Was math like algebra hard for you in school?

The trick is to pick up where you left off. Even if it means buying a textbook or ecourse years back. Even back to grade 6. I made the mistake of jumping ahead and getting messed up with calc when I had problems with basic algebra and trigonometry. I passed because I loved statistics.

It helps if you have fun doing algebra. Actually I don’t even know what algebra is and I passed grade 12 math at a final grade of exactly 50%.

Not regular math, but Algebra yes. Never could make hide nor hair out of it. I had freinds who would go on and on about how cool Algebra was and how you could progress on to Trig and Geometry. Break a leg, I’ll just take Under Water Mess Kit Repair.

No at 11 I was correcting my aunt’s math quizzes (algebra) and scoring them. She was a math professor at a junior college.

In ninth grade if the Algebra teacher was sick, they would send any other teacher to the class and I would do the answers for the homework on the board and then give the homework for the next day from the teacher’s note to me.

I was lucky enough to have math teachers that taught me WHY things worked and not just HOW they worked. That makes a huge difference. The rules aren’t arbitrary, they’re derived from earlier rules. Is there a particular problem or concept we could help you understand. I’m always happy to lend a hand.

Very. I was able to learn Algebra and Calculus well enough in high school to pass the tests with B’s but then promptly forgot all of it. Nothing ever stuck in my head.

I did better in Geometry because it was more visual. After high school though, I never took another math class. Thankfully, art college didn’t require them.

Also, if there’s a particular topic you’re struggling to understand, check out Eddie Woo’s channel and do a search. The guy is really great at explaining math.

@gorillapaws I’ll do that as soon as I can tomorrow. Right now I have to get ready for bed, but I want to answer all comments when I have more time. thank you :)

Yes. I think I took it three times before I passed.

I was great at algebra. What exactly are you struggling with? I was very different than @gorillapaws in algebra, I just did as told, I didn’t worry about the why, and then eventually the why made more sense, especially once I moved on to more difficult math. Algebra you just need to know the rules and just do it. Then always go back and check your work. Make sure your answer works in the problem. I didn’t like to read when I was in school (I still don’t in general) and math I didn’t have to read or comprehend, I just had to do it. Practice makes perfect. Unless, it was a word problem. That was more difficult.

I struggled with geometry, but eventually I caught on.

I was great at math until I hit advanced linear algebra in college. Then I hit my wall.

Great at math until halfway through calculus senior year of high school. I didn’t know why I was doing any of the equations. Without any compelling reason, my brain just lost interest.

After taking physics in college, the why of calculus clicked for me. And ended up doing better in advanced calculus in college than I did in introduction to calculus in high school.

My brain only seems to engage when there’s a rhyme or reason. It’s not good at number-crunching for funsies.

Algebra was pretty easy for me, but there were conceptual steps that helped a lot to get past the textbook language, which was often pretty hard to get past, because math book writers tend not to be very good at explaining in ways that actually make sense to most people who don’t already know math language.

Even “solve for x” drove me crazy at first, because those words did not sound like they should just mean “x stands for a number you’re trying to deduce what it must be, given other information we do know”.

Later, function syntax also threw me. “f(x) = y + 5” and the wording around that was missing a plan-English wording that made sense to me, so I felt like I was missing something. If they just said something like “that means the values of x and y in this problem vary, such that x will always be 5 more than y, for any value of y ”.

Etc.

I think the trick is to find people who can explain things to you in natural language you’ll understand, and/or to have friends at about your same level or higher, with whom you can work together to figure things out.

In High School, it was. But for some reason, when I got into the navy and went to Nuclear Power School, it suddenly all made sense. I had been struggling to remember formulae and all the little tricks. But I started thinking in math. All those equations are actually telling you something. Maybe it was just I was old enough to understand it.

Khan Academy is a good place to go for all levels of math. I never had a problem with math and ended up majoring in it in college. Algebra is an extension of arithmetic. For example, if you 3×5+7=22 and subtract 7 from both sides, you have 3×5=15. Dividing both sides by 3 gives 5=5. If instead you start with 3x+5=22, you can go through the exact same steps to get x=5.

