Why Do People Struggle With Math?

[mamagui]

Remedial math often leads to deferred dreams because most students who are required to enroll in these courses never find their way into a college-level math class.

I really enjoyed your article, as I am one that has struggled with math. However, I really wanted to bash this statement since you did not post any sort of references to support this claim. So as a good scholar, I began researching, and I did find that many students in community colleges that were forced into remedial math, in fact, did not go on to graduate from college. Then I began to think of my own experiences with college math.

Due to a low ACT score, I was forced to take a pre-algebra course that did not count toward graduation (ie, remedial math). I guess this was supposed to bridge the gap between high school and college, but honestly, the classes that I took afterward (contemporary math and statistics) were not even closely related. I found the remedial course disheartening and rather boring, but I did pass it. The subsequent courses that I took I found challenging, but I got A's in both of them because I had a dynamic teacher that was passionate and really, really effective.

For those of us that are not good at math, it takes an exceptional teacher to help us decode problems. Perhaps the problem is not because we are not 'college prepared' (I went on to graduate with honors in both undergrad and graduate schools), but rather the delivery system of the materials.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

I really wanted to bash this statement since you did not post any sort of references to support this claim. So as a good scholar, I began researching, and I did find that many students in community colleges that were forced into remedial math, in fact, did not go on to graduate from college.

Casserly talks about 3-year degrees. Carnegie's work in remedial math cited as one approach. | Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

Only 31 percent of students placed into remedial math ever move beyond it, according to the Community College Research Center at Columbia University's Teachers College, meaning the students never even get to college-level work, much less graduate. The prospects are especially bleak for students who test into the lowest level of a remedial-math course sequence, where they're asked to add, subtract, multiply, and divide whole numbers, fractions, mixed numbers, and decimals. Remedial math is the biggest obstacle to graduation at a time when President Obama wants community colleges to produce five million more graduates by 2020.

[mamagui]

Casserly talks about 3-year degrees. Carnegie's work in remedial math cited as one approach. | Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

Exactly, when I searched, I found quite a few articles that definitely support your statement.

[NurseGirl525, ASN, RN]

Much of it is because many of the people have been out of school for so long. I know I am taking remedial algebra right now. Took algebra I last semester and am taking algebra II this semester. I am so glad that I have done this. I take college algebra over the summer and would have never passed it without these two refresher classes. I don't necessarily struggle with math, I just didn't remember what I did 20 years ago. Probably about a third of my class has dropped my math class this semester and the same amount dropped last semester. I think those are the people that didn't realize what getting their college education was about. They just woke up one day and said, I think I will go to college, and didn't think of the amount of work that goes into it. Math is a lot of work. We have tests, take home quizzes, math lab, class time, it really seems neverending. It really depends on how much you want it. How much you really want a career as opposed to making min. wage at a fast food job or working in retail for the rest of your life.

[vanessaem, BSN, RN]

I don't care what anyone says, math is the devil.

Just jokes. I've always been horrible in math but with practice, it's gotten better. :)

Thanks for the article.

[trishmsn]

I think you hit the nail on the head by noting that math is completely and totally objective (Unless you are Sheldon Cooper and working in theoretical physics...).

You can BS through many, many subjects, but math has one correct answer, and there is no extra credit for pretty penmanship or sucking up to the instructor. Over years of teaching medication math to LPN students, I also noticed that neatness and precision is rare in younger students....lack of clarity of a decimal place, not using units of measurement, and a failure to work the solution backwards to see if it MAKES SENSE can kill a potential career in nursing (and many, many other well compensated jobs).

For example, if you want to give 200 mgs of a med, and concentration is 50 mg in 5 ml, does 2000 ml REALLY sound like a med dose to you???

[amygarside]

I agree that math is a sequential subject. You can't learn 5 if you didn't learn 2 or 1. But math can be really very easy if you practice solving it. It is just like a routine.

[ShelbyaStar]

Great article. The US is woefully behind in math in particular. I think unfortunately it's generations of math-phobics teaching others to be math-phobic and it starts with math-phobic elementary school teachers and parents.

I've seen some teaching methods employed at other countries that make so much more sense than how we do things here! They have a lot more little tricks at their disposal to make things easier to grasp.

That said, I am definitely right-brained and math-phobic. But I think I would be better if my school had put more emphasis on math and if my parents didn't emphasize the fact that my whole family is bad at it quite so much.

I was almost place in remedial math and I decided to go ahead and take 111, college algebra. I ended up getting a C in that, but moved onto college trig which I got an A in, so I really should have taken that first all along. Many people are better at one or the other, regardless of its sequential nature. Visual people like myself tend to do better at trig.

[mmc51264, BSN, MSN, RN]

As a former teacher, math and science, it is imperative that people master the basics before going on. math facts in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th grades are a must. I HATE rote memorization, but in math you have to know your basic addition/subtraction/mult/div facts in order to add in the algorithms for advanced operations. My children are in elementary and middle school now and Common Core (not to start a political debate AT ALL) is wrecking it. It is so convoluted, kids cannot grasp it. I have one child who is like me: very linear and concrete. Math comes extremely easy to both of us (him more than me). The other one doesn't like it, but he does have good basics, so he can be successful. I hate that people hate math. I love it. It needs to be taught correctly, early. Not too many teachers are good at teaching math, therefore, students don't understand it-become afraid of it and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

Much of it is because many of the people have been out of school for so long.

I'm the author checking back in. I placed into remedial arithmetic right out of high school. My placement scores were so pitifully low that I did not even place into remedial algebra. Over the years of being in remedial classes, half of my classmates have been 'younger' people fresh out of high school and half have been 'older' students who have been out of school a long time.

To make things worse, I took 4 years of college-prep math during my high school years (algebra, geometry, trigonometry, precalculus), yet I graduated from high school not knowing how to balance a simple equation due to social promotion and simply being passed year after year.

For example, if you want to give 200 mgs of a med, and concentration is 50 mg in 5 ml, does 2000 ml REALLY sound like a med dose to you???

This arises from an inability to perform simple estimation, which is something kids should have learned to do in 4th grade or so. In addition, estimation is a skill that should stick with people throughout adult life because it is something we need to do daily. It is a common sense skill.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

I am definitely right-brained and math-phobic. But I think I would be better if my school had put more emphasis on math and if my parents didn't emphasize the fact that my whole family is bad at it quite so much.

Same here. I'm right-dominant and prefer to get the big picture before moving to specifics. Although I am still stuck in remedial math hell after 14 years of trying to escape it, I am determined to pass a college level math course this year. My inability to pass a college level math class is the reason why I do not have a BSN degree.

I was almost place in remedial math and I decided to go ahead and take 111, college algebra. I ended up getting a C in that, but moved onto college trig which I got an A in, so I really should have taken that first all along. Many people are better at one or the other, regardless of its sequential nature. Visual people like myself tend to do better at trig.

Yep. My best friend repeatedly failed College Algebra, but was able to earn 'B' grades in Finite Mathematics and Statistics. Some people truly understand one type of math better than others, it seems.

As a former teacher, math and science, it is imperative that people master the basics before going on. math facts in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th grades are a must. I HATE rote memorization, but in math you have to know your basic addition/subtraction/mult/div facts in order to add in the algorithms for advanced operations.

This is so true! I still struggle with some of the essentials (fractions, decimals, percentages, integers, absolute value, order of operations, etc.), so the higher level material will remain mystifying until I master these basics.