#math frustrations

[third-degree-math]

How to effectively learn Real Analysis

Step 1: Read the text.

Step 2: Pick a theorem.

Step 3: Read it's proof.

Step 4: Understand the proof.

Step 5: Write out the proof.

Step 6:

Step 7: Do some practice problems!

[stark-raving-hazelnut]

Holy fuck. I’m panicking. I have a math final exams coming up and I fucking hate math. I don’t do well in math and my last test I got a 49(NOT GOOD!). I just need to pass with a C. That is all I need. But I’m scared that I won’t. I am panicking. Holy fuck. Please let me pass.

[stark-raving-hazelnut]

How in the hell learning to factor polynomials and trinomials by grouping in algebra is going to prepare me for a university degree as an English major? HOW??

[untappedinkwell]

2+2=Fish

She threw down her pencil and it clattered across her desk. She put her hands in her hair and pulled tightly. Absolutely nothing on this page made any kind of sense and she didn't understand how she was supposed to do her homework if she didn't even understand what the problems were asking. What the hell did proving a limit mean? How the hell were you supposed to prove it without numbers? Why did she feel like she was reading Chinese? Was she just that dumb that she couldn't do this? Everything had been so clear in class today but now none of it made sense. 

Still pulling on her hair, she stared down at the problem and reread it, looking for the one hint that would somehow tell her exactly what she would need to know. It was there, she knew it was, because it was how her teacher managed to get the answer. Why couldn't she find it? She bit her lip and read again, trying to hold back the frustration from not understanding the problems before her. 

This felt like just another thing she couldn't do. Her personal life wasn't exactly glamorous or even nice really, she had a crappy relationship with most of her family, and, this just in, she couldn't do math. 

She picked up her pencil and threw it down again. The chaotic clatter and the sound of the lead rolling around inside the barrel made her feel better, for some reason. If only that were how to find the right answer. 

Math had been easy, once. Numbers and letters written neatly across the pages in perfect algebraic formation--only the occasional sign change flaw in her work. Math was supposed to be orderly and straight forward--something controlled and simple--a refreshing change from the chaos of her life. 

And now it wasn't anymore. 

For all she knew, 2+2=Fish.