What exactly makes Math hard to some people?

[Tanager]

While natural aptitude plays a part I think education or experience (particularly early education) and self perception plays a bigger role. A case in point:

In highschool I dated a girl who absolutely sucked at math, I mean she did really poorly. By our graduating year (grade 11 in these parts) she was doing grade 9 math for the third time. She wasn't stupid, she just could not, for the life of her do it. Or so it seemed.

One day we were talking about it and she was telling me that she had always been bad at math, she even got out her old report cards from primary school to prove it. Sure enough, every single one of them said, in one way or another "has trouble with math".

The problem was that she had become conviced that this was true and that she couldn't do it. And no one had taken the time to explain to her that she could.

So, we're in grade 11, we both switched to a new school and a friend and I begin to tutor her. By early december her math grades rise from teens and twenties to seventies and eighties. She starts to 'get it' she even starts to enjoy it.

Sadly, christmas break rolls around and while we're out of school she slips back into old habits and goes back to her 'I can't do math' mindset, despite all evidence to the contrary. She refuses to even let my friend and I try to tutor her anymore and basically washes her hands of it completely.

 

[Thanee]

There's a difference in learning math and understanding math, tho. It's certainly possible to learn math to a degree, that you are good in school, but I doubt it's possible to learn it to high enough levels to study math at university, unless you have at least a certain talent.

Usually (from my experience) when people, who are not good at it, learn math, they learn specific examples, and they can solve those and others, which are very similar, but as soon as the problem to solve looks completely different (but in fact uses the same underlying mechanics to solve), they fail.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Christopher Lambert]

Hi

I'm a psychology graduate and I have to disagree that there is only one factor behind why people are good or bad at maths. I think it's a mixture of at least two major influences on the brain:
1. Nature/Genetics - people are born with a natural proclivity to make the most of certain areas of their brain, which relate to different skills.
2. Nurture/Experience - when we're naturally good at something, we tend to spend more time doing it and vice versa. If we're criticised in school or at home for being bad at a particular skill, that influences both our willingness to spend more time doing it, and the openness of our mind to taking on board new ways of thinking and doing.

I had a similar experience. In grade 5 I was in an alternative learning program, so of course I focused on science and left math behind. In grade 12 I found if I "doubled" the amount of effort in subjects, I could increase my biology mark by 7%, math by 2% and English by 0%. Needless to say, at cruch time, which subject is the best study?

I have no idea how someone who likes RPGs can hate math. To me math is the backbone of what the game is. How can you remember all the illogical rules (attacks of opp., what the bonus is to save vs fear ect.) and not understand the beauty of mathmatics. That makes no sense to me.

It makes sense to me. Those are very simple mathematical operations. No one is making you figure out the longest ladder you can take around a corner of a certain dimension in the game.

 

[Achan hiArusa]

Factoring

die_kluge: Is showing a fourier series really worth two kicks in the junk and loss of your wallet? Actually I think I started having problems when I started doing proofs. I can do mechanical math all day long (would you believe for about an hour before I want to play Starcraft). My real problem with mathematics was that when the homework wasn't required I didn't do it.

The easy way to factor (scroll down if the abstractness makes your head want to explode):

If you have an equation of the for ax^2 + bx + c = 0 first you divide by a to get

x^2 + (b/a)x + c/a = 0, we will rename b/a =d and c/a = e for simplicity to get

x^2 + dx + e = 0. Then you find two numbers f and g such that f + g = d and

f * g = e. Then your solution will be (x + f)(x + g) = 0.

In short, if you don't have a number in front of your x^2 term then just find two numbers that add to the number in front of your x term and multiply to get you last term. If you do have a number in front of your x^2 term divide every term by that number and then find the two numbers.

So for x^2 + 4x + 4 = 0 we find two numbers that add to equal 4 and two numbers that multiply to equal 4, which in this case is 2 (yes I picked a trivial example) so our solution is (x + 2)(x + 2) = 0.

 

[Angcuru]

The easy way to factor (scroll down if the abstractness makes your head want to explode):

If you have an equation of the for ax^2 + bx + c = 0 first you divide by a to get

x^2 + (b/a)x + c/a = 0, we will rename b/a =d and c/a = e for simplicity to get

x^2 + dx + e = 0. Then you find two numbers f and g such that f + g = d and

f * g = e. Then your solution will be (x + f)(x + g) = 0.

In short, if you don't have a number in front of your x^2 term then just find two numbers that add to the number in front of your x term and multiply to get you last term. If you do have a number in front of your x^2 term divide every term by that number and then find the two numbers.

So for x^2 + 4x + 4 = 0 we find two numbers that add to equal 4 and two numbers that multiply to equal 4, which in this case is 2 (yes I picked a trivial example) so our solution is (x + 2)(x + 2) = 0.

Ow.

 

[Scribble]

Usually (from my experience) when people, who are not good at it, learn math, they learn specific examples, and they can solve those and others, which are very similar, but as soon as the problem to solve looks completely different (but in fact uses the same underlying mechanics to solve), they fail.

That's exactly how I was/am with math. I would read the explanantion, and understand it, look at the example and understand it, then they'd hit me with an actual problem and I'd stare at it forever wondering what psycho thought this problem actually had anything to do with the example above...

Just never seemed to "click" as they say.

 

[Christopher Lambert]

die_kluge: Is showing a fourier series really worth two kicks in the junk and loss of your wallet? Actually I think I started having problems when I started doing proofs. I can do mechanical math all day long (would you believe for about an hour before I want to play Starcraft). My real problem with mathematics was that when the homework wasn't required I didn't do it.

The easy way to factor (scroll down if the abstractness makes your head want to explode):

If you have an equation of the for ax^2 + bx + c = 0 first you divide by a to get

x^2 + (b/a)x + c/a = 0, we will rename b/a =d and c/a = e for simplicity to get

x^2 + dx + e = 0. Then you find two numbers f and g such that f + g = d and

f * g = e. Then your solution will be (x + f)(x + g) = 0.

In short, if you don't have a number in front of your x^2 term then just find two numbers that add to the number in front of your x term and multiply to get you last term. If you do have a number in front of your x^2 term divide every term by that number and then find the two numbers.

So for x^2 + 4x + 4 = 0 we find two numbers that add to equal 4 and two numbers that multiply to equal 4, which in this case is 2 (yes I picked a trivial example) so our solution is (x + 2)(x + 2) = 0.

Well, they told me this was the easy way, but they never showed me this formula. It's only a little longer than the quadratic formula.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Well, they told me this was the easy way, but they never showed me this formula. It's only a little longer than the quadratic formula.

...the easy way is getting a nice graphic calculater and just plugging in the formula and hitting the 'Factor' button

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

Amen, brother.

 

[Hanuman]

God I sucked at Maths! I felt like I had entered the fifth layer of hell every time I had a class. That is until I found I could put a dollar sign in front of any math. Lo and behold the clouds parted and I went from mathematical autism to doing moderately well.
The strange thing is that my son (now six) is truly gifted at maths. He is performing at a 10 year old level and getting better all the time...........sigh (proud but slightly jealous).

Funny ol world innit.