[debramorgan42]

first of all, happy new year to you guys!

second.... I'd like to kindly ask you -with as much respect I can put into it - to not to comment with complaining about how you hate math and how you don't need/avoid it in your life.

What I ask for is to share ideas that could provide us practical improvement in this topic!
I did do some home-reasearch a little time ago in this topic and this is the best article I've run across: Coping With Math Anxiety

So for my part.... in my whole life I was struggling with math anxiety and avoiding anything involving mathematics, which is a tendency I see in everyone with so called "human science interests".
Now, that I'm on my way to figure and balance out some issues in my life I found that I DO have a sense and logic for math and now that I had to reconsider career choices I ran upon this problem again. For reasons I first wanted to be a psychologist, but when I put it on "analysis" and found that it isn't the best that I can study (considering the effort versus outcome with all the circumstances and opportunities I have now), but instead go waaaaaaaay back and find out what was I interested in elementary school in my early and preteens and figured I really liked science, specially chemistry and figured how I was always handicapped by my disabilities in math.
I now aim to be a chemist, but that's a different story.
For now I see a lot of people from all kinds of various fields have the same problems.... for example now I'm studying sociology and my fellow collage mates were really scared to find that it is a requirement to study statistics (social statistics - which in that case isn't that hard, IMO it is kind of "magic with words")...
as one of them have put during one lecture "I came here to study something WITHOUT mathematics... and now here we go" - with an honestly terrified expression.
And a lot of things require certain levels of math... such as for example graphic arts - working with vector programs and in especially print shops.
if you read that article it says it is just another tool or ability like reading... and I tend to very much agree with it.
as for my self.... however I can very much understand pretty complex ideas I'm still very anxious when I have to use the "magic formulas" for solving problems.... and experience a certain high amount of anxiety even if I'm alone and try to practice.... and this always leaves me putting off practice thus further deepening the problem.
I thought this is completely because the very bad teachers I had, but now I have a really good one - completely the opposite of the stressing/ignorant/inpatient and snobbish ones I've met up to this point.
And I still have this problem..... so I figured this must be deeper than that.

I'd be very happy if some of you could share ideas/techniques upon this topic! or even the related practice and study issues......

[ManOfConstantSorrow]

My mother paid for a tutor to get me through my junior maths exams, and a friend kindly helped me learn my senior maths - if it does not come naturally you might need a helping hand.

Statistics is very practical and I think it is much easier - I bought the course book and worked through all the examples over and over until I got more or less got it. All the same I am much happier designing experiments than processing the numbers.

Spreadsheets are hugely helpful. I type problems into a spreadsheet and then repeat them altering the variables so I can 'see' how it works - people who understand maths can see straight away of course, but not me.

People who get maths, don't get people who struggle with maths!

You could start small ,like the basics . Once the basics are in u will never get anxious while doing maths

[Little Lulu]

Wow - this is a topic I never expected to see here but I have math anxiety in a big way! I fell behind in grade school in math and never really caught up. I ultimately went to nursing school, for which you need math, but a good friend who is a math whiz set up an easy algebra formula for me that I could use to calculate anything. After graduation, I literally carried that formula on a notecard (this was before electronics) at work every day to calculate medication dosages and IV drips. I never recall making an error!

I later went to graduate school and had to take two statistics courses but somehow I found that interesting and not like math at all.

I suppose my advice would be what someone else mentioned ... get some help when you run up against math that you don't understand. It is what I had to do.

[debramorgan42]

woah, I've got some nice comments here! well I'm always get stucked in algebra I-II altogh besides some stuff I understand majority of calculus I.... but I figured that I somehow block out when I have to remember all those little tricks.... it is so unnerving...
but I figured I'm like that with almost everything it is just the most visible..... I somehow would like to drop that "everything or nothing" stress off me,.... but it's hard

[kim_johnson]

I have maths anxiety, too. Last time around... I carved out an academic path for myself that involved dodging the math over here and dodging the math over there... I've sort of stumbled upon the opportunity to start over. So I've decided to face my fears. I've discovered that my anxiety is mostly about lack of confidence in my ability. And that that anxiety is well-founded since testing reveals that there are grade 7 and 8 skills that I haven't mastered, yet. In other words, the source of my anxiety is that I'm not particularly good at maths. And then I get myself into this negative space about that and I feel fearful of other people yelling at me / judging me harshly / expecting me to do things that I can't when it comes to maths.

