I remember when I was really good at math, it wasn't even funny how good I was...but that all changed my freshmen yr. of high school...now as a sophmore I'm suffering! it's my lowest grade out of all my classes <--- this comes from a person who's lowest grade ever was a B

I've never had a problem with math. Three of my friend used to be good with math as well but as of late they don't do so well... Each has a different reason for doing more poorly than before. Actually, using a lettering system to identify them is useful; their surnames start with A, B, and C.

Friend A-
What he did: greatly overestimated his abilities in math. It used to be his best subject. In high school our first year of math was essentially a survey (general overview, mostly review) he thought he didn't need to pay attention in the coming years based off the first year. He didn't pay attention to the new material and couldn't keep up later in math (he did okay, came out with a 70 something in math for the senior year but he dropped calculus after two weeks).
How to avoid being like Friend A: Don't be an idiot and overestimate yourself. Do at least some of the review homework (or practice on your own) and ingrain the basic concepts of math. Learn a concept before moving on the a new one, you may need to used the concept you don't understand to do the next one (take it one step at a time). This will stop you from trying to learn everything at one while having half completed ideas of math in you mind and confusing yourself.

Friends B & C-
What they did: lost interest in math so much that they became partially pessimistic about it. They didn't see how they could apply math in their lives at all. While it is true that they might not necessarily need math for their intended career paths, they did not need to disregard math on grounds that it had no application to the material world. Math is always (almost) applied to the material world but to understand the application you need to understand the mathematical theory isolated from reality to become fluent with it.
How not to be like Friends B & C: Be patient with math. Just because you won't use it in the future doesn't mean you should disregard it... though the mark you get in the class is your own, what's the point in not doing good? Same as for Friend A, don't become discouraged and too disappointed when math becomes increasingly difficult. If you know the previous theory that the current theory builds upon then you shoud have little trouble.

Remember, mathematics is in the mind; they are systems in theory that we apply to the material world yet do not exist outside our faculty of reason.

Most people I've been in math classes with though elementary school to the end of high school did fairly well with arithemetic however when the material became more complex with radical numbers, imaginary numbers, graphical analysis and representation of numbers, etc. Some became overwhelmed by the concepts.

IMPORTANT: They were disappointed that they were not performing as well and it frustrated them to a point where the gave up and/or resolved that they hated math. By not understanding a particular concept they crippled themselves from any math using that concept onward. Some of my friends had trouble understanding trigonometric functions because they didn't quite understand graphs well enough for the visual representation to help them understand trig. In fact, Friend A was more confused by the graphs when I tried to explain the Unit circle to him.

Sorry about the rant.... I've given the subject much thought and have talked to my friends mentioned in my post in the past and they acknowledge that there is at least some truth to my assumptions about their performances in math (Friend B agrees completely).

Can you imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie?

Geezus. I hate to sound sexist, but it seems guys have it easier in subjects like math and physics... 😐

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Quote from CatzCradle

Geezus. I hate to sound sexist, but it seems guys have it easier in subjects like math and physics... 😐

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's how it is. My math classes always seem to have a very limited number of girls in them.

The worst I remember is my senior year in high school, my advanced placement physics class had only one girl in it (though there were only like twelve people in the class total).

Tree + Taco = Tree taco.

i have neutral view towards math...it comes by as an easy concept for me, so i do get by well...it doesn't excite me in any sense, though, and even as i understand the importance of math and numbers in the world around us, especially for the advance of technology, i ain't fond of learning it...

i generally take down all the notes from the book and verbal lecture, though i hardly ever look back at my notes, since i hardly ever study for math tests...i'm a sophomore in algebra 2/trig right now, but i wished i could've taken geometry in 8th grade...pre-calculus seems pretty interesting!

The Deviant

Math is one of my best subjects~

Algebra I = 7th grade
Geometry = 8th grade

Algebra II / Trigonometry = freshmen in high school
Single variable calculus as a sophomore in high school
Series and differentiation as a junior
IB Higher Level math class as a senior, even though I wasn't part of the IB program (International Baccalaureate)
(all that was offered at my high school, not at a community college)

Now, as a freshmen in college, multi-variable calculus. Later on will be linear algebra and differential equations, and perhaps some other stuff. I guess I could've gone higher earlier on if I took some community college classes in high school, but I didn't do that...

But I'm a Computer Science and Engineering major, so I won't go too far in terms of higher levels of math theory...

A just ruler amongst tyrants

gah all this talk about high school math is driving me jealous, i miss it so hard. I'm in calc III now, which really isn't too bad considering the hell that was calc II. I prefer the applied maths like physics and statics(not statistics) though.

remember kids, friends who ever want to see their friends again don't let their friends major in engineering.

...

