Why do I find maths hard?

[Bvenged]

I can't even get fucking quadratics anymore, yet give me physics shit, and I'm fine and find it real easy, and I'm even better at history.
So, how the fuck does this work? Brilliantish mind for sciences and humanities, but maths = poobrain of facedesking proportions.
Explains or help needed.

My entire schooling life story.
Sciences, excelled.
Art, brilliant but when asked to write an essay on who inspired me, I refused and subsequently failed.
English, good 'nuff.
Humanities, piece of piss.
Sports, a good laugh.
ICT, why is this even an exam? Thankfully the UK is converting it into "Computing".

Maths, my arch enemy - passed with a B at GCSE but crippled me at A-Level. I can do the simple stuff' say, up to quadratics and a little bit of them fine. But beyond that. No. It was also the very reason why I hated 6th form education.

I nearly failed my A-Level physics as well because of it, and all that time spent revising physics when it could've been spent on biology doomed that A-Level too. I'm now at university doing a computer forensics degree based solely off my ability with computers, because i couldn't get in by default with 3 a-levels.

[hr]don't line me bro![/hr]

As for helping you? Learn the methods and patterns, maths is full of them. It was rearranging complex algebra in Physics and mathematical functions with estimation in Maths that royally screwed me over. IF that doesn't work, just get to a standard where you can pass relatively well then focus more on your stronger subjects. Nothing worse than spending too much time on a weaker subject, failing it anyway then taking a hit in your stronger ones too. I should know.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

So basically my brain is not...right for it?
I mean I found it easy eariler, but now the easy stuff I learned years ago is hard D:

I dont think that your brain " isn't right " it's probably the fact that you just need more time to grasp certain subjects, for eg:
(in YR10 btw)
I grasp English really quickly & I can "go deeper" into subjects really quickly as well, but in Maths, well, I found factorising quite hard, & it took me roughly around 2 lessons to get it, & I still have to look up my notes everytime we factorise expressions like this: (3x)2 + 18 + 6x.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Are you the kind of person that gives up when you see an equation and do not instantly know what to do(a few people I know) or are you one of the people that needs to understand everything before they apply it? Both of those tend to be factors in people not liking Maths. The class, teacher and the individual will also affect your ability.

Also you never ever study maths by looking at questions. I don't know if you do this but if you you may as well go play Skyrim or whatever tickles your fancy. If you are going to waste your time at least waste it well. So if you do want to do well in maths all you have to do is do the same type of questions over and over again and just practise. In Maths you learn how to do it now and understand it later.

 

[Mazza35]

Are you the kind of person that gives up when you see an equation and do not instantly know what to do(a few people I know) or are you one of the people that needs to understand everything before they apply it? Both of those tend to be factors in people not liking Maths. The class, teacher and the individual will also affect your ability.

Also you never ever study maths by looking at questions. I don't know if you do this but if you you may as well go play Skyrim or whatever tickles your fancy. If you are going to waste your time at least waste it well. So if you do want to do well in maths all you have to do is do the same type of questions over and over again and just practise. In Maths you learn how to do it now and understand it later.

The thing is, I understood and could apply all the stuff last year, and we are doing the same basic crap, but now. I can't do it for the life of me, and no I don't just look at the questions, I've spent a total of 4 hours trying to re-learn this shit in any way I can think of and nothing. Just fucking nothing

 

[MetaKnight19]

I was and still am pretty bad at maths. I had a tutor after school for nearly 2 years which kind of helped, I just about passed my GCSE with a C grade, which I was more than happy with. I was generally better with English and History.

 

[Mazza35]

Don't know if this is important, but I work on a heritage railway, and I never forget any shit learned on there. Such as, components of a steam locomotive (There are A LOT), how a steam engine works, how different accessories work on said engine, how to operate said engine, and how to fix said engine. Also in terms of out General Rules and Regulations, also I know a lot of stuff about WWI...to the point that I am a re-enactor...

Maybe I really just have some sort of mental disability...I always was the special kid..

 

[beniki]

Odd question, but been pissing me off from my recent Maths and Methods homework, I'm in Yr 11 (VCE) and I can't even get fucking quadratics anymore, yet give me physics shit, and I'm fine and find it real easy, and I'm even better at history.
So, how the fuck does this work? Brilliantish mind for sciences and humanities, but maths = poobrain of facedesking proportions.
Explains or help needed.

