College freshman here. Older than average age for a freshman because I dropped out of high school and couldn't get my diploma until last year (failed the test multiple times. Still got a bad grade on the math portion, since the newer test allowed me to past if the other subjects got good scores). I was placed in the second lowest math class- algebra. I have diagnosed dyscalculia. I got an B on my first test, which was pretty lucky as it was just review of things I already knew. But by the second lesson it went downhill- one F after another. I have just received my 7th F in a row, so now I know there is no hope of passing this class. This is depressing because I do not want to have to retake classes multiple times. I don't like the professor at all either. She doesn't make any sense in her lessons and doesn't explain why a question is wrong when it is. Tutoring is an option, I'm sure. I went in once to get extra study help before the test and I still got an F on the actual test even with how hard I studied. I have considered taking tutoring twice a week and we will see if that helps. But it's sad that I try so hard for this class and it's never good enough in the end, even with tutoring that makes sense. It's not even that I'm stupid in general. I'm taking college level courses in every other subject except this one, and yet get better grades in those subjects. I have always had issues with mathematics. I really wish I could find a way to get better grades.
I always loved maths it was the written stuff I was rubbish at. I then went onto to do accountancy but don’t do that anymore. I would definitely try a tutor as once you understand what you need to do then it’s a case of practicing as many questions as you can to cover likely exam questions as they are usually pretty similar. You sort of have to memorise what to do. Things may have changed though since I did it and I’m in the uk so not sure if your syllabus would be much different.
I'm not great with English and had trouble with a teacher, which hurt my grade, so I relate. Who your teacher is matters a lot. I don't know if it's still in use but "grade my professor" is a website where you can sometimes see if your professors are good or not based on peer reviews. Helped me pick out professors when my friends/classmates recommendations didn't match my schedule. There are online sources for learning Math. I perfer Saxon Math resources for understanding mathematics and algebra, not sure if they have anything online. You may have to use the tutoring services and retake the class but pick a different professor. Maybe ask your classmates who they had for algebra and if they have recommendations or warnings. Sometimes just knowing who to avoid can save your semester.
Thanks for the advice. I have started using rate my professor more frequently, which I should have done when I first signed up. Unfortunately, I am stuck with who I have until the semester ends. I have a better idea of who I want to take if I do it again, though. It seems everyone is bad at something. I have always been gifted in English, and got through a college level course with an A (luckily, I picked a really awesome professor on top of that). Math is just the one thing I can't do- very embarrassing!!!
I'm glad that site is still around! I didn't know about it till later in my college career. There really should be a care package for college freshmen that includes that web address! I'm the complete opposite lol. I struggled with English my whole life, I still do. Spelling, grammar, rules, etc. It never really stuck in my head nor made much sense. When I first entered college I ended up in a remedial English class with a lot of non-native speakers. Which is embarrassing since English my native language!! However, I got an A because I had a good teacher. Regular college English though... the teacher was on a power trip, I swear. Math feels more like my native language I took Trig because I needed an easy, fun, stress free class to go with my time consuming, project heavy degree. Though, I find how math is taught is super important to me otherwise I wouldn't understand it either. I need to see and understand how everything is connected in a formula (usually in multiple situations) and I'm super visual. My college text books for alebra and trig were garbage in this regard, but I lucked out with a professor that taught it right, so I had no issue. I'm a big believer in finding out how one understands and processes information and teaching/learning with that in mind.
That could be a problem. Not only are the lectures hard to understand but they are incredibly boring as well. Maybe I am just spoiled by awesome professors, but all the other lectures I took were fun or animated in some way while still getting the point across. There is no way I would understand trig, I barely even understand middle school math. I've always been way behind in math, it's ridiculous. Everyone has different strengths I guess. I find any kind of math to be stressful, yet I find that writing a long research paper is enjoyable and relaxing. I know plenty of people who shiver at the thought of the latter though (and most of them are math nerds, so maybe there IS a correlation....) I'm going to look for a different professor next semester and see if this solves the issue.
Teachers are the main reason, i took chemisty at school and had the best teacher, would first say what we were going to do then demonstrate it infront of us and then we have a go. He distilled pure ethonol once just to see distillation and made up nylon , from two polymers. It get its name from invented in New york and London at the same time. Nylon. He made it fun. then chemistry at 6th form college was so hard teacher not too good ,organic chemistry found hard to comprenhend so ended up getting a tutor and helped a little but still ended up getting an E in the end. That was a while back so internet was maybve just starting. a while back started a HNC in electronic engineering and the teacher used you tube to teach us maths,very poor. Any way creactive mind i don't see why you couldn't post some of your maths problems on here and maybe people could help you understand them, Also there are algebra software out there if you put a problem in it solves it and shows all the steps involved. I can't remember the name of it now.
I was thinking that too with the amount of people on here there have got to be some math geeks who might be able to explain it better.
You called? What specifically are you having trouble with? Also, I find I understamd math better when I know why something works rather than just being told "this is how it works," so maybe that could help you some.
I know, the intent was to make a (bad) joke, then respond to creativemind, but when I switched gears to respond to it wasn't obvious.
Yeah, I know. Admittedly, I rushed through the title. Grammatical mistakes happen to me a lot online because of how fast I type. It's common for me to edit posts 1-3 times because of it, though I can't do that in this case.
Also, it is possible to delete or lock this? I know it was recent, but the advice I got works well enough. I am not interested in getting more replies/advice to this post.
