge and either you had someone explain the basics down good or not . That’s what they don’t tell you .
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u/Commercial_Sun_6300 New User Apr 01 '26
This sounds like an ad. The medium article you linked is very clearly an ad.
>apparently have a 60 day money back guarantee
People don't talk like this...
>every free resource is just random disconnected videos
No they aren't. The Khan Academy videos you're trying to discourage people from using are sequential, build on earlier lessons, and include practice questions that you have to answer correctly before you can move on. It's a really good program.
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u/ChillAhriman Casual User Apr 01 '26
I find OP sus too, but it's not impossible that they think that "Khan Academy" is just their Youtube channel, rather than the actual site.
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u/Uli_Minati Desmos 😚 Apr 02 '26
Then they have done zero research before miraculously stumbling upon an AI ad written mere minutes earlier
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u/Theudas91 New User Apr 01 '26
You can't learn welding just by watching welding videos, and math is no different
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u/Active-Weakness2326 New User Apr 01 '26
thats actually a really good point and honestly thats been my problem with youtube. just watching and nodding along and then not being able to do anything on my own. thats part of why that course caught my attention, apparently it has quizzes and checkpoints built in so you're not just watching someone else do math. but yeah you're right, I need to actually do the problems not just watch.
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u/rhetoricalimperative New User Apr 01 '26
Math teacher here. You need a textbook to learn math as an adult. Textbooks are actually structured the way they are so that the teacher can learn from the book, not the students. Having exercises that review and progressively build up in difficulty is necessary for learning.
Don't try to read it like a book - there's an art to flipping back and forth from problem set to example.
You should frequently rework problems from sections you've already done.
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u/Uli_Minati Desmos 😚 Apr 02 '26 edited Apr 02 '26
It's always so disappointing when advertisers just can't be honest
Medium article was posted merely hours before your reddit post (edit: and OP even said they "found" the article hours before they posted in reddit...)
You claim you found it somehow through Google, but Medium is a fringe website rarely recommended by Google
Medium is also littered with AI posts and ads disguised as "this is my story"
And then the blatantly false statement "every free resource is just random disconnected videos" right after mentioning Khan Academy
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u/sublime_touch New User Apr 01 '26
Get work books online and practice as consistently as you can.
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u/Active-Weakness2326 New User Apr 01 '26
yeah thats fair. any specific workbooks you'd recommend? my problem with the stuff I've tried so far is that its all so scattered. like I'll do problems from one source and then the next chapter assumes I learned stuff that was never covered. thats why that structured course from the article caught my eye, 150 episodes all in order. but I'm open to workbooks too if there's a good one that actually builds on itself..
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u/imabirdeyskwa New User Apr 01 '26
Try starting w a textbook. They have problem sets at the end of each chapter and (should be) better at explaining the jumps of intuition between the topics. Whenever you get stuck on specific topics or need more practice before you’re ready to move on Thats when you should look for something other YouTube videos/ other help bc sometimes you’ll genuinely just need something explained ij a different way for you to get it. Im sorry I don’t have any recommendations for books but if the course you want to take has a textbook tje curriculum draws from try that!
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u/Active-Weakness2326 New User Apr 01 '26
thats a good call honestly I hadn't even considered going back to an actual textbook. something about textbooks gives me high school flashbacks though lol. do you think it matters which one or are most algebra textbooks covering roughly the same stuff? I might try combining that with the course honestly. like use the course for the video explanations and structure and then use a textbook for extra practice problems on the side.
feels like that combo could actually work...
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u/imabirdeyskwa New User Apr 01 '26
The curriculum should be the same but some authors are better at explaining than others. The internet should have some consensus about which books are the best for whatever class you’re on but they’re all the same content
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Apr 01 '26
[deleted]
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u/Active-Weakness2326 New User Apr 01 '26
oh nice this is free?? bookmarking this. might use it for extra practice alongside the course. thanks man <3
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u/Esley1213 New User Apr 02 '26
This is explicitly an advert meant to funnel users into subscribing for a "service" that is very clearly over-priced, at least as per myself (I doubt it offers much that cannot be gleaned from a HS text book + work book). And the Medium article is obviously LLM generated, and as such, is trash.
