Is it normal that i'm so dumb in mathematics?

Some of the people I've tutored were very creatively minded (one person was an artist who really couldn't perceive that 50% and a half were the same thing, but she ended up happily solving simultaneous equations. I know simultaneous equations aren't difficult but I do think they're a very good example of mathematical instinct).

I sometimes forget how lucky I am to be neither left-brained or right-brained but both. Although, having said that, you'd think that it'd imply balance when often it implies conflict.

I wanted to be a maths teacher as a profession until I saw how the trainee teachers were treated by students not much younger than them. It was vicious and I didn't think I had the strength of character to deal with it. Shame, really. I probably could have done some good.

Oddly, that's not really disagreeing with me because I feel much the same. The trick is which real world example to use and the ones often chosen don't work for the majority. Some people only have to hear "two trains approach each other, one doing 55mph and the other doing 30mph" and they get freaked out. The questions are written in a certain way (in order to be rigorous, I think). I come from a maths / science / programming background and I appreciate rigour, but I can also see what it does to people who don't think like us. It took me some time to realise some people's brains are *completely* different and trying to force them to learn a certain way just causes reactions like fear of mathematics and hate of it.

The hardest thing is putting yourself in someone else's position, trying to think like they do, as opposed to just getting them to see things as you do. Maths teachers are only people, like everyone else, and they fail in the same way as many people do. Problem is, maths really is a way of thinking, and you've got to get people thinking that way eventually.

If I'd have been taught symbolic computation at a young age, I'd have got a lot from it. In effect, I taught myself as I was programming aged 12 and a published game programmer at 15. But that's me. My mind already works that way. Get me to decipher the meaning of an allegorical poem and I'd have been lost. In the same way it's difficult to teach maths to some students, how should I have been taught to understand poetry? It's kind of the same issue.

that's so deep dude..i agree with u and i know that im a badass kid..im suffering now bcoz i use to cutting classes and i dont listen to my teachers especially math teachers..but i know this is not the end of me!

Where the root word is plural (mathematics), the contraction is plural. We don't mind if you want to do it wrongly, though. As long as you don't keep trying to make us do it wrongly too. :)

If you're enjoying yourself and feel like you can succeed in the course then that's great :) Good luck.

Wait a minute. The abacus doesn't have a baterry!

Signed,
Knight Nigel Wellington XXI

Which programming courses? And, which languages? I might be able to give you some advice. Is it the programming or the problem solving that you struggle with?

And, if you don't like what you're doing and you don't think it will lead you towards what you should be doing in life, then you should really talk to an adviser about this. If your confused or struggling, it's always good to kindly show up at professors, advisers, or teaching assistants doors and ask them for help.

I don't follow. You'd be more comfortable with someone younger or older?