I believe there are three kinds of people in the world: those who hate math and avoid it at all costs, those who dread math but do it anyhow, and those who love math. Math has a pretty bad reputation for being difficult and many students who are confused or frustrated grow up to hate math. However, I’ve learned over the years to just sort of relax and do my best with math problems. Of course, having online tools helps a lot, too. One reason students dislike math is that they find it dull or boring, and they don’t get excited about formulas and numbers like they do about history, languages, or science.
Another thing is that to do math well, you have to memorize a lot of stuff, and that’s not easy for everyone. It doesn’t come effortlessly as learning about the other subjects usually does. To memorize all of the equations and rules is a lot of work and time. Doing math also requires making plenty of mistakes. Students have to repeat the same types of problems over and over again until they get it right. Not only is this frustrating, but the pleasure centers in our brains don’t like this. Once someone has a bad experience with math, it’s hard to overcome that. It’s actually traumatic. Take the problem below, for example. Can you solve it?
Wait, what? That doesn’t make any sense, right? How did you do? If you need help, head on over to the next page for some hints and the solution.