Math...

[Manok101]

I've all ways been pretty bad at math, and would like to be better at it, maybe with the hope one day that I could do some serious research, but for now, I was just wondering, what are your suggestions for improving my math skills?

[Dave S]

Don't know what level you're at but this skills book has a bit of everything

maths-skills.pdf

It's a free OU download if you know where to look.

Dave...

[Manok101]

Well I've got a decent math education. My problem is realizing how useful it is, because quite frankly I'd probably have done much better in school had I at the time I might be in a far different position than I am today. I did graduate highschool, doesn't mean my math skills are as good as the rest of my education. I have a much harder time in subjects that aren't noticeably useful to me, and if I can get away without using them, I generally try my best not to.

[Jimmy Stix]

I partly blame one of my infant school teachers for the reason it took me so many years to get to grips with maths. She was quite nasty to me when sometimes I couldn't grasp things after 2 or 3 attempts and consequently I was scared and nervous about the whole subject for a long long time.

It was only as an adult that my fear really subsided and I learnt that it can be quite interesting (sometimes ). I still have to write things down sometimes though and can't always do it in my head .

[dlp]

The BBC website has this which is a good start!

David

[Moonshane]

I am no maths genius but my best advice to improve accuracy is always have a common sense cross check.

[Hypernova]

I am at serious disadvantage here, I didn't make some good decisions back in high school and ended up leaving and not getting any GCSEs at all.

But no matter I have retained a lot of what I learned up to year 9 and have built on that when I went to college and did keyskills alongside my main studying, which all of us who went to college had to do, the government changed it a few months ago and now they are called functional skills. They are basically the same but have slight differences that make them better, that's what I have been told any way.

Despite not finishing my compulsory education I now have set a goal of getting myself into university. I plan to do this by taking an Access to Higher Education course with a science module at S.O.T college, this will include an optional module to increase my maths skills to level 3 . I have been told by the people at Keele that this qualification will give me entry to a foundation in science course at the uni, this lasts for one year and after that I can get put on to a full blown degree course.

I am not that bad at science or maths, well not as much as you'd expect from a dropout, and they are both subjects that I thoroughly enjoy learning about.

For the thread starter, I would advise you to go down to your local library and borrow a book that is about teaching people basic maths skills, the ones for GCSE pupils might come in useful and there always seems to be a few lying about on the shelves.

[Dave S]

Go for it!

Dave...

[Nillchill]

with maths, its practice, practice, practice, if you practice the fundamentals over and over it will train you to apply the logic to the rest of the subject.

And, please never be afraid of Mathematics, it is just bean counting at the end of the day, with different ways to get the results.

I was rubbish at English in school. Now I spend most of my time writing reports, and documents, you only get better by doing the subject.

Best of luck and enjoy it

[Ian123]

I was the same jimmy and never bothered to view math again as i never really needed it. Would like to say thank's to Dave for that link. It has really opened my eye's how easy it is to get your head around and get this......i enjoyed learning it

[hunterknox]

I'll echo what Nillchill said: practise!

Unfortunately a lot of maths requires cumulative knowledge, so your first job is to attack the bits that trouble you and go over them until they've sunk in.

If you want to get excited about maths read this book. If you've been through the OU stuff or you'd rather work from a text book try Engineering Mathematics by Stroud, which starts off at counting and ends up at degree level stuff.

Good luck!

[Sunset_Twilight]

Perhaps go to college?