Need help, lacking confidence full of doubt!

zoe92 · Sep 26, 2012

I hate math, but was able to get through college algebra and statistics with an A. It can help to have awesome professors, which I did, and to use the tutoring services offered by your college. Also, I had to tell myself at the beginning of class that I could do this. Telling myself this changed my negative mindset. Take it one step at a time and never try to take more classes than you can handle.

dsb_fam · Sep 26, 2012

Zoe92 is right! You only need to be successful in math one day at a time. Quit looking way far out into the future of equations. All you need to do is take it one class period at a time. If you get stuck on a concept, find a tutor and master that concept before the next class period. It is very overwhelming if you look at the whole, so take small parts first. I once had a teacher ask, Question: How do you eat an elephant? Answer: One bite at a time. So Math should be 'one bite at a time'.

CapeCodDreamer · Sep 27, 2012

Are you at a major university or smaller community college? Even if you plan on doing your nursing program at uni-level, I highly recommend getting the math basics done at a community college for two reasons: A) the class sizes are usually smaller, and B) classes usually cost less, so if you need to take more pre-req math courses to get to where you have to be, it's less of a hit on the wallet. Plus, I don't know about the CC's in your area, but my community college only requires the College Placement Test, not the ACT, which I found to be much less stressful for some reason.

A bit of a background: though I did very well in all my subjects in high school, I always hated and stressed over math. Two years after graduating, I took the CPT and found out just how much math I'd lost from high school in those two years. However, college was...different. I don't know how to otherwise describe it. Not only did I finish up my College Algebra courses with A's (and lasting comprehension!!!!), but I also went on to College Stats and excelled in that as well (as in, not only was this my first-EVER college course I finished with a 99.8% average, but I-the self professed math hater-loved it). A lot also depends on your professor, as well, which is why I always recommend researching your options with those professor rating sites out there.

You can do it! Just remember: bite sized pieces, make sure to get the basics down pat, and go easy on yourself if you don't get it right away. It will all come together in time!