Mathochism: Isn’t it ironic?

One woman’s attempt to revisit the math that plagued her in school. But can determination make up for 25 years of math neglect?

The unthinkable has happened.

No, I haven’t gotten another newspaper job, though I hate the idea that such a thing might be unthinkable. This is actually even weirder.

I have, in four short months, gone from math phobe to math tutor. Not the paid kind, sadly, but in the past week I, professional befuddled girl, actually explained a few math concepts to my fellow math students.

Mathochism: Another brick in the wall

One woman’s attempt to revisit the math that plagued her in school. But can determination make up for 25 years of math neglect?

It was deja vu all over again.

The Algebra professor was very grim as he prepared to hand back the newest test Monday night.

“Many students did not do well on this test,” he said dourly. “And many of you did not turn in your homework. This is unacceptable.”

He went on to tell us that the Chapter 3 test was probably the most difficult of the entire course, because of the word problems. We are allowed to drop one exam grade this term, and he predicted this would be the one for most of the class.

Mathochism: Plotting, plotting

One woman’s attempt to revisit the math that plagued her in school. But can determination make up for 25 years of math neglect?

I’m not feeling the graph love. Not at all.

Unfortunately, Chapter 4 is all about graphs. And plotting. And xs and ys. And slopes. And point slope form. And solid and dotted lines. And inequalities, some which require solid lines and others which require dotted ones.

Ick. I don’t know exactly why I have such an aversion to it all. Graphs are probably the least abstract parts of Algebra, since you can see exactly what’s going on. Maybe it’s the added chore of drawing a grid each time, numbering it, etc. I may just be lazy. I like to just solve the equation — in and out. Wham and whir — thank you sir.