Why am I so bad with math?

[MonkeySage]

I'm a biochemistry major, so being bad with math is very bad. For the life of me I always forget that ln=a can be reversed to an e^a, I'm convinced that trig is out to get me.

I can barely keep up in uchem whenever we're dealing with pressure and enthalpies, and by the time I am ready to practice what we went over in class, I'm a blank slate again at least where math is concerned. It doesn't help that neither the book nor the professor are very clear on the individual parts of the equation.

[Lord Torath]

This article on Slate made me feel much better about math: Why am I bad at Math (http://www.slate.com/articles/life/classes/2015/09/why_am_i_bad_at_math_take_a_math_class_in_college_ and_learn_to_reason_abstractly.html).

To be honest, I'm still not sure how I passed Trig. I know the basics, how the sine, cosine, and tangent relate to the unit circle, and their inverses and one-overs (secant, cosecant, and cotangent), and I can use them to figure out angles, but the identities gave me the hardest time. So integrating trig functions is best done using a symbolic calculator (TI-92 for the win!).

[cobaltstarfire]

Have you tried talking to your prof during office hours? Many colleges also have free tutoring labs too that you can visit.

I've got a minor math disability (though I don't know the details other than I apparently don't think about it "right" whatever that means). And any time I actually worked hard at it, and did a lot of extra leg work outside of class, I could normally pull out an A or B, rather than just scrapping by with the lowest possible passing grade (any math class that didn't force me to show my work, or prove I knew why I did anything in particular was one I was always in danger of failing)

Usually what I'd do, other than making sure all of my math is super neat and organized*, is to write down reminders and formulas at the top of the page. Anything to help me remember something or understand how it works/relates. I also did a lot of extra math outside of class. Those times when I couldn't understand it I'd find someone who did who could explain to me exactly what's going on and why. I never took any advanced maths, but as far as I know whether you're like me and have a disability, or are a mathematical genius like my guy, a lot of work has to go into learning and understanding it properly and in depth.

*This is also important for being able to read corrections so you can try to understand why you got the problem wrong. It's so much easier to learn from your mistakes when you can clearly see what the mistake was.

[bookguy]

I don't know if it will make you guys feel better, but I'm a math major (graduating this semester) and I can't remember trig identities either. I also have to stop and really think whenever I use logarithms. This stuff is just hard to remember.

[The Random NPC]

I've heard that problems with higher maths can stem from a faulty understanding of lower maths. Perhaps there's a foundation you are missing?

[Lethologica]

With logs in particular, they're the inverse of exponentiation by definition. log_x(x^a) = a. That's a math vocabulary issue, so to speak--you have to know instinctively what the terms mean so that you can read mathematical sentences without stuttering.

Trig identities, though. Some of the basic ones (like angle addition) aren't intuitive at all, at least without complex math (one more reason why everyone loves Euler's formula). Thankfully, most of the ones you study derive from a couple of readily memorized identities.

[aspi]

I've heard that problems with higher maths can stem from a faulty understanding of lower maths. Perhaps there's a foundation you are missing?
This. I believe that this cannot be stressed enough.

All of Mathematics is a very complex building that follows a rather rigid structure. To understand the higher levels, you need a very solid foundation and if that is missing, you building will be shaky at best. Starting somewhere in the middle is rarely a good idea. Most importantly, the operative word here is understanding, as Math is not something that you learn as much as it is something that you understand an - most of all - practice. While there are some facts in Math that you simply have to learn, most of it is understanding. And once you actually understand how something works and why it works that way, remembering will be much easier.

There is also something to be said about Math being the language of science - just like any other language, you need a lot of practice to become good at it. Learning grammar and vocabulary alone will not do the trick.

