Failure at Algebra, MUCH better at Geometry

Post Reply New Topic

I ALREADY failed Algebra 1 once, right now I'm retaking it and guess what? I'm failing AGAIN! This mostly is caused by 2 things: My Algebra teacher can't teach me (just yells at me and says I don't think, even though it takes me nearly a whole class period to THINK of how to solve 2 problems) and my brain is simply not BUILT for understanding anything besides the Algebra I learned in the first few months of the school year. If I pass Algebra, I take geometry, what EVERYONE ELSE is currently taking. I'm SO MUCH BETTER at Geometry! I hate how the whole thing is set up where I have to pass Algebra first. I mean I'm basically practicing Geometry while using my 3d program, and I understand THAT much better than imaginary weird Algebra. Anyone else like this? How do I pass algebra????

I was like this when I was your age.

Algebra was awful and I never seemed to get any better at it even though I am now an engineer and took loads of calculus and higher math in college.

Basically I just cried every night doing my algebra homework and stuggled relentlessly until I got to geometry. After geometry, trigonometry was even better and calculus makes total sense.

Hang in there...it will get easier as the mathematics you are learning get more advanced.

The problem with algebra is that it is darned near useless until you learn calculus but you can't learn calc without already knowing algebra. It is a horrible catch-22.

What are the problems you are having difficulty with? Systems of equations? Polynomial division? Matrices and determinants?

Do the same stuff on either side of the equation and hope it reduces the complexity? Whenever I get stuck I ask Mathcad or Wolfram Alpha what I'm supposed to end up with. After that I test that it actually works like that. I suppose, for a lot of people, it's avoiding the second step that helps them solve problems without learning anything. While math is not something that entertains me much, I do find that almost anything I'm good at gets at least some level of awesome feel to it eventually. And this crap can be trained. A good start would be the point where your brain produces a lot of black murky stuffeh or a ton of colored sparkles or music makes you drift off or stories from far away snatch your attention, since such happenings are usually a good sign of you being bored out of your mind doing something that is in that moment clearly impossible. I feel that way about XML and interaction design right now. I just want to write algorithms, but if I don't learn the stuff now I'm going to worry myself senseless when exams draw closer. ...or just play Skyrim like last time.

There are two types of people: those who think logically and those who think creatively. I would venture to say your mind likely operates more on the creative hemisphere. The best you can do is try and figure out a way to make algebra a creative expression; or at least make it pique your creativity.

By the way, and I say this from life experience, unless you plan on going to college you will never use algebra or geometry in the real world. At best the most you will ever need is basic math.

I spent my entire college career tutoring math. I was always amazed at the number of people that didn't get it. It took me a long time to learn that almost no one actually has a problem with algebra... They have a problem with basic math because of the poor foundations that our current curriculum is based on. Don't fret you're in the same boat as everyone else. Most of the people that PASS don't have any clue what they are doing. Find a different method for working through basic math (tutor, books, whatever works for you) and the algebra will become trivial. Everything you need to know for algebra (other than the method of guess and check) is in basic math. The other thing you need to work on is guess and check 99% of algebra requires it at some step (factoring is of course the prime example).

P.S. At this point in your math career your feelings indicate that you would actually be a candidate for a Math degree. It gets a lot better after algebra.