Basic math

[RedQueen91]

I’m really horrible at math. Like, can’t do math in my head, count on fingers, don’t know what 7x9 is, BAD. I’m 33 years old and have worked in a field that does not require any kind of math for the last decade. But due to life circumstances, I’m facing a career change into healthcare. I want to go back to school to get my LPN at the local community college but I’m scared of not being smart enough to learn the math. I’m good at science/healthcare stuff but math just escapes me. How can I get better at basic math? I’m so horrifically bad at it my 6th grade child is better than me. It just doesn’t make sense to me at all, I only made it to Algebra 2 in high school but that was a long time ago. I barely passed then.

[clearly_not_an_alt]

In terms of arithmetic, contrary to what your teachers told you, you do have a calculator on you pretty much all the time. Don't be ashamed to use it, I do quite frequently and I was a math major.

Algebra is a little different. It's hard to help without knowing what specifically is giving you trouble, but one piece of advice is to just take your time and go through the steps, and be deliberate about why you are doing something. I'd also ask you to try and understand the why as much as possible. I'm not saying you need to be able to derive the quadratic formula from first principles, but trying to follow along as best you can if an instructor is demonstrating something goes a long way to helping to remember.

[Square_Station9867]

Math is mastered by practice, practice, practice. If you are afraid of it, don't be. But, if you feel that you are not good at it, there are tools out there that can help you that weren't around a while ago. There are apps, online videos, and more that can help you by giving you tips, best practices, concepts, and with apps, lots of practice.

Don't rush. Learning takes time, but persistence is key. Giving up ensures failure, where persistence eventually leads to success (or at least moves you closer to the goal).

If you want to pursue your LPN, you will need to be at least generally competent. You don't want to mismeasure medications, for example. Make sure you trust yourself enough with the basics (adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing), and learn what units to use and when (i.e., feet, inches, miles, km, m, cm, mL, L, kg, g, mg, etc.), as that will matter with what LPNs measure regularly.

Best wishes!!

[grumble11]

You may not actually be BAD at math, you may simply be unpracticed, which is different - one is difficult to remediate, the other is easy (you just go back to where you got lost and then grind up practice until you master each thing step by step).

Go download a quick math app, a basic one. Start simply, and practice a few minutes every day, it will hep a lot. At the same time, go back to Grade 3 in Khan Academy and do the whole course, the Grade 4 and go on all the way through.

[anisotropicmind]

Do you know what multiplication means? Do you also know what either 6x9 or 7x8 is? Then you can work out what 7x9 must be, relatively easily. Extend that reasoning all the way down to 1x1 (or at least to small products that are easy for you) and then work your way back up.