There are lots of good online resources, now. IXL is a subscription website that I found useful last summer. Kahn Academy is pretty good and there are small-ish youtube videos that will walk you through something. I find that learning from online sources helps alleviate the maths anxiety since I can go as slow as I need to and I don't have another person feeling impatient with me. Kahn Academy maths is helpful because it will ask you some questions and give you a dx as to what skills you need to work on so you really can start at the right level.

I don't know what happened with my maths education (of lack of it). I was told I couldn't really do chemistry or physics at university since I didn't have the maths... But I'm working on my second physics course now and I got through general chemistry (with kenetics equations, ph equations, acidity constants, etc) with B range grades. I have work to do on the maths to pull things up to the A range grades that I'm used to (that I need for what I want to go on to study), but I really do think I'm making progress...

Maths is hard because it is very cumulative with one thing building on another thing. Then the lecturers work through problems in class and if you have a hole in your knowledge you can't figure out how they got from that point to the next point. Algebraic substitutions get me. But the tutors are great for laying it all out making the steps explicit. Physics is actually kinda fun. Demoralising at times when I realise that there are any number of 7 year olds who are more competent at it than me... But humbling... And it feels pretty great when you grasp the obviousness of it all...

Anyway... Perhaps you will learn to like it.

[debramorgan42]

Originally Posted by kim_johnson

I have maths anxiety, too. Last time around... I carved out an academic path for myself that involved dodging the math over here and dodging the math over there... I've sort of stumbled upon the opportunity to start over. So I've decided to face my fears. I've discovered that my anxiety is mostly about lack of confidence in my ability. And that that anxiety is well-founded since testing reveals that there are grade 7 and 8 skills that I haven't mastered, yet. In other words, the source of my anxiety is that I'm not particularly good at maths. And then I get myself into this negative space about that and I feel fearful of other people yelling at me / judging me harshly / expecting me to do things that I can't when it comes to maths.

There are lots of good online resources, now. IXL is a subscription website that I found useful last summer. Kahn Academy is pretty good and there are small-ish youtube videos that will walk you through something. I find that learning from online sources helps alleviate the maths anxiety since I can go as slow as I need to and I don't have another person feeling impatient with me. Kahn Academy maths is helpful because it will ask you some questions and give you a dx as to what skills you need to work on so you really can start at the right level.

I don't know what happened with my maths education (of lack of it). I was told I couldn't really do chemistry or physics at university since I didn't have the maths... But I'm working on my second physics course now and I got through general chemistry (with kenetics equations, ph equations, acidity constants, etc) with B range grades. I have work to do on the maths to pull things up to the A range grades that I'm used to (that I need for what I want to go on to study), but I really do think I'm making progress...

Maths is hard because it is very cumulative with one thing building on another thing. Then the lecturers work through problems in class and if you have a hole in your knowledge you can't figure out how they got from that point to the next point. Algebraic substitutions get me. But the tutors are great for laying it all out making the steps explicit. Physics is actually kinda fun. Demoralising at times when I realise that there are any number of 7 year olds who are more competent at it than me... But humbling... And it feels pretty great when you grasp the obviousness of it all...

Anyway... Perhaps you will learn to like it.

Oh wow now that is something!
well I can feel it for when it is obvious I like it very much, also I liked chemistry a lot..... and still do. And I don't find the general calculations practicality hard... maybe the key is that it is applied mathematics... I found that repetitious practice does pretty well for chem math
however these are high-school level stuff... and yeah physics is one of my fears, along with phyiscal-chemistry and quantum mechanics..... my chemist friends told me that the subject "chemical mathematics" are also hard....
so I don't know. while all those above that are applied in some form I find fascinating... physics and quantum mechanics as well (even though I'm only aware of certain deepness of the concepts).
So I'm kind of positive towards this! my only fear is that generally I'm stuck with math now...... or it's not even a fear but an actual problem what I have to resolve first..... my general exam anxiety is one of a different matter... but I feel if I don't try and fight the problem at it's frontier I miss on an opportunity to change the quality of my lfe,,,,

[kim_johnson]

Don't let people psych you out when they say that this or that is 'hard'. Often times they are just trying to get you to feel admiration for them.

University builds on High School. If you can do the problems at High School then you will more than likely be able to do the problems at University. First year, in particular, is quite a lot like High School with respect to the level of the work. They allow that students are adjusting to being away from Mummy and Daddy and being in lecture halls of 200+ students instead of being in small class rooms with a teacher who knows your name.

