Can I "become" good at math?

[Anonymous No.6717274]

I'm assuming at least one of you has been or is in my current position.
I've just got my GED at 19 years old after dropping out of high school due to severe depression, which is an immense life progression based on the last few years of my life as NEET.

I want to ask for advice on /sci/, a board I frequent often rather than asking for advice on /adv/ because my question is pertinent to the field in which I wish to pursue in college and it may be pertinent or relative to one who would be giving me advice, assuming I get any at all.
Now assume I want to attend medical school, most medical schools require a knowledge of calculus, a subject which I'm almost completely unkowledgeable about and a subject which I've noticed a lot of you (/sci/) are quite proficient at.

Now that I've uselessly vented, how can one who's had an insatiable interest in science since early childhood pursue a degree in science with such little mathematics knowledge while also overcoming depression and lack of motivation due to said psych issue? Can one "become" good or at least interested in math or has my early repulsion of math grown hard and irreversible? My main concern is that I'll never become good in math and thus never achieve any kind of higher education based on this single deficit.

[Anonymous No.6717307]

As long as you keep thinking:
>>"My main concern is that I'll never become good in math and thus never achieve any kind of higher education based on this single deficit,"

you will never succeed.

Go to your community college and take the necessary pre-requisites. You're 19, you have time to learn. You might start out doing algebra, math builds upon itself and everyone starts somewhere. This is true for almost all academic pursuits. Everyone starts somewhere and the most important thing you can do to motivate yourself is recognize what you don't know and what areas you can improve in. Good luck.

[Anonymous No.6717308]

It's not mystical magic, you'll get through anyhow.

[Anonymous No.6717311]

Anything up to 2nd semester Diff Eq is pleb tier shit anyone can do if you put in the work, and the shits all online

Analysis and beyond requires some creativity

Whats your excuse again?

[Anonymous No.6717331]

Yes.

[Anonymous No.6717334]

>>6717274
If you are mildly interested in science just buy some books. If you literally want to dedicate your life to it go to community college, xfet to a uni, and get into a PhD program. If you have passion and study hard maybe you'll get somewhere decent.

Science will tear you up if you don't want it more than anything else.

-Chem PhD candidate

[Anonymous No.6717349]

>>6717274
Being proficient at math either comes as an intrinsic talent or through gobs of motivation and hard work.

I'm going to presume that you have resources available to you: a local library provides textbooks and mathematical novella, community colleges have recreational classes and tutors, and the Internet effortlessly allows you access to an infinite number of independent research resources, intructional videos/tutorials, and free online classes.

You're able to master everything about mathematics at this moment, but perceive it as a difficult hobby one is trying to take up; it takes a hell of a lot of time and practice to get good at it.

[Anonymous No.6717352]

>>6717349
Nah, I am sure it is just hard work.

[Anonymous No.6717360]

It's hard but yes, you can actually become better at math. If you want to actually become better instead of just passing your test like everybody else then you need to learn how to read your textbooks, which is a skill most students today lack. Your textbooks will explain things in more detail than the teacher ever could. When you're first reading them you probably won't understand a lot of what you're reading, this will be because like most students today you don't know as much as you should to be at whatever level you're at. You need to do two things: 1) keep on trying to understand what you don't get. Seriously I've spent hours on sentences, and it was worth it. 2) Find people who know this stuff and are willing to talk about it. Your teacher is probably your first bet since most math teachers love to discuss math. If there's a free tutoring center at you're school that's another great place, you should spend a lot of time there. Last if you can find people in your class who are interested in starting math study sessions, then you guys can get together and work the problems together and ask each other questions to enhance all of your knowledge.

It might seem strange to think that immersing yourself in math would help to reverse your repulsion but it really will. The reason you are repulsed isn't that you don't like math, almost no one actually doesn't like math, what you don't like is being frustrated by math and feeling powerless. The more deeply you understand the subject, the less powerless you'll feel, the more you realize everything in math makes sense.

Good luck.

[Anonymous No.6717363]

Simple Answer: Yes

If you're really passionate about science then you can in fact catch up to speed with the math. Just make sure you really have a solid grasp on algebra before moving on to Calc, because otherwise you will have trouble.

[Anonymous No.6717367]

>>6717274
When I went college for physics, I saw math as a necessary tool for the area, of course, it was somehow cool, but never a big deal. I was still in that high school hype of "whatever". After three weeks of calculus, I got really disinterest in the matter, and started to miss classes with friends, then, I repeated it. On the second time doing it, I dedicated myself onto it, tried to learn the things, not only "memorize" things for the test, and once I started to really understand it, it became really interesting to me, never had any more problems with math since then, although I am not an expert. I mean, sometimes it can be harder to learn something, but whenever you start to understand it, it gets cooler, and if it gets cooler, you understand it faster, it's a vicious cycle.
Math is just another language, It seems insanely abstract at first, but, at least at grad level, it is not. You can do it OP, just dedicate yourself to what you truly want.

[Anonymous No.6717415]

>>6717360
I agree completely. I think this is what it takes to really understand something. The most significant barriers to doing this are: motivation and time. This requires an extremely interested reader as well as plenty of time, which may or may not be available.

[Anonymous No.6717429]

I'm not very good at math either but I was talking to my friend who is, and he wisely said this:

"No one is 'good' at math, math follows a distinct set of rules and is the same every time, you either know math or you don't.

Seems obvious but it made me feel like I could learn it too.

[Anonymous No.6717446]

Going to sleep and taking naps after studying or working on something really helps. It allows your mind to repair itself and store memories and other magical wingdings.

[Anonymous No.6718934]

Not sure if you are still checking this thread, but Sal Khan sent this video around recently to answer your question ;)
https://www.khanacademy.org/youcanlearnanything?video=main