UGH!

[Anjele]

I know math is important and I have worked my ass off in three developmental classes trying to finally get it. I can learn almost anything but math just escapes me. Crazily enough I am a bookkeeper by trade. When you throw letters and weird symbols intoI to it I get so confused. I couldn't do it in high school an I am still struggling.

[Chas]

(27-01-2013 10:31 PM)Anjele Wrote:  I know math is important and I have worked my ass off in three developmental classes trying to finally get it. I can learn almost anything but math just escapes me. Crazily enough I am a bookkeeper by trade. When you throw letters and weird symbols intoI to it I get so confused. I couldn't do it in high school an I am still struggling.

What is your math course?

[Anjele]

The closest I can determine is 'Math for Liberal Arts"...not terribly descriptive. Started off with sets, I am afraid to look further into the book to see what else is in there.

[Chas]

(28-01-2013 08:35 AM)Anjele Wrote:  The closest I can determine is 'Math for Liberal Arts"...not terribly descriptive. Started off with sets, I am afraid to look further into the book to see what else is in there.

I'm available for help if you wish. I might be able to clarify a concept.

[GirlyMan]

(28-01-2013 09:09 AM)Chas Wrote:  

(28-01-2013 08:35 AM)Anjele Wrote:  The closest I can determine is 'Math for Liberal Arts"...not terribly descriptive. Started off with sets, I am afraid to look further into the book to see what else is in there.

I'm available for help if you wish. I might be able to clarify a concept.

Me too. I ain't no mathematician but I did make it through multivariable calculus and understood and appreciated it. Not so much with numerical analysis, I mean I got a B in it 'cause I'm a good enough programmer to code up the goddam Runga-Kutta method without having a clue as to what the fuck you're saying. Show me the math and I can code it up, I don't need to understand or appreciate it to code it up. ... I just code motherfucker code.

Math is fundamentally just about abstraction and symbol manipulation according to well-defined and consistent axioms or rules. Abstract those numbers into a set, bound it as appropriate, give it a symbol and then just run with it through the rules. Algebra seems to be the first and hardest abstraction. For 2 of my fucktard kids, it just clicked. 2 of them still don't get it. I think everyone has an abstraction limit they are incapable of getting past no matter how hard they try. For Girly, it was tensor algebra, that shit's not just crazy, it's batshit motherfucking insane. Off you go now to the corner with those batshit insane alchemists calling themselves "chemists".

Algebraic word problems seem to be the biggest hurdle for my kids. How do I abstract this natural language into a set of symbols I can manipulate with these rules? But once it clicks, it never unclicks.

[Anjele]

Not much clicking going on here. Total mental block. I am trying to look at it like a puzzle...a code I have to break. Oy.

[Dark Light]

(28-01-2013 08:48 PM)GirlyMan Wrote:  

(28-01-2013 09:09 AM)Chas Wrote:  I'm available for help if you wish. I might be able to clarify a concept.

Me too. I ain't no mathematician but I did make it through multivariable calculus and understood and appreciated it. Not so much with numerical analysis, I mean I got a B in it 'cause I'm a good enough programmer to code up the goddam Runga-Kutta method without having a clue as to what the fuck you're saying. Show me the math and I can code it up, I don't need to understand or appreciate it to code it up. ... I just code motherfucker code.

Math is fundamentally just about abstraction and symbol manipulation according to well-defined and consistent axioms or rules. Abstract those numbers into a set, bound it as appropriate, give it a symbol and then just run with it through the rules. Algebra seems to be the first and hardest abstraction. For 2 of my fucktard kids, it just clicked. 2 of them still don't get it. I think everyone has an abstraction limit they are incapable of getting past no matter how hard they try. For Girly, it was tensor algebra, that shit's not just crazy, it's batshit motherfucking insane. Off you go now to the corner with those batshit insane alchemists calling themselves "chemists".

Algebraic word problems seem to be the biggest hurdle for my kids. How do I abstract this natural language into a set of symbols I can manipulate with these rules? But once it clicks, it never unclicks.

I can do algebra. I can graph some shit, but even then I can sometimes struggle...and I am trying to be an engineer. After bashing on the forum earlier, I think I am considering getting put on some pills to help me concentrate. I was diagnosed with ADD as a kid. I quit taking my pills after someone stole mine from the school and my parents couldn't afford to get me more. After that never took them again and dismissed my diagnoses as a bullshit made up disease, but I'm re-evaluating that now. Can't focus on the damn problems long enough to solve a few at a time. I'm also having difficulty reading my damn Compsition stories...which are really boring. Think I need to see the doc again.