The physics people I know... Say to think of mathematics as being a bunch of tools for your tool box. So you need to figure out this or that for chemistry or for physics... So you reach into your tool box and see what mathematics tool will help you. Pythagoras theorum or stuff about the sin of the angle theta or whatever whatever... Maths is just a bunch of tools. That helps me with my maths anxiety, anyway. Instead of thinking of 'Maths' as this big scary black nebulous thing that I can't possibly catch up on... I can learn this trick and that trick and the next trick in order to do the problems that I'm required to do for chemistry or for physics. Then over time... I can apply the trick I learned over there to this other problem over here. That's the only way I need to learn maths / the only use I have for maths. That kind of maths is fun.

I think most people have a hard time with maths because of bad teaching at some point along the way. Pretty sure my primary school teachers couldn't do maths, either. Not entirely sure why I didn't just learn my times tables the way I learned to read or hit a tennis ball or whatever else... But, anyway, it ain't so bad. Hardest thing at Uni is that you might not be able to ask someone (due to the sheer number of students who are struggling)... So you have to get used to Google being your friend...

[kim_johnson]

And the main reason there are huge numbers of students who are struggling... Is because people insist (like myself) on enrolling in things like Maths or Chemistry or Physics at University without having studied such things in High School. My background is in Philosophy and Psychology... I am used to thinking that University is fairly independent from High School. Going over to Maths... Engineering... Chemical and Physical Sciences, in particular... Is like another world with respect to the progressively (plodding, for many) cumulative nature of them.

Different Universities will be different with their different entry requirements and (I've learned) there is a world of difference between a first year course like 'physics for bio-medical science' or 'physics for sports science' or 'physics for majors who intend to continue on with physics'. I'm not ready for the later, yet. Need a calculus course first... But, hey, calculus is just some extra tricks on algebra and my algebra tricks are coming together...

[debramorgan42]

woah, now this sounds reasonable.
I'm happy for you people that this conversation emerged, thank you!

Anyway I'm in the middle of my finals at sociology and I'll do another semester here just to be able to stay out from home (getting a job is serriously impossible nowdays ) and I'll possibly start this at next september....
until that I arranging myself some post-highschool "levelup" exams that are kind of requirement to enter a school..... in math and chemistry.
so I figured getting really well prepard for those should do the trick... like aiming for a collage level "A" on that is an ultimate overkill there lol and I'm kinda used to that treatment...
so.... maybe this year I'll overcome this age long fear of mine.... I was pretty bad with math and therefor all science in highschool just because of this... but I always were sad because it, 'cause I really liked the subjects and all but though I'd be never able to get a career because of this..... and now it seems like a reasonable and achiveable thing and this is serriously awesome!
I just need... a lot..... reinforcement.

[cool09]

Math is really incredible. I started to migrate towards math, physics in first yr of college and somehow managed to get an engineering degree. It's amazing how math explains the physical universe. I forced myself to understand calculus. I passed differential equations but I couldn't tell you what it is off the top of my head. I made a mistake and went to PSU - much too large for me and I encountered severe personal/mood problems. I wish I had gone to a smaller college but it doesn't matter know since I'm on disability. I've found that I don't have an engineering work personality - sweating the small things and over-analyzing is really poor for my mental health. My head needs to be freed up most of the time to stay healthy.

[debramorgan42]

Originally Posted by cool09

Math is really incredible. I started to migrate towards math, physics in first yr of college and somehow managed to get an engineering degree. It's amazing how math explains the physical universe. I forced myself to understand calculus. I passed differential equations but I couldn't tell you what it is off the top of my head. I made a mistake and went to PSU - much too large for me and I encountered severe personal/mood problems. I wish I had gone to a smaller college but it doesn't matter know since I'm on disability. I've found that I don't have an engineering work personality - sweating the small things and over-analyzing is really poor for my mental health. My head needs to be freed up most of the time to stay healthy.

Oh sorry to hear that! I did work as a teacher and musician and graphic artist... than worked even in a pre-press in a printshop and also as a mere worker in a factory....
and these thought me a lot about myself..... what I enjoyed most is the teaching. Thinking, analizing things... when I didn't have to do it and my work was mainly mechanical or robotic (like pre-press) I was more depressed... the stress was bigger on me since I'm a perfectionist and it is a burden on me when I have to do something too fast to be good.... and also I was really missing intellectual challenge and intelligent collegues (I never really had one lol) and so when I considered to get a new profession these were some of the main points....
that's for me.... this whole thing did a lot good for my mental health because it is now my choice and also a good type of intellectual challenge............ even if I'm still obsessing and stressing about it, but when I'm a bit "overburdened" by studying I have less time.... and I feel the responsibility for my own choice to stay as much on the track as it is possible............
well so it already did a good thing for me.....gave me a perspective, an optimistic foresight.... but I don't know about You or others.