Math help for older adult student
 

Need some help. I have returned to college to finish my degree at the age of 42. I have done well so far and I around 5 classes before finshing. I have to take college algebra and I am stuck at this point. I had problems with it i'n high school and I have tried some basic classes at the local community college. I have to have this to finish and can not go any further. Tried a tutor and still did not do well. The class goes so fast it seems and I can't keep up. Any suggestions????

Welcome Jerry!

What are you struggling with? Is it the amount of material covered in class? In math classes, all the homework assigned is CRUCIAL to being able to get the concepts to start to sink in. I usually devoted twice as much time to my math classes as I did for any other subject.

Can you form a study group with other people in your class? Learning and covering the material together may be more helpful than a tutor because they are in the class with you.

Since you feel that it simply moves to quickly, you may want to explore self-paced courses. I took an excellent Independent Study self-paced statistics course. I was given one year to complete the course. With that time, I was able to pause, rewind, and review the lectures as frequently as necessary, and take as much time as I needed on each assignment. There were a few exams that I had to arrange to take at a university testing center, and some online quizzes. There was a tutor to e-mail assistance available as well, which came in handy a couple of times. I've never been very good at math, but I really enjoyed that statistics course, and I was able to pull off a much higher grade than I would have if I had taken it in a traditional format.

truth be told, i was a dunce at maths in school. i hated it with a passion and it showed in my marks. i was in one of the lowest maths classes because i had no idea how algebra worked.

then one day i decided to open up the textbook and try and understand the concepts behind each and every step. i did every example in the textbook numerous times and made sure i got every answer right. fast forward 15 years and im comfortable with mathematics work with mathematics in my day to day job.

i think genuinegirly gave some good advice. you need to take your own time to understabd the concepts in your own time. once you get these concepts, you'll find that the speed will come later

I would try other tutors. With math, much of the comprehension comes down to how it's explained to you. People learn differently, and people teach differently. You may find one tutor who can explain math to you in the exact way your brain learns. It will truly be an "Aha!" moment when it happens.

Also, the suggestion for a study group is an excellent idea. Same concept - if you learn together with other students, chances are that one of them will be able to explain it to you in a way that makes sense.

ps - Good luck, and congratulations for being so near the last hurdle. I got my bachelors degree a few weeks after my 40th birthday - so I know what you're going through.

Jerry, at 42 why do you even worry about college algebra?And if you really need it to get your degree, my advice is to just find some kid to take the course for you. Most likely, your instructor does not know you from any other student. So relax, find some kid you can pay to take the course and don't stress over it.

Dear student for hire,

worst advice ever.

:no:

If you are paying for a class then you better learn stuff out off the class. Otherwise don't waist your money. Here is my suggestions for math.

Practice, practice, practice. Read your text book start to finish and do every single practice problem they give, find the answers on your own as much as possible and if you need to look up how to do them then write that problem down to do a day later after you have forgotten the exact solution. You should devote an hour or two a day to doing practice problems. This will help you develop an instinct for how to solve problems.

Now the second most important thing you need to do is learn how to reverse your work and check the answer. The beauty of math classes is you should always know if your answer is write or wrong. In undergrad there was never a single test that I left without knowing my exact score before it was graded. The reason was I worked all the problems forward and found the solution and then reversed the problem and worked backwards and came back to the right solution. Here is a very simple example if the problem is
4=X+1, then I can rearranging the equations to 4-1=X=3. This so now take X=3 and place it back in the original problem 4=3+1 that statement is still true.

By practicing you will develop the skills to find the solutions to your problems quickly and by reversing the equations at the end you will know if you have the right answer or not.

Good luck and if you get stumped on a particularly hard problem PM me and I can help you work through it.

Agreed. This may not be the worst advice I've seen on TFP, but it's in the running. If he gets caught cheating, he gets kicked out of school.

Is there a degree out there that doesn't require college algebra? I think that's a basic requirement for any college major, isn't it?

No, it isn't.

Liberal arts majors at my university get away with taking "Introduction to Contemporary Mathematics", which, in theory, attempts to teach them math they might actually use in the future. Unfortunately, it doesn't work out so well in practice.

Weird, even LibArts requires at least algebra at my Uni.

---------- Post added at 07:55 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:54 AM ----------

Sorry, I suppose I should contribute something. Jerry, are there any specific types of problems you have trouble with? Post a couple of examples and maybe the group will end up offering an explanation that makes sense to you.

Excellent idea - let's turn this into the "Help Jerry get his degree" thread!!

Jerry, let us know what's giving you trouble, and perhaps we can help you out.

It's that or transfer to Snowy's school! :)

Well, it looks like Jerry doesn't care very much - he hasn't posted anything since his OP in August of last year. Might as well close this thread . . . . . < insert Judge Smails quote here >

Ahoy Paloy?

I was thinking more along the lines of "Well, the world needs ditch diggers, too."