How Can I Improve My Critical Thinking Skills for Math?

[Jorgon1022]

Hey guys I am writing here because I know this is a big community and I could really use some advice. I am 27 about to graduate from school with a business degree and a GPA of 2.9. I'm embarrassed to say it but it's the truth.

My concern is that now that I will be graduating, I want to focus on learning computer science on my own and learning math on my own.

I want to learn discrete math and statistics but my biggest concern is that my critical thinking skills are weak.I have been told in interviews that My logic is weak so I need guidance from this forum.

Is there a way to improve your critical thinking skills or is it genetic?
Do books such as "How to solve it" actually help develop problem solving techniques or what do you guys think?

Sometimes I feel that being good at math is a lot like being a professional athlete. No matter how hard someone tries, if you are 5'8 you will more than likely succeed in the NBA. Is this an accurate analogy?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

[Dominik Tugend]

Well I have a hard time with math too, maybe you have strengths in other fields that are important too in return.

Those "How to solve it" books are somewhat interesting at first, but the one or two I bought in my life so far didn't really help me.

What helps me a little bit, is challenging myself with math problems I need for coding anyway and if I find that the problem is too complicated, I try to simplify it and see if I can solve the simpler one at least. Also practising the basics this way is useful for me, since my problem also is I forget after a while a lot of what I have learned.
But I still feel there is a certain point I can't go beyond.

I see that there are people that seem to have it easier at math or at least can solve harder problems easier.
Genetics might play a role in that, but I think it's also how you have been raised and how you learned math in your early days.