Thinking of going back to take Astrophysics, have no pre-reqs.

[nubu]

I'm looking for an honest assessment of whether someone with a huge interest in Astronomy can make up for poor math skills. While Math was my highest grade in high-school I also took Consumer Math, as a result I find my self fumbling through Coursea's Astronomy class and taking ages to solve the equations. I disliked taxes from math class and have horrible mental math skills but a good head for formulas and breaking things down.

I have been out of high-school for over five years and University for almost three. My first attempt at university has an unsalvageable GPA due to being hospitalized for the better part of the second year and I was offered to ability to forfeit previous course work from my transcript. My previous university does not offer any degree in Astrophysics, but after 30 credit hours I can apply to transfer to either a school across the province, or the country.

This leaves me till Fall 2015 to attempt to hone my math skills to a high-school level, and the 15-16 school year to take the 0000 level Math classes. I suppose my question is twofold; Can someone who doesn't have a particular interest in math do decently in Astronomy? As well as can I learn enough in 20 months to challenge the pre-cal exam and start with 1000 level math courses instead of the 0000 levels so my four year degree doesn't become five.

 

[Student100]

Your question is unanswerable; you're asking us to subjectively evaluate your ability to self-learn math without knowing anything about you other than this post. You also don’t like math, but you like astronomy, ask yourself why?

That said it’s possible for you to do what you want and succeed at your goals, on the other hand it’s equally possible that you’ll fall on your face. It’s impossible to say.

With that said, if you really want to do it, than do it! Try your best, there’s nothing or magical or hard about it, it’s possible to realize your goal, you just need to be in the right mindset and work hard. A bit of advice you might find handy as well, if you are able to test into pre-calculus I still recommend you take the algebra two remedial class and do five years instead of four. It isn’t a race, and you don’t want that many holes or gaps in your understanding.