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/sci/ - Science & Math

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4545803 No.4545803 [Reply] [Original]

ITT, Name a math class you have struggled with, either now or in the past.

Bonus points if you're not using this thread as an excuse to brag about how awesome you are at math. Yes, we get it. No one else in the world gives a fuck and /sci/ is your only outlet, but save it for another thread.

I'll start:

Differential Equations. Don't know what it is about it, but something just doesn't click with me in that course.

>> No.4545807

jokes on her, I orgasm in like 10-15 seconds.

>> No.4545806

Calc II (integral calc.).

Not because it was impossible.

Just because I did really well in Calc I and slacked off totally the next semester (something which characterizes ea. academic year of mine).

>> No.4545808

trigonometry

>> No.4545813

>>4545808
This.

Trig bugs the shit out of me. Whenever I see "sin" or "cos", my brain just freezes up and I have to sit and think for a second to try and remember everything I learned in 11th grade.

>> No.4545814

Embarrassingly enough... it was Diff. Eq. for me. My prof. was an impossibly hard grader for some reason. I made a B- in the course and crey evrytime ;_;

>> No.4545821

Discrete/Structural Maths.
2nd Semester of CS (3rd semester now)
My girlfriend had just broken up with me last summer
At the end the grade was 3.7/5, but started pretty bad (two 1.8/5 exams, one with 5/5 and last one with 3.7/5), thankfully the last two had more weight.

In that same semester, Calc 2, didn't lose anything but in the end got 3.9/5. In Calc 1 I got 4.7/5, and I slacked all the way through it because I already had seen all the stuff on the last year of school and remembered it quite well. Then that slack also affected me in Calc 2.

Overall my average that semester was 3.7/5

All the way down from a 4.5/5 on the first semester.

And its not like I'm doing well this semester (started Calc 3 with 3.0/5 and 3.3/5) I haven't been able to put my shit together after the break up, and its affecting me a lot academically, curiously only in courses related to maths (other courses have been affected too but not as much as the ones regarding mathematics either being calculus or discrete maths)

>> No.4545822

>>4545814
With Diffy. Q, I might have stood a chance in the class.

But I've bombed the first two exams, and there's essentially no hope for recovery for me. But there were a lot of complex issues surrounding that whole fiasco.

>> No.4545826

I've never struggled with getting good grades in a Math course. I've done all my Engineering math courses and got A's in all of them.

However, I know NOTHING about math. I only fucking memorized the shit out of everything and knew how to solve every type of problem because I probably solved every type of question possible.

Thank god engineers dont have to take actual math, or I'd be fucked up the ass

>> No.4545832

I failed the final in my "Discrete math for CompSci majors" class.
And analysis was hard because it was so boring to read through.

>> No.4545834

Graph theory. Christ, I suck at these proofs.

>> No.4545835

Okay, what in the actual fuck. That is the exact equation i wrote on some chicks naked back. okay the limits were different, but still.
WHAT THE FUCK
seriously. what the fuck

>> No.4545840
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4545840

One of the biggest problems I have is when I'm copying down notes, a lot of greek letters and english letters look very similar. Especially when written on a chalk board.

So one moment, we'll be working with "a", next moment we're working with "α".

One minute, we're working with "u" and "v' (which I already have enough trouble separating the two), and then we're working with "μ". So unless I'm listening very carefully to what the instructor says, I'm constantly writing and rewriting my notes because otherwise, I end up with an unreadable and useless formula that I have no clue what to do with.

>> No.4545842

>>4545821
Still have yet to see Diff. Eq and Linear Algebra. Gonna take those next semester (4th)

Also, other two (non math but still related to doing problems and operational stuff) courses I struggled with were Physics. Physics 1 ended up with a 3.6/5 last semester, and this semester in Physics 2 I bombed the first exam HARD (1.4/5).

It makes me quite sad, because there was a time when I did a lot of mathematic/physics olympiads and never 'won', but always did pretty well.
(I think I had more understanding capacity of Physics 1 at 10th grade than what I did last semester)

Teachers at school have/had good expectatives from me.. The first semester I did pretty well, but after the break up, I got completely torn down emotionally, and now I don't feel even at half of the capacity I had at 11th grade or the first semester, I do feel better than last semester but still not as before.

Last year, I visited my school a few times (like 3) to say hi and fool around, but now I don't feel able to go there, to say hi to some teachers who had good expectations of me but in the end those nice academic skills got tampered by some emotional issues

>> No.4545856

>>4545842
Diffy Q. is an easy class.
Or at least that's what everyone tells me. Honestly, though, I'm struggling with it and will definitely be retaking it next semester.

There's no mandatory homework in the class, so I find myself blowing off the suggested problems. Which is more my fault than anyone else's. But what really irks me is how my instructor writes notes on the board.

He's definitely not conscientious of the fact that he's writing on a long, wide chalk board while everyone else is writing on loose leaf.

So he he'll be, writing down a long and elaborate equation, and he'll stop for a bit, and you've reached the end of a line. But then, it turns how there's more to write down after where he left off that on that equation, and now I have a big gap with my mental notes sitting cozily in the middle of one of my equations.

It's very hard for me to read my notes, as a result.

>> No.4545857

>>4545842
And adding to the emotional disbalance, I have a stupid pressure on me, which is a scholarship.

My parents are both unemployed, and I'm in the university I am (which is private) thanks to a scholarship I won at some olympics.

City wide olympics for people in 10th/11th grade, questions about maths and language, several rounds, top 5 finalists (I was 3rd) won a scholarship for any university at the city (that you had been approven into), for the whole grad.

