Struggling with Maths.

MikeeyMon

MikeeyMon

MikeeyMon

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Hey everyone.

In my final year at college, currently doing BTEC ND (Networking) alongside CCNA.

Since a young age I have always struggled with Maths, not able to times all my tables, multiplication, division etc. Even up till now, my confidence is very low with Maths. People find it unusual that I struggle with Maths although im involved within Computers and the like.

I achieved somehow a C in GCSE Maths. I must have just achieved it, as I really have forgotten everything now. Although in college, we have an 'Advanced Mathematics' unit coming up.

Got onto Forensic Computing at uni later this year. Just concerned the maths would be too much to handle.

Any advice? Just concerned and worried quite abit. That I wont understand the maths in uni, which then has a knock on effect with programming and such for me.
 
You just need to put time into it. I appreciate that it might be something your brain might never fully grasp as it isn't wired that way but if you plough through you will get there at least enough to get by.

You will almost certainly have a maths module of at least A Level standard in your first year of uni - scour your uni for a free maths session or two, my old Uni ran a little drop-in centre where you could go if you were struggling with the maths and they would teach you or help you work through problems etc.
 
If you keep practising mathematical concepts and questions, your brain will make some attempt to rewire its thinking to absorb it. The more you do it the more it will start to make sense. It will take time but it'll only get faster and faster.
 
it sounds silly but i caught up with a level and early degree level maths using youtube , some really good teachers on there ! where it was excelled was that i could pause it! unlike my lecturer who was working at lightspeed

in regards to going to uni well yes any maths module will be easier for the people who did A level maths but dont let that put you off because they will be behind in other things (like modules similar to what you are covering in your btec)

the first year of uni will be manageable by anyone who puts the effort in , its all about getting everyone from different backgrounds upto the same standards .
 
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You should give the Khan Academy a look. I do A level maths at college and if I didnt get a topic first time round i just look there and it helps a lot.
 
timmyt said:
You should give the Khan Academy a look. I do A level maths at college and if I didnt get a topic first time round i just look there and it helps a lot.
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Thats fantastic. Good video tutorials. Also Youtube seems helpful.

Will just worry in uni, try and get by and Youtube and learn things I don't understand along the way, attend drop in's etc. Hopefully I will be okay to pass the unit.

Thanks guys!
 
MikeeyMon said:
Hey everyone.

In my final year at college, currently doing BTEC ND (Networking) alongside CCNA.

Since a young age I have always struggled with Maths, not able to times all my tables, multiplication, division etc. Even up till now, my confidence is very low with Maths. People find it unusual that I struggle with Maths although im involved within Computers and the like.

I achieved somehow a C in GCSE Maths. I must have just achieved it, as I really have forgotten everything now. Although in college, we have an 'Advanced Mathematics' unit coming up.

Got onto Forensic Computing at uni later this year. Just concerned the maths would be too much to handle.

Any advice? Just concerned and worried quite abit. That I wont understand the maths in uni, which then has a knock on effect with programming and such for me.
Click to expand...

The first thing you should to try disconnect the thought of high level interesting math, with boring arithmetic you did at school. I could hardly do my multiplication tables and most likely still cant, I always had to manually work it out. However I love calculus, complex numbers, graph theory, vectors, matrices just can't get enough. They can be fairly simple concepts to grasp, its just how there presented that puts people off. This is probably my computer science brain telling me this.

Khan Academy is very good presenting the concepts behind the symbols, you be shocked at how easy some things become easy to understand after awhile.
 
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MikeeyMon said:
Hey everyone.

In my final year at college, currently doing BTEC ND (Networking) alongside CCNA.

Since a young age I have always struggled with Maths, not able to times all my tables, multiplication, division etc. Even up till now, my confidence is very low with Maths. People find it unusual that I struggle with Maths although im involved within Computers and the like.

I achieved somehow a C in GCSE Maths. I must have just achieved it, as I really have forgotten everything now. Although in college, we have an 'Advanced Mathematics' unit coming up.

Got onto Forensic Computing at uni later this year. Just concerned the maths would be too much to handle.

Any advice? Just concerned and worried quite abit. That I wont understand the maths in uni, which then has a knock on effect with programming and such for me.
Click to expand...

The ability to sound off multiplication tables by rote isn't a very useful skill, it's more important to reason your way through the equations than to be able to reference a table.

For example, don't necessarily think of 4x3 being 12, think instead of it being 4+4+4 so what you really have is long and short addition. Don't get me wrong, the tables are useful but they're not the be all and end all and you can always use a calculator for such stuff anyway if you're really stuck. The important bit is understanding how it works.

Also, a common problem I find is that people take a lot of shortcuts when doing maths and while this is fine if you understand what you're doing it can lead to a lot of confusion if you don't. The best example I can think of is algebraic equations where you must solve for a particular variable, the trouble caused by people carrying values over the equals sign leads to no end of grief. What is actually being done is that the same mathematical functions are being applied to either side (ie to remove a 5 on one side you must subtract a 5 from both sides) but because a lot of the time this is being covered up by the shortcuts it leads to a massive amount of confusion.
 
It's also important to realize that beyond GCSE, maths has very little to do with numbers (unless you're into number theory). It's more about process and structure than anything else.

I do maths at degree level and things like multiplication, division, and other forms of mental arithmetic are largely irrelevant. Just use a calculator if you need to work with numbers.
 
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I am awful at maths my brain just doesn't work it out.

This week my pack arrived from Open Uni module is "Starting with maths" its a basic level 1 course to see how you cope with distance learning, haven't studied in ages etc...

Kinda looking forward to getting in to it as it frustrates me a lot not being able to do maths to an OK level.

It's just very difficult to plough time into something that you know you will find hard and struggle, it's kind of confidence destroying and very off putting.
 
Borrow a simple text book for the level of maths you require. Read it and work through the examples and answers, the key thing to find is a text book which has worked solutions. If it doesn't have worked solutions, you will not be able to see where you are going wrong and thus get frustrated. Any library should be able to help you in finding suitable text books.

Often you can get applied maths books for your area of interest which may help put it into a relavant context for you.
 
Inquisitor said:
It's also important to realize that beyond GCSE, maths has very little to do with numbers (unless you're into number theory). It's more about process and structure than anything else.

I do maths at degree level and things like multiplication, division, and other forms of mental arithmetic are largely irrelevant. Just use a calculator if you need to work with numbers.
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Pretty much this, I did maths for a-levels and there was only 1 exam out of i think 8 was non calculator during my 2 year course. Also did a years module on maths in my degree which was more or less rehash of the more relevant bits in a-level that applied to computing.
 
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