New Member

[Jwhallon]

Hello,

My name is Jess. I've been out of school for more than 10 years and to be honest never learned any of the math beyond Pre Algebra. While my high school transcripts do indicate I went as high as Trigonometry with all As, I went to a private boarding school and to make sure my parents kept paying the school artificially inflated my grades. Because I have so many holes in my mathematics education I have enrolled in local community college and started all the way back to basic arithmetic where, yes, I learned some new things.

I feel I am smart enough to get through all the Math I need (I wish to do Engineering in a few years) my main problem is anxiety. I have so many bad memories with math that when I start to do problems I often start spacing out, hearing the voices from long ago tell me I was too stupid to learn math, getting beaten with text books (yes that really happened when I didn't understand things the first time) and it becomes so bad I totally forget about what I was even doing! Maybe I need psychotherapy.

I was wondering if anyone had some words on encouragement, maybe you have felt like that at one time?

 

[Ishuda]

Hello,

My name is Jess. I've been out of school for more than 10 years and to be honest never learned any of the math beyond Pre Algebra. While my high school transcripts do indicate I went as high as Trigonometry with all As, I went to a private boarding school and to make sure my parents kept paying the school artificially inflated my grades. Because I have so many holes in my mathematics education I have enrolled in local community college and started all the way back to basic arithmetic where, yes, I learned some new things.

I feel I am smart enough to get through all the Math I need (I wish to do Engineering in a few years) my main problem is anxiety. I have so many bad memories with math that when I start to do problems I often start spacing out, hearing the voices from long ago tell me I was too stupid to learn math, getting beaten with text books (yes that really happened when I didn't understand things the first time) and it becomes so bad I totally forget about what I was even doing! Maybe I need psychotherapy.

I was wondering if anyone had some words on encouragement, maybe you have felt like that at one time?

I've know people with math anxiety but fortunately I'm not one of them. However, I did always feel more comfortable with what the class was studying if I did more practice that what was required [don't tell anyone but I actually found it fun]. From that, one of the things I have always suggested to people who do have math anxiety is to practice and create better memories. It seems to have helped some and may help you.

If you do have problems with some of the exercises, the people here are generally very happy to help. In that regard, we do ask that you try and show what you have attempted or, possibly, if you need a hint to get started, say so and we'll try to help. Also, you might also read
http://www.freemathhelp.com/forum/threads/78006-Read-Before-Posting
before posting your first problem.

Good luck