@Zaku I think you best explains my problem, finding “X” and all that other stuff. I don’t think I’m cut out for this because I just can’t wrap my head around this stuff. My learning disability is getting in my way :(

@RayaHope “finding “X” and all that other stuff”

What if it’s being described in normal words? e.g. “I’m thinking of a number and if you add 2 to it, you’ll have 5. What number am I thinking of?”

If it is any consolation, the development of algebra as we know began in the Arab Empire in the ninth century. They started by using words for everything, including numbers. It was not until the Renaissance that they started using symbols for numbers and variables.

I was terrible and never understood it. I usually got a C and it was even worse in college.

@RayaHope I don’t know whether you really have a “learning disability” for math, but I do know there’s a pretty common teaching disability when it comes to explaining math in language that actually explains basic concepts in plain English. Most children and adults who “have problems” with math, can readily get the concepts if they’re explained in ways that make sense, but many math books and teachers lack that communication ability and/or the don’t make the effort (instead just listing endless “find x” problems and hoping students just “get it” at some point, and marking wrong reasonable responses to that wording, like an arrow pointing to x – found it!).

And, many students end up being convinced that the problem is them, that they’re “bad at math”, and/or ending up with a fear and aversion to anything math-like.

Even the students who get good enough grades often get trained in wrote problem-solving techniques without understanding, at least as far as I’ve seen with many US public-school students.

^^ I know I just can’t get what they are asking nor do I know how to find it. When my teacher explains it I don’t understand and if I keep asking questions then they seem to look at me like I should just know it and quit asking dumb questions. So I end up sitting there and not knowing what to do. I wish I could just know what to do but I can’t figure it out. I don’t want to look stupid so I finally pretend to understand even though my grades are terrible in math.

I always had issues with algebra, it was totally not my thing. What I did was look videos on Youtube with other teachers explaining the topics I couldn’t grasp and rewatched them several times if needed. It helped me pretty much back then.

@RayaHope That sounds to me like the teacher not understanding what you don’t get.

(Fluther might actually be a good resource for such questions, since we have a few people here who are pretty good at math, and even sometimes post math questions “for fun”, hehe.)

Math and science were never my strongest subjects. I did best in English, history, and Latin. That said, I managed to somehow do alright in math. I think I just had good teachers and friends who helped me study. But I also think I have some kind of natural knack for it. A few years ago I was helping a friend study for the GRE and I encountered algebra problems that I literally hadn’t seen since high school, so about 2008 or so. And I was able to solve them even though it had been a decade since I’d taken a math class.

I remember it as no big deal. I remember being more or less indifferent to algebra until the analytic geometry course.

No. Math was easy.

I remember it as no big deal. I remember being more or less indifferent to algebra until the analytic geometry course and conic sections.

Tutored Kevin in high school (1960s), his mom and my mom were in the neighborhood bridge club. Kevin had to pass summer school algebra, he’s failed it during regular school year. And his next birthday he was going to be 21 . . . !
His mother paid $5 a week to come over to his house and tutor him twice a week. I figured out about ten minutes into the first meeting, he was not paying attention after 8 or 10 minutes. I’d stop and we would talk about somethings cars . . . music . . .his 1931 Ford coupe . . . then i’d start up again. In today’s world he had, I think, ADHD. End of summer school he got a C+ and his mom gave me a extra ten bucks.

Math was not difficult for me. Somehow I could look at the problem and could “get it”.
I started my Algebra journey in 6th grade in private school. It was not a problem in later grades.
My brain was able to ace Algebra I and II, Trig, Calculus II, II, II, IV, statistics, differential equations, and Financial Math.
I guess my brain was wired for math.

@Forever_Free OMG I don’t even know what most of those are! I think I have a stupid brain when it comes to math. It is so difficult for me to comprehend. My wires don’t go that way :(

@RayaHope I would consider not knowing this as a “stupid brain”. I am sure your brain is special and wired for other wonderful stuff.

@Forever_Free You are too good to me :) I don’t know how to relax, I try to do too much at once I guess.

I was terrible at any kind of math in H.S. In college I got A’s. My advice is that 1) your ‘learning disability’ isn’t at fault. They’re asking you to make sense of something which to me at least makes NO sense. Which leads to #2) Just memorize the basic formulas and plug them in where needed. Don’t worry about whether it makes logical sense or not. I will never understand math of any sort except + – x and /. That’s ok. I have other talents.