[Douglas]

Most importantly, the operative word here is understanding, as Math is not something that you learn as much as it is something that you understand an - most of all - practice. While there are some facts in Math that you simply have to learn, most of it is understanding. And once you actually understand how something works and why it works that way, remembering will be much easier.
This is a very good point, and it's something that far too many students and even teachers fail to grasp. Memorizing formulas and a few tricks and rules may help you pass tests in the short term, but if you don't understand how and why those formulas and tricks work they won't help much for learning more. Strong conceptual understanding of a formula also helps a lot with remembering it in the first place - I even had a few occasions back in high school where I couldn't remember a formula but did remember the concept behind it, and used that understanding to re-derive the formula quickly in order to use it to solve a test question.

[wumpus]

This. I believe that this cannot be stressed enough.

All of Mathematics is a very complex building that follows a rather rigid structure. To understand the higher levels, you need a very solid foundation and if that is missing, you building will be shaky at best. Starting somewhere in the middle is rarely a good idea. Most importantly, the operative word here is understanding, as Math is not something that you learn as much as it is something that you understand an - most of all - practice. While there are some facts in Math that you simply have to learn, most of it is understanding. And once you actually understand how something works and why it works that way, remembering will be much easier.

There is also something to be said about Math being the language of science - just like any other language, you need a lot of practice to become good at it. Learning grammar and vocabulary alone will not do the trick.

On the other hand, you really don't get proficient at a level of math until you've learned the level above it. I assume this should involve plenty of review to make sure you have the previous level solid, but I've never been taught that way.

Don't underestimate the amount of practice needed. I've learned plenty on my own, but math was one of the things I had to learn in formal classes.

[cobaltstarfire]

We all keep saying the same thing over and over about math. :smalltongue:

Long story short, understand the how and why of it all, and practice until you're dreaming about math.

Don't be afraid to get help and use whatever resources/tools you have available to get better either.

[Radar]

One thing I'd like to mention is that mathematics is all about connections between various abstract objects. When you solve an algebraic equation? You're subconsciously using the equivalence between different equtions and the theorem that applying any injective function to both sides of equation doesn't change the solution. Solving specific problems becomes easier, when you start understanding the general principles, but for that you need to gain perspective first through training.

Practice makes perfect, but I'd like to stess that it is very valuable to always look for similarities between problems, common elements of seemingly distant concepts. When you learn, if possible, generalise your problems. Probe them on how far the solving method can reach, when it stops working and why. Doing tonnes of math problems gives you speed, precision and mental endurance. To foster understanding, I'd recommend tinkering a bit with them, pull them apart, play around in sanbox mode so to speak. That, or take up a book with some more elaborate problems to solve, which will force you to build a solving method on your own from the small pieces you already trained with.

I'm almost done rambling, so I'll just leave here one of my favorite quotes from a very peculiar manga:

Well, everyone's unsure of their mathematical abilities. When that happens, just train more! When you're afraid, just train! When something doesn't feel right, just train! When you don't believe in yourself anymore, just train! The only thing that won't betray you is your training.
Yes, I did make a slight change. :P

[Drynwyn]

Heya! Fellow biochemistry student with math trubs here. I found my math skills improved a lot when I took an intro physics course- dealing with the concepts in an somewhat-intuitive context made it much easier for me to get a grasp of them when I needed to use them in a non-intuitive manner.

[Peelee]

Math is a skill. A flat-out skill. Some people are naturally gifted at it. Some aren't. And as much add that sucks, there's a bright spot; just practice it a lot and you will get better.

Think if it like basketball. If you play every day for half an hour, or go to a basketball camp every summer, and get the forms drilled into you, you'll eventually get better. You probably won't ever play professionally, or even make the college team, but youll probably be able to beat all your friends in a 1-on-1.

You don't need to get so good at math that you can get a degree. Just practice what you have, do problems every day, ask for more homework problems once you start getting the hang of it (for you, mot the class), and youll do great. Once you recognize the patterns, its just like chemistry or physics; "if you see something like this, use this formula/technique to solve it."

In short, practice, practice, practice.

Though tutors never hurt to make sure you get the underlyong principles down well to start with, of course. You can play basketball all day long, but if the balls deflated, ain't gonna be getting any better.