Quote from lambchopsil

Math is one of my best subjects~

Algebra I = 7th grade
Geometry = 8th grade

Algebra II / Trigonometry = freshmen in high school
Single variable calculus as a sophomore in high school
Series and differentiation as a junior
IB Higher Level math class as a senior, even though I wasn't part of the IB program (International Baccalaureate)
(all that was offered at my high school, not at a community college)

Now, as a freshmen in college, multi-variable calculus. Later on will be linear algebra and differential equations, and perhaps some other stuff. I guess I could've gone higher earlier on if I took some community college classes in high school, but I didn't do that...

But I'm a Computer Science and Engineering major, so I won't go too far in terms of higher levels of math theory...

Wow, that's pretty impressive, doing calculus sophomore year. Calculus was pretty easy for me, but I didn't get to it until my senior year, likely because of how lacking in initiative I am. That and I don't think my school offered courses that advanced; Calculus I was pretty much the farthest they went.

I'm taking Linear Algebra right now. It's a kind of interesting course (though my instructor is beyond dull). I'm kinda glad that my Computer science degree plan doesn't call for Differential Equations (or Calculus III even; Calculus II was enough Calculus). Pretty soon I'll be done with Math and only have programming classes to worry about. I'm good at math, but taking the classes and doing all the work annoys me.

Tree + Taco = Tree taco.

Quote from Walrothetacoking

Quote from lambchopsil

Math is one of my best subjects~

Algebra I = 7th grade
Geometry = 8th grade

Algebra II / Trigonometry = freshmen in high school
Single variable calculus as a sophomore in high school
Series and differentiation as a junior
IB Higher Level math class as a senior, even though I wasn't part of the IB program (International Baccalaureate)
(all that was offered at my high school, not at a community college)

Now, as a freshmen in college, multi-variable calculus. Later on will be linear algebra and differential equations, and perhaps some other stuff. I guess I could've gone higher earlier on if I took some community college classes in high school, but I didn't do that...

But I'm a Computer Science and Engineering major, so I won't go too far in terms of higher levels of math theory...

Wow, that's pretty impressive, doing calculus sophomore year. Calculus was pretty easy for me, but I didn't get to it until my senior year, likely because of how lacking in initiative I am. That and I don't think my school offered courses that advanced; Calculus I was pretty much the farthest they went.

I'm taking Linear Algebra right now. It's a kind of interesting course (though my instructor is beyond dull). I'm kinda glad that my Computer science degree plan doesn't call for Differential Equations (or Calculus III even; Calculus II was enough Calculus). Pretty soon I'll be done with Math and only have programming classes to worry about. I'm good at math, but taking the classes and doing all the work annoys me.

We didn't even have Calculus in high school, since my high school was more into Sciences so it was a bit difficult adjusting to the math needed in Computer Science...I had to retake my calculus class when I failed it the first time but was everything was smooth sailing once I got past that...

The problem now is that we still have math when we're so busy with our final thesis project which is to make a program that hasn't been made yet...

Hey, I'm a girl and I'm good at math. Well, not the best of the best, but I'm good enough. If we're going on our history with math, I'm probably not as fabulous as lambchopsil.

Let's see...
Uh...

7th = alg1 hon
9th = geo hon (i skipped 8th grade, hence the missing grade)
10th = alg2 hon
11th = calc ab ap (and i also skipped precalc/trig)
12th = calc bc ap

and now i'm taking math 31b which is bc math. i could (some say should) have taken 32a, which is what lambchopsil is taking, but i'm too lazy for that. plus, i'll get a better gpa. hopefully...

some people say that 31b is actually harder than 32a... >__>;;;;

1 + 1 = 2

🙂

I is a college stoodent.

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Happiness isn't good enough for me! I demand euphoria!” "[/color]

Quote from CatzCradle

Geezus. I hate to sound sexist, but it seems guys have it easier in subjects like math and physics... 😐

Sounds about right. My statistics class, which was optional, was all male.

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Haha...reminds of what this guy once said..."Math was fun until they started adding all these alphabets". Anyways, I'm more of a Math guy so I get the concepts pretty easy. Always found that going through each "type" of problem and grasping the basics of solving it to be helpful...and the only thing you can do to be better at it is practice lol. Personally, I've never practiced Math though. Never did my homework ('cause teachers never checked), and rarely, if ever, studied for tests. Now that I'm in grade 12, I'm starting to regret it since I'm barely keeping up with all the concepts. Seems practice is the only way to engrave it into my head.

Well at the moment I'm in Pre-calc,
9th- Algebra I [ Slept through it and didn't do any homework ever ]
10th- Algebra II and Geometry [ I could have slept through both but Alg. 2 was intresting]
11th- PreCalc [ So far i was sitting in the front of class so i couldn't slack off, but the recent seat changes i now get to enjoy the window seat! ]
So far in my math experience it's just the damned memorization of stuff [ Times tables, Unit Circle ] that annoys me [ From time to time i have troubles with the 7 and 8 times tables 😛 ] . Other then that I actually just need to be in class and it comes to me.
I also am one of those people that are lazy to no end!