Well, you might need to adjust your perception of maths. At the moment it probably seems like a big mess of numbers to your head... de contextualised symbols which you can't match up to real life.

Usually maths teachers forget to tell you what you're actually learning. Kind of like telling someone learning English what an adjective is without really explaining what you use it for.

My advice? Remember that maths is actually a language... a special language you use to describe things that words can't. Ask your teacher what you use each type of equation for, and look up their uses online. There are some Youtube videos which show them, like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB_fZo9jBZ0

Learn your adjectives now, so you can read the poetry later

 

[Hagi]

I think most of the problems a lot of people face with maths is that if you really get deep down to it logic isn't sensible and (common) sense isn't logical.

In maths, and related subjects, you need to disable that part of your brain that makes 'sense'. Because it's wrong, it can't be trusted. You need to look at the numbers and patterns and just mechanically work through them with whatever methods you're currently learning and have available.

Often some creativity is needed but even there you want to hold on to the simple mechanical basis. Just write everything out. Try a few different methods and eventually you'll stumble across the answer.

Mathematics doesn't make sense. It's logical. There's a difference.

 

[Mazza35]

Okay guys, we can chill. I started doing some problems, and it magically came back to me! Hooray? Thanks for your helps

 

[EternalFacepalm]

I think it changes entirely dependent on the teacher - the teacher needs to explain why you do certain things.

I was stuck with a teacher that just said "now do this and this and you have the answer" for about a year. I still remember nothing she attempted to teach. However, the teachers that say why you have to do this and that to find the answer to an equation, taught me a lot.
If it's not that, then I don't know. Just practice it I guess.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Are you the kind of person that gives up when you see an equation and do not instantly know what to do(a few people I know) or are you one of the people that needs to understand everything before they apply it? Both of those tend to be factors in people not liking Maths. The class, teacher and the individual will also affect your ability.

Also you never ever study maths by looking at questions. I don't know if you do this but if you you may as well go play Skyrim or whatever tickles your fancy. If you are going to waste your time at least waste it well. So if you do want to do well in maths all you have to do is do the same type of questions over and over again and just practise. In Maths you learn how to do it now and understand it later.

The thing is, I understood and could apply all the stuff last year, and we are doing the same basic crap, but now. I can't do it for the life of me, and no I don't just look at the questions, I've spent a total of 4 hours trying to re-learn this shit in any way I can think of and nothing. Just fucking nothing

Well then just work through examples and do it slowly. If that is the case whatever reason you just have a mental block of sorts and if you try your best and do put in genuine work it will probably pay off come exam time.

 

[Vegosiux]

Physics = Memorizing the laws on how things work.

That couldn't be further from truth, really. Just knowing the equations and formulas won't do you any good if you can't read into the problem and understand what it is that is requested of you. Sure, elementary physics problems are "find and use the right equation for this one", but then again, elementary everything goes along those lines.

 

[Yopaz]

Math takes work.Lots of work. Don't believe anyone who tells you that you're not right for it. I failed math by far when I was taking it my first time around in high school. Then I started working extra hard and I managed to land on a very solid A. I even got the right answer to a few questions on our test that were removed because they were considered too hard. Basically I went from having no right answers to having all right answers. You just need to focus and ask your teacher to point you into the right direction where you're struggling.

Wow. You managed to post the exact words I was going to post!
To reiterate: It's easy to think that there is some trick to math´and if you don't know it, you're screwed.
Fact is, the trick to Math is the same as the trick to all other subjects: Put in enough work.
Look at your homework and do more of those tasks until your fingers bleed.

Additionally, don't know if it's the case with you, a lot of people tend to overthink math, even when the solution to the given problem was just to write everything down and then rearrange an equation two times
(is rearrange the right word here?).

Overthinking was probably one of my problems. Trying to understand the mechanics rather than learning the mechanics is a different one. I also had some problems with my eyesight and didn't wear glasses so I had problems keeping up with things. Not putting into any work, giving up when I didn't get it right, not asking for help and most importantly being convinced that math is hard. Once I got that inhibition out of my mind I started to enjoy math, then I started to love it. I would look forward to every session of math and I could go days with a difficult problem and feel ecstatic when I solved it.