All I know is that sans becoming a rocket scientist or physicist you never use that stuff real world anyway. I’ve never had a cashier anywhere tell me I can’t buy my groceries or pay for my beer unless I can expound on the value of Pi.

@smudges I may have to take your approach to math if I can’t get how to do it properly. I just don’t want that to severely impact my future employability

@RayaHope Good idea. Don’t listen to me, I’m a bad influence and a slacker of long standing. : )

@Nomore_Tantrums I like apple pie ;}

@RayaHope Me too! Toss some vanilla ice cream on the bad boy and I’ll chow down. Hey look, is that a possum!? Huh? What apple pie? Well, I never. Some people.

No, but it is all gone now other that what I actually use.

@Nomore_Tantrums An Opossum you mean. Look me correcting you, now that’s a switch! LOL!

@SnipSnip A 4.0 you ARE a smarty pants!

Well I’m not much for grammar either, no worries! Beats Math any day of the week and twice on Sunday @RayaHope

^^ I wish I could beat math! It still beats me :(

@RayaHope You’re fast. I removed that because I didn’t mean to sound like a smarty pants. :)

@RayaHope Stay studious and carry on, I got confidence in ya!

@SnipSnip Only fast at certain things. @Nomore_Tantrums You can be on my team any-day :)

Well thank ya ma’am , thank ya vary much. In my best crappy Elvis impersonation @RayaHope

^^ Sounded just fine from here..he..he

I do a better Nixon and Groucho Marx : )

Love that “I am not a crook, let me make that perfectly clear!” And love me some Groucho! “We were up early each day on safari. I was up by six, had breakfast and was back in bed by six thirty!”

I thought I was going to be a poet. I won a modest poetry scholarship in 12th grade. I was good in math but never thought I’d use it for much in daily life, especially trig.

Now I write code and use trig all of the time for finding if a click happened inside a shape or not, for calculating angles on woodworking projects and for understanding how electric motors work and the position of joints with hobby robotics projects.

I don’t believe that anyone is inherently bad at math. I just think they need the right teacher. And I also think it’s a terrible idea to presume what will or won’t be important to know later in life. I mean let’s say @RayaHope becomes a famous shuffle dancer and makes crazy amounts of money. She’s going to have financial experts managing her money I would expect, but without an understanding of math how is she supposed to hold them accountable and not get cheated?

Also, nurses need to understand math!

@gorillapaws I know that is what kinda scares me. I’m not going to give up on math, I have to at least get a good understanding of it no matter what. I don’t want to, I can’t fail. I do love the famous shuffle dancer though :)

@RayaHope Did you have trouble with math as far back as you can remember, or just in higher grades when you started doing algebra? If I remember correctly you’re a junior or senior, so are you just starting Algebra 1 now?

I have been struggling ever since I first started algebra two years ago. I kept taking other math classes and tried to squeak by algebra 1 but never really understood it. I’ll do extra credit and summer school last year and other stuff to get a passing grade but I can’t keep doing that. It has caught up to me now that I’m a senior and this is my last chance to figure this out or fail :(

^^I believe there is a way to figure out algebra that is unique to you. If you find the right teacher to show you the way…the key…the code. It is not impossible and really, truly achievable.

I was traumatized by math in elementary and high-school. Heart palpitations every time the math or algebra or physics and especially chemistry teacher walked in. I always felt there were too many details to remember. My brain’s memory cells just could not keep them in.
I was so terrified by it that I won a class contest in multiplication. That was weird. Out of body experience.

Many, many years later I picked up an algebra book to confront what got me terrified as a child. I ended up having fun in finally seeing the “code”…understanding it. The purpose. The roles the “participants” can and cannot play. Some of them transform when they change location and even the manner in which they transform could
come in a variety of ways. Participants when assembled as a group now becomes a single entity. It was quite fun for me to discover all that.

Why didn’t my teacher explained it to me in that way? Lol

And to this day, I still could not remember enough to solve a problem if given one.

@mazingerz88 Do you remember the name of that book? Maybe I can find it and see if it helps me.

^^That was sometime ago. After work later I’ll see if I can get the info.

