Maths Difficult for me (self studying)

[Richie Smash]

I'm currently self studying, and I find maths to be very difficult atm, I understand things but only after doing it on pen and paper, and applying it practically, I was just wondering is maths universally hard or is it just me.

However when I learn something it is good, because I'm doing it on my own, dissecting it, it's a much slower process, but to me I feel Maths is definitely a challenging aspect of my education.

I'm currently at a pre-calculus level, well I mean I don't know if quadratic equations and what not is calculus but that's where I am.

 

[Drakkith]

I'm currently self studying, and I find maths to be very difficult atm, I understand things but only after doing it on pen and paper, and applying it practically, I was just wondering is maths universally hard or is it just me.

Everyone is like this to some extent. Learning math REQUIRES that you put in many, many hours with your pencil scribbling away on your paper while you find X, Y, or the square root of 13.

Math is challenging for almost everyone. Just remember that you can't really judge your own ability until you've put in a few hundred hours of work, at least. Heck, I put in more than 200 hours at the local tutoring center just for my Calculus 2 class! That's roughly 15 hours a week! And I still struggle often enough!

 

[kuruman]

The maths you are doing right now should be accessible to all. From my interaction with you in another thread, I think you need practice, a lot of practice. Perhaps you can find a practice book and work out exercises. You also need to pick up "tricks of the trade" that will automate your algebra processing to the point that will be able to figure things out "at a glance." For example, if you are trying to isolate a quantity x in an equation
1. First remove all parentheses in which x appears.
2. Move to the other side with a sign change all non-x quantities that appear with a plus (or minus) side in front of them.
3. Collect all x terms together. By this I mean rewrite $ax+bx+x$ as $(a+b+1)x$.
4. Divide both sides of the equation by whatever multiplies x, in this case $(a+b+1).$
There are other tricks involving square roots, exponentiation, etc. that you should be able to pick up as time goes by. Eventually, with, I repeat practice, practice, you will a point where you wouldn't believe why this stuff gave you such a hard time in the past.

 

[Drakkith]

I second everything kuruman said and I want to reiterate that learning math requires an absurd amount of practice, just like many other skills. I think one problem is that math isn't particularly fun for most people, so they don't practice it like a musician practices their instrument or a sports player attends practice. They do the bare minimum to get by in school and then they think they're just intrinsically bad at math because they struggle later on in life. Being able to use and understand math is a skill that can be learned by nearly everyone. It's true that it might not come to you as easily as it did for others, but that's life for you.

 

[Richie Smash]

Well I'm actually studying for an exam in the caribbean called CSEC, it doesn't go into calculus level, but I have a ton of past exams to do, in fact I'm doing one right now xD. So I'll be putting in practice, each time I do a past paper, the questions puzzle me, so it forces me to think hard, research, practice, then trial and error, and eventually I understand it.

 

[Drakkith]

If you're making progress, then be happy! Progress is progress!

 

[Richie Smash]

so they don't practice it like a musician practices their instrument or a sports player attends practice.

I am a musician actually, that is my passion, but I have to pass these exams, It's like a high school diploma. And I understand exactly what you mean, I have to practice my guitar until it's automatic, (it isn't even like that yet, I should say musician in training) but maths is exactly the same, it's like a language to me.

However I've recently found myself enjoying these concepts and seeing there's a lot of beauty in physics, I can't give up music no, but after these exams I would like to advance my education anyway.

 

[lekh2003]

1. First remove all parentheses in which x appears.
2. Move to the other side with a sign change all non-x quantities that appear with a plus (or minus) side in front of them.
3. Collect all x terms together. By this I mean rewrite ax+bx+xax+bx+xax+bx+x as (a+b+1)x(a+b+1)x(a+b+1)x.
4. Divide both sides of the equation by whatever multiplies x, in this case (a+b+1).(a+b+1).(a+b+1).

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