The only requirement is, you cannot cancel a assignment, nor lose it. And you have to take all the courses deemed for a certain semester (There is a certain academic plan for each semester, which some people may choose or not fo follow, but I HAVE to)

So, if I bomb a course, bye scholarship. My parents tell me that no matter if I lose it, it has been of great help so far, and that I'd continue studying where I am, but I still think that such thing happening would bring a lot of disbalance..

>> No.4545861

>>4545856
Try to write with your notebook in 'landscape' position
I have found this useful for writing long stuff in a single line.

>> No.4545868

>>4545803

Wait, so is it just 14/3?

>> No.4545870

Algebra 1

I was in the stupid math class until 8th grade, but I knew I could be good if I tried so I begged to be let in Algebra.

Since I skipped prealgebra and I wasn't use to doing shit in math, that class hit me like a fucking brick

>> No.4545873

>>4545861
Good idea.

I've contemplated it, but I feel like it would be uncomfortable for some reason. Still, something needs to be done... I can't keep going like this.

>> No.4545877

>>4545856
Turn your paper sideways

>> No.4545879

>>4545868
Thats what I got, but I did it in my head so I'm not very reliable.

>> No.4545884

>>4545879


Hahaha, same here, so I guess I'm fine.
And I'm only in Calc I as well, hahahahahahaha.

>> No.4545890

LINEAR ALGEBRA (not proof based) is raping my ass cuz ive never been to classa nd my exam is in 11 hours . i still avhen't started studying holy fuck

any ut austin studnets here wanna take my test for me for $200 usd

>> No.4545892

Calculus 101. "I was in the IB program a province over, and I was honours without even studying. How different could the curriculum have been here?"

Real fucking different. So different, in fact, that on my final half of one of my answers was a whale I drew. That was two years ago and the bitch still hasn't told me what I got on that test.

>> No.4545901
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4545901

>>4545892
>my final half of one of my answers was a whale I drew
Yep. I did that once.

I remember on my Calc final that I was asked for something involving orthogonal lines. I had no clue what I was doing, I realized I was going to be retaking the class, so what did I do?

I drew a picture of a cave man scratching his head while saying the word "Orthogunal?" I wish I still had the image.

It was enough for the TA to give me bonus points for the drawing, but it was still a failing grade nonetheless.

>> No.4545905

I was on an advanced math track by the time I was in 7th grade. Honestly, I sucked royally at math, regardless of this. I didn't know how to do anything until Algebra II in my freshman year. I had a godlike teacher and worked my ass off to really understand what was going on. Ever since then, it's been a breeze for me. Mr. R, if you're out there, thank you. You made my life so much easier.

>> No.4545909

>>4545803
Could the girl at least give me a pen so I can write my proofs on her back?

>> No.4545915

>Walk into class room
>Realize it's the day of the final
>Realize I forgot my pen
>Suddenly, I'm naked
>Teacher walks in
>She's naked too.
>Shows me her back side
>Threatens to fail me unless I answer the question on her back

Dammit! Why does this happen to me every year?

>> No.4545918

Linear algebra.

>Vector spaces

Oh God why.

>> No.4545921

The stupid "math for physicists"-class I had to take. Half of it was about properties of special functions, which is just vomit-inducing, and the other half was a lightning speed overview of PDEs without any details or motivation. It was just horrible.

>> No.4545925

>>4545842

Do the homework. Do all of the odds for the matter, or whatever you have a solution/answers for. This is what saved my ass in DE. Working through so many examples you get a quick feel for what method you should use and the math gets quicker/easier/more correct.

Seriously.

Do the problems.

Do them.

>> No.4545944

One thing that always threw me off are variables in math proofs and theorems that are used
just as a point of reference. For instance, a lot of induction proofs always state for some
value k is larger than epsilon. It never clicks in my head what the significance is of those values during
a lecture. I always have to go back and figure it out, but it usually ends up that I was over analyzing things.

>> No.4546002

PROTIP - The answer is 1

>> No.4546032

>>4546002
As if I last more than 30 seconds anyway. Pfft.

>> No.4546049

Trigonometry and real analysis intro.

I couldn't just wrap my head around trigonometry. I knew what was going on but I never understood it intuitively. Real analysis was on the other hand just annoying. It wasn't difficult, but the two-hour classes were killing me.

>> No.4546062

Vector Calculus II.

I got an A at the end of the class.

In the beginning of the class I had absolutely no idea what the hell anything was or how to do it. I couldn't grasp even simple concepts, like what a dr vector is or why line integrals are things.

I felt like a boss doin' curl and Stoke's Theorem at the end of the class, but man if I didn't cram for like 12 hours before the first test I likely would have gotten a C in the class, assuming I didn't give up after the first test.

>> No.4546066

First few classes of differential equations sucked. I always thought of dx/dy as operators and the professors even said that they should be treated as operators. Then the diff eq. professor was like "Oh hey, you can actually move this shit around!"

>> No.4546183

Advanced quantum topology was quite hard. I only managed to get a normal A instead of A+.

>> No.4546399

Currently freshman in college, struggling through Calc II in my second semester. I'm managing to do pretty fine in most Calc II shit for now, but I failed Calc I so everytime the exercise requires integral I fuck up because I slacked off in the first semester.

And when I say slack off I mean REALLY slacked off. I failer both Calc I and Linear Algebra. Maybe I should start actually doing exercises instead of just reading through examples and finding a method for solving.