@RayaHope I’m not sure if you’re a fan of Harry Potter, but solving algebra is kind of like casting spells to unlock the magically protected box to get the answer. You have to use the opposite spells to counter what’s there to chip away until the only thing left is the answer. Not sure if that would make it more fun or not? Or maybe that’s just stupid…

Algebra wasn’t but when we jumped into geometry that was a different beast for me. Ugh! Never could grasp it.

I still think just memorize the steps. You probably won’t do well on all of the word problems, but you’ll do ok on the straight math and get a passing grade.

When you solve for x or a or whatever, always plug the answer back in and check your work. If the number you solved to doesn’t work, then you know there is a mistake. If it’s multiple choice and you don’t have to show your work, you can plug in the choices. Usually, you have to show your work in Algebra.

I’m not telling you a way to cheat the system. Part of math is knowing when an answer doesn’t look right.

I’ll give you an example. My husband is a VP in a company and has to work up numbers for reporting the federal government. Two years ago he made a mistake and two sets of eyes looked at it (supposedly) and no one caught it until one of the other senior people called him and said the number didn’t make sense. My husband looked back and without even redoing the math, he knew the number was way off. My point is, having a feel for the numbers helps guide you.

If you were good at math until algebra then that’s helpful. If you had said you always had trouble, then I’d say maybe you have dyscalculia or some sort of fear that is blocking you. Or, simply math just isn’t your forte. It sounds more like algebra just trips you up. We all have subjects like that. Most of us anyway.

Simple algebra is very useful in real life so stick with it.

Watching the various videos seems like a great idea. Different teaching styles my speak to you better than others. Math is practice practice practice. Do lots of problems in the workbooks.

I need to amend my previous post. Did you tell us that you have dyslexia? My sister is currently a 4th grade math teacher; previously she taught middle school math for years. She’s been a math teacher for 25–30 years. I only tell you this to establish her credentials. I spoke to her and she said that absolutely dyslexia would make math difficult, if not impossible. She also said that your school should already know you have dyslexia and should be accomodating you in math in some way. If you’re 17, your school should definitely have identified you as having a learning disability by now. If they haven’t, either you’ve misunderstood something or they’re lacking in quality.

She also highly recommended Khan Academy https://www.khanacademy.org/ as @LostInParadise did. It’s free.

@smudges and @JLeslie Yes I do have dyslexia and it makes things hard for me even in reading/writing. I see numbers backwards and when I read something I have to reread it several times to get it right. Letters of words I’ll misplace and sometime the first letter will switch places with the last letter. Same kind of thing in math. That is why I often make mistakes when trying to do math or reading. It is hard to comprehend when someone is kidding or serious at times because I can read too much into something or not enough. If it wasn’t for spell check my writing would really look terrible. Even spellcheck don’t always catch my mistakes. I so hate this but I can’t do anything about it :(
My teachers do know that I have this learning disability but they don’t always have the time to help me. I just hope I can graduate and still go to college next year, I am a little scared of this and have been for a while now. My doctor’s think I developed this from the trouble I had when younger. idk

Oh, hold on now. You have dyslexia? You should be getting special help with that.

The farther you are in math the more reading becomes very important. This is my gripe with the push for very early grades putting more and more reading in math lessons, it pisses me off.

I don’t know much of anything regarding dyslexia and math, I actually had said dyscalculia above, but dyslexia would be a problem as well.

Are you given more time to complete exams? Have you worked with a specialist to learn how to compensate or work through the dyslexia?

@JLeslie No not really. I have to keep up with everyone else or I’ll fall behind again. I thought this was all my fault somehow. Because I’m not good enough to compete with the others so I need to work harder to get better. I don’t want to bother the teachers so I am kinda shy to ask questions and interrupt the class would be embarrassing.

I would think you would have separate help outside of regular class. If not now, at least when you were younger.

A math tutor might be helpful. The one on one can make a difference.

You definitely should check into extra help. Talk to either your principal or school counselor. As for the teachers not having time?! F*ck that! They need to make time. It’s part of their job!

Here’s an interesting website you can glance over if you like:
https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/

@JLeslie You tell her, girrrl!!

@smudges That was very interesting. I want to ask my teachers if they can work with me more or give my a special class to go to.