Help Me Get My Math Back?

nwm writes "I am trying to refresh my math skills back to the point that I can take college-level statistics and calculus courses. I took everything through AP calculus in high school, had my butt kicked by college calculus, and dropped out shortly thereafter. Twenty+ years later, I need to take a few math courses to wrap up a degree. I've dug around some and found a few sites with useful information, but I'm hoping the Slashdot crowd can offer some good resources — sites, books, programs, online tutors, etc. I really don't want to have to take a series of algebra-geometry-trig 'pre-college' level courses (each at full cost and each a semester long) just to warm my brain up; I'd much rather find some resources, review, cram, and take the placement test with some confidence. Any suggestions?"

Comments

Re:If you can't handle calculus, science isnt for

[Garridan]

Oh bullshit. Those are both overt and ridiculous generalizations. First off, many scientists use statistics every day (at the least, much more than "never"). Second, not all scientists use calculus "every day", and many use it almost never.

As a calculus teacher, I can tell you this: you need skills in symbolic manipulation. Your algebra needs to be rock solid before you attempt college level calculus. In my experience, you need dozens of hours of practice before you get it. Buy an algebra textbook, and do every odd problem in every section until you are reliably getting everything right. My experience = flunked high school math and went back to college 10 years later, and am now working towards a PhD in math.

Re:If you can't handle calculus, science isnt for

[shdo]

I would mod you up if I had any points. Sad as it may seem calculus was where I *learned* trig. For me, trig is one of those subjects that you beat your head against for months and years and one day *POOF* it makes sense. My first semester of college level calculus was were I learned trig. The second time I took that first semester of calculus - man I got it.

Don't forget to brush up on the basics - algebra, trig, analytical geometry as well as your calculus.

goes looking for an old text book just to tinker around with it.......

Re:If you can't handle calculus, science isnt for

[magsol]

And stats is pretty useless

That has to be one of the most useless statements I've read on Slashdot. Statistics is one of the most applicable branches of mathematics; it does the best job of allowing us to model our observations of events, since we understand 0% of the world around us well enough to say with 100% confidence what the outcome of a certain event will be.

Not only is it an extremely important field, it's an extremely understudied and undervalued one. I avoided statistics until I began my master's degree, and if there was anything about my educational career I could change it would be taking an intro to statistics course in my undergraduate years, or even AP Statistics while in high school because of how applicable it is to everything.