I have a major deficiency in math!

I suspect that you just didn’t learn/retain math well as opposed to having a true disability. And if it makes you feel any better my husband, who has a Ph.D. topped out in fifth grade homework math as well. He couldn’t explain long division with remainders to our daughter. He told her that is what they have calculators for!!!

My experience is that people who are weaker in math are very sensitive to teaching skill. I once went from a D to an A in high school Algebra by switching teachers. The bottom line is I suspect you’d be better off finding a math tutor than a computer program. Or think about taking a remedial math course at a junior college.

Beth

Read Sheila Tobias “Overcoming Math Anxiety”. You sound like a classic sufferer from poor teaching to me!

Then the advice to get a tutor is very good.

As a tutor who gets these calls frequently myself, I can tell you the following things about preparing for tests:

If you want to set yourself up for failure, focus narrowly on the test and refuse to listen to anything else.
If you want to set yourself up for failure, keep telling yourself that this stuff is useless and this is a ridiculous requirement that they shouldn’t be making you do anyway.
If you want to set yourself up for failure, procrastinate and skip tutoring appointments and find other priority things to do and go on a holiday and finally try to do all your studying in the last week before the test.
If you want to set yourself up for failure, try to cram review/learning six years of school math into three hours.
If you want to set yourself up for failure, spend all your time telling yourself and the tutor how you just can’t do math and can’t ever understand it.
If you want to set yourself up for failure, distance yourself from the problems and tell yourself it’s “just math” and has nothing to do with your real life.
If you want to set yourself up for failure, do math only when forced to and refuse to think about it any time you’re away from the teacher.
If you want to set yourself up for failure, insist on perfection or nothing so that, being only human, what you will get is nothing. And erase anything less than perfect until you have worn holes in your paper and you have spent three hours of work to produce a sheet of dirty erased paper.
If you want to set yourself up for failure, treat your math work like ejecta, like dirty Kleenex (which is what multiple erasing will make it look and feel like anyway), something that no sane person will want to touch ever again, and leave all reading and correcting to the (insane) math teacher; never look at it again yourself.
If you want to set yourself up for failure, tell yourself it’s “just this one test” and promise yourself as a reward that you’ll never ever do any math again for the rest of your life.

If, on the other hand, you prefer success to failure, remember that learning can be defined as a change in behaviour; formerly when presented with a math problem you blanked out, but now the new you will proceed to solve it! You need to change your habits of thought and action and preparation when you face a math situation. Changing habits isn’t easy and is sometimes not fun, but it’s necessary. A change in attitude is worth ten or twenty points on testing. A change in approach — planning ahead, reading and self-correcting and back-checking and verifying with reality — is worth another ten points. Math is NOT memorizing formulas, math is applying logic to solve problems. You know most of the facts you need already; what you need to learn is *how to apply* those facts.

I have been researching pre-algebra and algebra programs for my daughter. There are many good programs out there.

It’s important that you have basic math down solidly before going into algebra. A really good review course is “Basic Math” from the Teaching Company (http://www.teach12.com). This is a series of lectures from a top-notch college professor. If you wait, the series periodically goes on sale for about $100 at the website. If you can’t wait, check Ebay, as I just saw a set of the videotapes coming up there (for about $60, I think).

Another reasonable program that provides practice (and explanations) for basic math is the Amath computer CD (http://www.amath.com).

Also check out http://www.larsonmath.com, which offers a complete online math program covering basic math and algebra (two weeks free, then $25 per 6-month subscription) or their computer CD programs at http://www.meridiancg.com/products/prod_palg/palg_scope.htm

Really, the best algebra course I’ve come across so far seems to be VideoText algebra (http://www.videotext.com). It’s pricey, but has excellent resale value on the vegsource swap boards (and probably on Ebay). There is an email support group for this program, called AlgebraAtHome, at http://www.groups.yahoo.com.

The “Key To Algebra” series of workbooks is excellent also (http://www.keypress.com, or order discounted from http://www.rainbowresource.com). These are self-teaching workbooks that provide a basic introduction to algebra — but do not constitute a full year of high school algebra in most schools.

Finally, for free algebra online, check out http://www.algebrahelp.com

Mary

I was thinking exactly what Beth suggested! Our local community college offers remedial math courses for students who are not ready for college algebra. there are actually three courses leading up to it. All students take an entry exam which tells where they need to begin in math. This would be an excellent low cost way to build your skills. And from one who was good in math way back when…I remember none of it now! I remember what I need to manage our household finances and do our taxes. That actually requires little more than multiplication, division, and percentages (elementary math).

I would imagine there might be test prep books for the Praxis just like SAT, GRE, etc. You might want to check that out, too.

Janis

I agree with Janis — not only does our community college have remedial math courses, but there are tutors available (me being one of ‘em) to get you through them.
For practicing the basics, wander over to aaamath.com and check that out. MOst software for learning math is pathetic and no better than what you can find for free online. (I’d be glad to find out aboutexceptions.)

to preview. The only criticism I have seen so far is that it doesn’t provide enough review for some students. Homeschoolers are often money-conscious, so many of them would be using free online programs instead of the pricey Videotext if it weren’t very good.

That is the only program I have seen solid reviews on, probably because it has been around for awhile.

Mary

from the Teaching Company, which have also gotten very good reviews from homeschoolers. I think Barry Seligman is the lecturer (might have the name wrong).

Mary

Linda,

This isn’t a software program, but it might help you. The math text “Prealgebra and Introductory Algebra” by Margaret Lial and John Hornsby starts at a basic level and works through fractions, decimals, percents, ratios, integers, exponents, basic geometry, etc. This book is intended for basic college math, but is very easy to follow- lots of homeschoolers use it as a 6th or 7th grade pre-algebra course and it gets good reviews from the kids. You can get it used for about $40 (try Amazon or Barnes and Noble online).

Jean

There is a series of books by a publisher called Schaum’s. These are readily available in college and university bookstores and should be available either directly or through amazon. These books are a lifesaver to almost every science-math-technical student out there — we all have a collection of five or ten or more by the time we finish our bachelor’s degrees.

The Schaum’s books are all produced on a standard format: they are 8 1/2 x 11 paperbacks of a few hundred pages; the last time I looked the price for each was about $12 to $16. US.
The lessons are all set up as follows: a page or two of introduction of the topic, several examples to read, several solved problems, i.e. sample problems with complete model solutions, and a set of supplementary problems with solutions following. Each problem is labelled with the number of the section you can refer back to if you need to check the explanation.

To use these books, you read the introduction and examples, then cover the solutions with a card or paper and try to work the solved problems, checking the solutions line-by-line as you go; then you do the supplementary problems for practice and as a self-test for mastery.
To put it mildly, they are unexciting to use. But there is a huge excitement in understanding and mastery as you go through and finally get the idea! Most people find it motivating to take a class or meet a tutor to keep them up to the work, but a serious adult with good self-motivation can work thorough one of these solo.

The level you probably need is *Elementary Algebra*. You can also go back to *Basic Mathematics* and forward to *College Algebra* (There is a degree of overlap between the books, which is good for review.)

I am not a salesperson for any publisher, just a student and teacher sharing old standbys that are not flashy but are known to work.

http://www.math911.com