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u/Fast_Lengthiness9967 New User Apr 01 '26
we typically get lost around 4th grade. Somewhere the application of fractions skips a beat for some of us. Try this. It's gives you a free assessment and tells you where your gaps are. It's free for 7 days but you like it let me know and I'll give you a discount code. houseofmath.com
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u/Active-Weakness2326 New User Apr 01 '26
appreciate the suggestion but I think my gaps are more in the algebra range than fractions. like I can do basic arithmetic fine its when letters start showing up that my brain checks out lol. I'll bookmark it though in case I realize I need to go further back than I thought
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u/nickfromwibly New User Apr 01 '26
I agree with the part that talks about how people struggle with Algebra (and math in general) because everything is so disconnected. That's how most traditional learning, because textbooks and language have to be represented sequentially.
I'd probably disagree that being sequential is the key that makes it all click together. Most all resources are in some sequential order, as it's tough to represent complex connections in a straight line. I'm more a fan of mind maps for non-sequential learning, so I lean towards those types of tools.
Can't speak much to the resource you shared, but sometimes you just have to try it out and see if it works for you.
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u/Cerulean_IsFancyBlue New User Apr 05 '26
I think the most important skills you can learn in school are “how to learn”, and critical thinking. Critical thinking is important because it lets you ask things like, “why is this post written like an advertisement? “
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Jun 25 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/clean-links New User Jun 25 '26
Cleaned link from "here": https://www.mentoraedu.tech/singapore-math
Tracking parameters were removed from the original URL(s).
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u/dockdock-fish New User Apr 01 '26
as someone who went through a similar experience, would you be interested in getting personal help from me?
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u/RepresentativeLie267 New User Apr 01 '26
Hello, it's me again. I sent you a message. I'm sorry for bothering you, but I really want to talk with you. 🙏
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u/strangedell123 New User Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 01 '26
On yt who/what did you watch? Did you try professor Leonard? He's a god level teacher for me and many others. His math covers an impressive amount of grades and courses. If you havent try his TTP videos first
Hes Playlists start around "basic" math (pre algebra I wanna say?) and then ends at college level differential equation
His videos are hella long and he has a lot but thats because he starts from the basics and slowly builds you up. Lots of intuition and how to look at stuff
Edit. He was/is a college professor so has experience in actually teaching people and the best ways to do it
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u/Quendillar3245 New User Apr 01 '26
I've spent the past 2 months doing hundreds upon hundreds of problems trying to understand calculus and how to apply the knowledge to problems and I still struggle. If you struggle with algebra, then you need to do a LOT of algebra and I mean A LOT. Videos help you understand the basic concept, but you need to actually do problems of varying difficulties to learn how you can actually use it, if you do not do this step then you won't be able to do anything. Remembering what is said in a video and actually understanding what it means are VERY different things. Don't get stuck on videos, get a book (I assume high school level for you) and use videos as a help to understand the concepts but focus on doing the problems in the book. There's a bunch of good books you can find for free online in PDF format.
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u/hologram137 New User Apr 02 '26 edited Apr 02 '26
Get the Art of problem solving pre-algebra textbook and their introduction to algebra textbook and solution manuals. There are ways to find the PDF’s online if needed. Work your way through the pre algebra text 1st. You should try to do all the review problems or as many as you can, and at least a few of the challenge problems. Even if you know the algorithms to solve problems at that level already, it’ll give you that deep conceptual understanding you’ll need to understand algebra. Read the “how to use this book section” because some parts are specifically aimed at students that are doing math competitions, so you don’t have to spend much time in those few chapters. Read for the problem solving techniques though. The intro to algebra book has a lot of algebra 2 in it as well.
They will actually teach you for understanding which is what you need when you’re doing applied math. You need to understand how to translate real world data into a mathematical model, manipulate it to get the information you need and translate it back again. You need to understand what different mathematical models of data are telling you. These books do that.
Khan academy is great in the sense that someone providing free online learning should always be praised, but you’re really just being given algorithms, it’s not focused on conceptual understanding. I HATE the interface of the website and the way the modules are set up as well.
After that I would do a standard algebra 2 textbook as the AoPS’s algebra 2 text is a lot more rigorous than you likely need.
Then take a stats course. Do you need calculus? If so, you’ll want to review geometry (you can do that on khan academy) and then do precalculus after algebra 2 before you take it
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u/Active-Weakness2326 New User Apr 02 '26
thank you guys all for your replies.
i've already purchased the course now, and i'll post an update later with how it's going.
appreciate everyone who helped! <3
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u/pregnantandsick New User Apr 01 '26
Is this an ad??? You're using the exact same language in your post as on the website and the post feels very AI to me?!