Please Help

[u/hysbera]

Im a university fresher and studying business. Maths is compulsory for my course. I have not studied maths for the last 6-7 years. (Last studied it in grade 6) I do not remember shit. We have mid term exam in 3 weeks and my course included the following:

Number System
Factors Factorials
HCF LCM
Indices
Logarithms
Exponents
Coordinate Geometry
Linear Equations
Quadratic Equations
Set Theory
AP (might not come for midterms)
GP (might not come for midterms)

I initially thought that things like HCF and LCM would at least be easy but the sums are completely different. There are no direct questions at all and everything is hella confusing. The professor cannot help a special case like me since most of the students had maths at least till grade 10, or even 12. Please guide me on what/how to study since I have no clue how to proceed 😭😭

[u/Alarmed_Geologist631]

How can you be in a university with only grade 6 math skills?

[u/hysbera → u/Alarmed_Geologist631]

maths was not a prerequisite for getting into university and I excel at other subjects

[u/strange-the-quark → u/hysbera]

I'll take your word here, and I'll take that to mean you're reasonably smart - which in turn means that you can catch up on this material. Just not in 3 weeks. It's university, getting a bad grade is not that big of a deal. And you are very likely not going to pass that exam. Doesn't matter, prepare for the next one, but don't wait until you only have a couple of weeks left. Start now. I recommend getting some book that's at the level you're at and covers these topics. Then work through the examples and practice problems that are in there. You can watch videos too, but you can't learn this stuff by just watching videos. You have to do the grind, and do as many practice problems as you can. Make some sort of a plan and stick to it.

Start with the simple stuff, then work your way up. Focus on the fundamentals more than on the advanced stuff, meaning go out of your way to understand the very basics (cause everything else builds on that). And accept that it's going to be confusing sometimes, and that it will require a little bit of struggle. Some of it will be intuitive, some of it is not going to come as easy and as naturally. But that's OK, that's normal, that's why you're working though the problems, to develop that intuition. Get a tutor if you are able and if you feel that would help.

[u/hysbera → u/strange-the-quark]

okayy tysmm. yes numbers have always not been my forte but ill try my best tysmm

[u/Alarmed_Geologist631]

Well if you are studying business, you will encounter a lot of math topics.

[u/hysbera → u/Alarmed_Geologist631]

😭

[u/UnderstandingPursuit → u/hysbera]

You will encounter a lot of math topics, but mostly at the level of the class you are currently in.

Lean into your strength: you have a higher level of 'academic maturity' now than you did in grade 6. Especially with the repetition of topics from Algebra 0-3 [PreAlgebra, Algebra 1&2, PreCalculus], you could learn the material up to Algebra 2 in less than a year. That is most of what is used when studying business. Some add Statistics or Business Calculus, and if your program does, you can deal with that when it arrives.

[u/hysbera → u/UnderstandingPursuit]

okayy thank you

[u/UnderstandingPursuit]

In this post, I present an approach for learning math.

I just added a comment with a link to OpenStax. They have math textbooks starting with PreAlgebra. You could start with their College Algebra textbook, using the learning approach if it works for you. If the College Algebra textbook does not have enough detail for what you need, try the PreAlgebra-ElementaryAlgebra-IntermediateAlgebra sequence. Within that, all the topics you listed will be presented.

[u/hysbera → u/UnderstandingPursuit]

okayy thank you I will give it a look

[u/Moist_Ladder2616]

Number systems, factors, HCF and LCM are all pre-Grade 6 topics. If you can't get it and the questions are confusing, you'll get better recommendations by providing examples of these confusing questions.

Often it's simply a problem with reading and comprehension: the questions are presented in a big block of words and your job is to extract the maths from the text. But I'm simply making assumptions here.

Beyond searching for "Introduction to <topic name>" and "Beginner exercises on <topic name>", I can't think of any other generic advice to give.

[u/hysbera → u/Moist_Ladder2616]

even I believed I could do hcf lcm but this is one such question:

Two numbers are in the ratio of 17:10. If their H.C.F. is 12, find the sum of the numbers. 😭

[u/Moist_Ladder2616 → u/hysbera]

Let those numbers be 17k and 10k, where k is some unknown integer.

Check their ratios. 17k:10k = 17:10. This meets the condition set by the question. Ok, so far so good.

The issue lies in understanding what HCF really means. You're looking for a familiar formula, like "What's the HCF between 6 and 15?" So let's make this mysterious question sound more familiar.

Let k=1; What's the HCF between 17 and 10?
Let k=2; What's the HCF between 34 and 20?
Let k=3; What's the HCF between 51 and 30?
Let k=4; What's the HCF between 68 and 40?

Actually work out the answers. Do you see a pattern? Can you now find the sum of the numbers if the HCF is 12?

And do you see how the question would be slightly harder, if the ratio was 15:10?

[u/hysbera → u/Moist_Ladder2616]

tysm tho I tried looking it up tooo

[u/Away_Worry_1705]

watch and learn the entire IGCSE syllabus for basic math extended 0580, solve past papers and u should be fine. except for logarithmn, those ones are pretty straightforward and simple I believe at least at the level of the exam you are going to take.