Improving Your Math Skills: Tips and Tricks for Success

[wls_3.14]

I am not, by nature, a math whiz. However, I am, by nature, an English whiz. I have learned to like math a lot better than I did in high school, but I have been in remedial math courses for the past two years of community college. I really want to be able to go into higher math courses, but I am not confident in my math skills. Are there any tips, tricks, or advice that anyone can give me that will help me succeed in mathematics?

 

[HallsofIvy]

Do exercises- do lots and lots of exercises.

Question: "How do I get to Carnegie Hall?"
Answer: "Practice, practice, practice!"

 

[homeomorphic]

Kind of hard to give really general advice like that. Different people will face very different challenges. If you are in remedial classes, it's hard for me to say because I never found basic math to pose any significant difficulties. At that level, I think having a good tutor would be one of the best things you could do because if you have trouble with basic stuff, you need a guide to set you straight when you make mistakes and get you thinking in the right way. It's kind of like having training wheels. Most of the things that are essential advice for success later on are things that are based on the assumption that you are very independent-minded, questioning, and like to think for yourself. Eventually, that's what you want to aim for, and you can start trying to take that attitude when you can, but, you're likely to need the "training wheels" to some extent before you can really take off. It won't happen overnight.

 

[dimasalang]

do the basics and master it, exercise a lot, have a passion or desire or love for it.

 

[danielu13]

Well, I have been very good at math for a while, but I have not always been. At one point, I was horrible in math and quite confused because I did things in the exact way that my instructors told me. For some reason, I started figuring out how to work with mathematical problems in my own way, and this is the point at which I began to have an aptitude for math. So that's my suggestion for you: just try to figure out a way of working problems that makes sense to you.