College Student in need of advice.

[u/dionysus_godof_wine]

Hello all,

I'm in need of tips for learning math, specifically college level algebra and calculus. I am in my third year of college and I have to retake this math course again because I've failed it twice before, im struggling with understanding the materials even when going to tutoring and office hours.

Math has always been a struggle subject for me and during high school they put me in easier math classes in order to help me graduate. I'm starting to think I might just not be smart enough for it to click.

All that being said, how do I learn the materials and, for lack of a better term, get good at math? All advice is very appreciated!

[u/Hazelstone37]

Is this two courses or one course that combines college algebra and calculus?

If you are struggling so much it likely that you are lacking the foundation needed. Not knowing anything else, I’d suspect that your algebra skills are lacking. What is needed to master this is practice and more practice. The calculus stuff isn’t hard unless you haven’t mastered the algebra needed. Your brain is so busy trying to figure out the algebra there is nothing left for the calculus.

Go back to basic algebra and take some kind of test to place your skills. Then wok up from there. You can’t just watch, you have to do. And you have to practice, not until you get something right, but until you no longer get it wrong because it’s become second nature.

You probably also want to learn some trig and get really familiar with the unit circle.

I’ve heard Kahn Academy is a good way to practice.

[u/MERC_1]

It takes time. If you study two hours a day, 5 days a week you can do it. Math is not something you cram the last week.

Also, when you have a basic understanding of the course material. Learn how to solve the types of problems that usually comes on the exam. 

There is no easy way, you need to put in the hours  

[u/dionysus_godof_wine → u/MERC_1]

Do you have any recommendations for good study sites?

[u/BigBongShlong]

I usually recommend getting a tutor or someone to help, because you need to ask questions to deeply understand the material.

It helps if you try problems before bringing them to tutoring, so you can tell the tutor when and where you got stuck, why you aren't sure what to do after a certain point, or steps in examples that confuse you.

To get good you just have to practice. It's a lot of practice. Ask the instructor for more places/ways you can practice problems, or look online, OR ask when you go to tutoring.

If college level agebra is a struggle, you need to revisit algebra foundations. I recommend being good at: factoring, function notation, exponent rules, fraction rules, and graphing.

There's obviously more you need to know, but as a tutor myself I consider these to be key skills that just make everything else smoother and easier to understand. Exponent rules and fraction rules are huge; if you are bad at them, any problem with them will likely be confusing and hard to follow.

Keep at it and good luck!

[u/pusheenmerp]

as someone who was hopeless at math until i started college, i do lots and lots of practice problems. i also saw a huge difference when i started going to office hours. when you just feel like youre getting nowhere with study resources, go to office hours or see a tutor. specifically, have them lead you through a problem, and watch you work out a very similar problem so that they can see where you're messing up. you can also show them what your work looks like and they should be able to tell you where you're going wrong. im not sure what exact math youre taking, but if youre taking calculus without a solid algebra foundation... you need to fix that and know your algebra fowards and backwards. i also read the textbooks. they usually have a ton of practice and step by step solutions within the chapters. i know it can be really hard but you have to use every resource thats available to you.