[Maryring]

The skillset to be a good teacher in math is entirely divergent from the skillset to be good at math. Math is a language of formal rules where everything is obvious if you know it. It's a language that contains a lot of unique phrases and words, where actually identifying what a specific part is doing is close to impossible. I've spent the last two hours looking through books to figure out what "parametrization" means, before I found a place that mentioned that "parametrization" is apparently changing one function to a different function that calculates a position from 0. And I still have no idea how to parametrize ((x^2)/4)+(y+2)^2=1

The best advice I can give is to not do math alone. Because when you reach something you simply don't understand, you'll want someone who can grasp that intuitively to actually make some progress.

[Lethologica]

I've spent the last two hours looking through books to figure out what "parametrization" means, before I found a place that mentioned that "parametrization" is apparently changing one function to a different function that calculates a position from 0. And I still have no idea how to parametrize ((x^2)/4)+(y+2)^2=1
Fundamentally, parametrization means defining the function by expressing each of its coordinates in terms of the same variable. So, to take the simplest example, x = y can be parametrized in terms of a variable t as x = t, y = t.

I don't know if there's a formal algebraic process for doing parametrization, but the equation you gave describes an ellipse with a horizontal major axis of radius 2 and vertical minor axis of radius 1, centered on (0,-2). You can re-express that as a parametric function with trig, e.g. x = 2 cos(t), y = sin(t) - 2, or f(t) = (2 cos(t))i + (sin(t) - 2)j.

[Radar]

I've spent the last two hours looking through books to figure out what "parametrization" means, before I found a place that mentioned that "parametrization" is apparently changing one function to a different function that calculates a position from 0. And I still have no idea how to parametrize ((x^2)/4)+(y+2)^2=1
There are probably many places in mathematics, where the word parametrization is used in slightly different context and thus the confusion. When you have such algebraic expression, which can be interpreted as either an implicit function or a canonical form of an ellipse for example, then as far as I know parametrizing it means transforming it into parametric form.

Curves in geometry
canonical form:

f(x,y)=const

parametric form:

x=g(t)
y=h(t)

where f, g and h are some functions and t is your parametric variable. One thing to remember is that parametrization is never unique, since I could take for example

x=g(t^3)
y=h(t^3)

and it would work just as well.

In 3D you obviously can define both curves and surfaces in this manner.

[danzibr]

Hmm, well... that's a tough one.

I happen to have a PhD in math. My passion is teaching, and that's what I do. I had an excellent teacher, a brilliant man, the kind of guy you think knows everything about math, and one day in class he said, "Mathematics is inherently difficult."

So... it may not be that you're bad at math, it could be math is simply difficult.

You could say, "But wait! I see other people that make it all look so easy!"

In my opinion, mathematics is either incredibly difficult or easy if tedious. If you don't know how to do something, it's almost freakin' impossible (it might be possible to struggle through it, but boy is it hard). If you do know how to do it, it's easy (even if it takes a while). There are two ways to pass from the former to the latter: practice, and learning more math which offer connections.

[Noodz]

My story:

When i finished my civil engineering degree, i was decidedly bad at math. I mean, i couldn't even understand the conceptual difference between a dot product and a cross product.

I knew how bad i was, and even though i could start my career on math-light fields of engineering, i didn't want to. So i went to grad school for a master's degree.

Engineering graduates with spotty knowledge on basic math are actually a recurring problem on my grad school, so the first trimester included a crash course on linear algebra and diferential equations. While better prepared students cruised this trimester, i had to work very hard to keep up (basically doing exercises 4 to 6 hours a day every day after classes).

The thing i noticed is that the conceptual explanations from math books finally started making sense. When i only did just barely enough exercises to get passing grades, my understanding was marred by not having a complete understanding of what i was studying.

For this reason, linear algebra is one of the foundations of my math skills today. It's actually a pretty good foundation, since the framework of linalg is quite versatile and can be applied to a lot of other fields.

My 2 cents:

I am working under the assumption that you don't have a learning disability regarding math. I'm aware some people have an easier time understanding math than others, but i think you shouldn't "give up" on learning math before you have at least tried.

The first thing about increasing your math skill is that it's a lot of work. Just like increasing your muscle mass, increasing your math skill demands many hours of time and discipline spent on a carefully built list of exercises.

The second thing is to give yourself time to read the conceptual text from your textbook as you advance on your exercise lists. Don't worry about understanding everything at first. Just try to keep up, and if something was not very clear, try asking the teacher. Or you can keep on working on the exercises, eventually, the repeated mental challenges will clear away the ambiguities and teach you to think in a rational, organized manner.

You'll know it's working when you notice the concepts keep building one atop another. Most math textbooks are organized in this gradual manner, they introduce you to a basic concept, then develop said concept into a full fledged framework, and they finish by showcasing the capabilities of said framework.

This advice is obviously based on my own experience of going to grad school. I'm not sure it very easy to replicate, but you could try looking around for math classes in a university. One thing you should not assume though is that it will be easy.

[Lorsa]

I'm a biochemistry major, so being bad with math is very bad. For the life of me I always forget that ln=a can be reversed to an e^a, I'm convinced that trig is out to get me.

I can barely keep up in uchem whenever we're dealing with pressure and enthalpies, and by the time I am ready to practice what we went over in class, I'm a blank slate again at least where math is concerned. It doesn't help that neither the book nor the professor are very clear on the individual parts of the equation.

You are bad with math becuase you forget it should be called maths. At least so I think, as the word is short for mathematics, and generally the short form of a word should keep the plural form?

Sorry, that was really meant as more of a joke (and a way for me to be proven wrong, I am bad with english).

The first thing you need to remember about maths, is that it really isn't very intuitive. While it is extremely logical in a way, as it always follow the rules set down, it is by no means easy for us humans to understand.

Our brains are not really made for understanding maths. While we have an intrinsic understanding of language, maths is a very (evolutionary speaking) new invention. Our brain doesn't grasp it by default, it has to be tought. We are, in essence, trying to use our brain in a way it isn't really meant to be used, by taking advantage of both our memory and deductive / logical reasoning. But never forget that maths (the higher abstract one you are talking about) is quite unnatural. As such, you should never take it personal if you don't understand it.

The best way to learn maths, in my experience, is to practice a lot. One of my calculus teachers told me once when I asked how on Earth you should be able to see that this particular variable substitution would solve an integral that 'you see it because you've solve 1000 problems like it before'.

So why understanding fundamentals is all good and well, maths really is a "understand by doing" endevaour. The more problems you solve, the better you will get. That's really 'the secret'. Do a lot of maths problems.

[Kato]

So... can't really add much new, just repeat what is probably some of the most important bits:

1) It's not a shame to be bad at maths. It's something nobody is born with and while some learn it more easily, some just need more time. I have a M.Sc in physics and I know only what I need to know :smalltongue: Which brings up point 2...

2) Practice, practice, practice. As with most things, you can better with practice. Do things you need, and things you have a hard time doing. You'll get the hang of it easy enough.
There are a few different ways to memorize things, like some are better when they visualize what a particular equation means, i.e. the graph of function or the image of a triangle or whatever, while others (most?) just learn to "speak maths". I guess find whatever way suits you and keep practicing.

3) Don't try to memorize everything. Yeah, it's kind of impractical to have to look up things over and over (and I guess the basics of logarithms especially in OP's field are good to memorize) but I know hardly any trigonometric identities. I know sin²+cos²=1, and that's about it. Everything else I need to look up or I get from Euler, if it's simple enough. There are a few equations that help a lot if you have the memorized but only like... a dozen, or so. Okay, depending on your field, maybe a few more.

[factotum]

You are bad with math becuase you forget it should be called maths. At least so I think, as the word is short for mathematics, and generally the short form of a word should keep the plural form?

It's a peculiarity of American English that they tend to use "math" instead of "maths" as the short form of mathematics, so no, that's not actually an error in his statement.