He Studies Computer Science But is Bad at Math

In this video I respond to an email I received from a viewer. He is a computer science student who is not good at math and wants to get better. Do you have any advice? If so, please leave a comment.

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[byronservies]

I don't know what it is like in your school, but if you walked into the math department at mine and yelled for help, literally everyone in the building would love you.

[kjmav]

I was bad at math, I mean REALLY bad at math. Flunked high school algebra, and barely passed the retake in summer school. From first grade on, I just never got it. It really held me back in life and narrowed my career choices. Plus, because I couldn’t ever figure it out, I felt stupid. Weird thing was, if it was applied, say, figuring out an aeronautical vector in a science class, I could do it. But pure math? I had a mental block. As a little kid, I would always ask, “why?” about this or the other math rule, and the teacher would say, “just because that’s the rule.” and I would just shrug and think, “then what’s the point?” Back then, they were teaching seven-year-olds something called New Math, which involved bases other than ten, and it was completely cryptic to me. Frankly, I don’t think my teacher even understood it.

Anyway, fast forward through a lot of painful mathematical failure to when I was in my fifties. I decided I could would tackle my math phobia. At first, I thought I’d start with high school algebra. But math instruction had changed so much since I was a kid that I had no idea what the textbooks were talking about. So, I went all the way back to the beginning. I emailed Professor Jo Boaler at Stanford, and she suggested learning with the Singapore Math curriculum. I supplement with Khan Academy. At 62, I am currently sailing through 5th grade, and I can now “do math!” Fractions used to completely flummox me, and now they are so easy! I can even see the foreshadowing of algebraic principles in the lessons, and now they make sense. I can do math. I do it for fun! My goal is to master calculus.

This is the moral of the story: If you think you’re bad at math, you don’t have to be. It’s just that nobody in your life understood or cared about how YOU learn. Nobody knew how to teach it to you. It’s not you. You’re not dumb. If I can do it, you can do it.

[nicolasstag]

Holy cow, I'm honored that you took the time to answer my question with an entire video!!

To give an update -- I sent that question in two semesters ago I believe. Since then, I have already taken college algebra. I was able to pass the course with a great grade, and the book by Blitzer that you recommend was actually a huge help for me. The trick to helping me learn the math was to do all of the practice problems in the Blitzer book; each chapter, there'd be a few pages of practice problems, and I would do them all in addition to my assigned schoolwork. If I didn't have the practice problems I probably would have failed the course.

Another roadblock I stumbled across is trigonometry. It is a new type of math, and it just didn't click for me. I wasn't able to pass trig last semester, unfortunately -- with all my commitments to other classes, I just didn't understand it and I didn't have the time to grind away at it.

I am taking trig again next semester, and I am going to buy your course on trigonometry 1 on udemy. I hope that it will be a good resource for me, and I am committed to passing it this time!!

Thank you so so much for answering my question, and for everyone that is commenting on the video with their advice. I really appreciate it.

[mavgr]

30 years ago before going into physics my math performance was very poor. Then someone pointed me to a newly appointed math professor as a tutor. This guy was phenomenal. In 60 hours of home schooling i had everything sorted. Never struggled since.

[demongeminix]

I didn't become good at math until college. I grew up in the public school system in the 80s (graduated high school in '93), and always just slid by. I turned on in my college algebra and college trig classes, where my trig instructor asked me to tutor math over the summer and sign up for Calc I in the fall. I'll be the first to tell you that I'm not much for teaching, so tutoring didn't turn me on much, but I enjoyed Calc I and II so much that I decided to go down the rabbit hole and get a degree in math.

Now I've said that I didn't like tutoring, but I'm pretty good at reading situations, and I can tell you from experience in tutoring that most people who aren't good at math or are scared of math are like that because of their previous mathematical educational experiences. Maybe they didn't pay attention enough before college, maybe they had bad instructors in school, but they always needed to be "fixed" in some way. Maybe they didn't have a small piece of information right, maybe nobody took the time to sit down and explain to them the way things have to be for everything to work. It was a very rare occasion that someone with a legitimate bona fide learning disability would cross my path. What I will say is that if someone has a problem with math, it's usually something that can be diagnosed... by doing math. Backing up and going over the basics: basic arithmetic, the order of operations, fractions and their rules, explaining exactly what the hell 'x' is and how to find it starting from a simple linear expression and then moving up to more complicated expressions, and letting them know that "Yes, the book is important and you should be reading it. And no, it doesn't read like a riveting novel, but you don't want to read it like a riveting novel to begin with because you won't learn anything that way." Take away the calculator and make them do basic arithmetic in their head. "Hey, you might be bad at it at first, but you'll improve the more you do it, and you'll be impressed with that ability when you're in the checkout lane at the store and you can come up with the total you need to pay and the change you're owed faster in your head than the cashier can with their register. Little victories, man." Subsequently, I never use self check-out lanes. But I digress.

Practice the small stuff first. Make sure you have a good foundation to build upon. That way, when you get to the stuff that at first looks like Greek to you (and FYI, it looks like Greek because we are indeed using the Greek alphabet, homie. You might want to get to know it while you're at it. Alpha, beta, and gamma are great placeholders for constants), you'll know something that you'll more than likely have to use to solve it. Math builds on everything that came before.

That's all I've got for now. Now go get after it.

[-TheBugLord]

One common misconception about math is that some people are good at it and some people are bad at it. In reality, math is inherently hard to understand for everyone. It takes practice to get good and to be confident in the subject. But anyone can get good at math if they take the time to understand it. I started out being absolutely terrible at math. Was lower than average in middle and early high school. But I put effort in to learn the best I could, and took time to practice, and I got very good at math. Now I'm a senior in Computer Science, and I've passed math classes up to Calculus 2.

[eatmoregames]

Thanks for the video! I've recently been trying to read my copy of "The Art of Computer Programming" but I'm in a similar math situation: really glad you made this video as I've been wanting to increase my understanding and enjoyment of the series.

[sophiaisabelle]

We appreciate the informative you've given us. May God bless you no matter what.

[devmarboy]

woah, the person who sent that email is a lot like me, I love programming and I want to get into computer science next year when I go to college, but I’ve never payed attention to math, thanks for this video

[aaronaustrie]

Same! I'm a CS major and math is part of the requirements for earning a CS degree. I just had Precalculus and ended up failing it at the end. I have to redo the course 🤦🏾‍♂️

[hiccupmcgee]

I would recommend spending time on problems you don’t understand, trying to connect where and how it’s bringing the solution & testing yourself with different problems.

[dgcp]

I feel this guys, I graduated last year in cs and I always thought I was terrible at math, and I was. I got a D in almost every math(except Discrete math I got B-), and because of that my CGPA got to lower to 3.4.

the thing is I did greater in courses that involve math like advanced algorithms, stat & probability, etc because I wasn't afraid of them. I use to fail the test in kindergarten that was purely greater than and less than questions. and after that, I had a math phobia and gave little to no time to it. but when I got B- I was so happy I start going back to grade 11 math materials and start studying math. it turns out that if you hate math, math will hate you back.

cani ask where should I start after with your courses?

[darkguardian]

ADVICE: Don't waste time on stuff you already know but focus on the stuff you don't understand and need to know for advance courses.

[anniesizemore]

They can get almost any Blitzer book on Ebay. I don't mean to advertising Ebay & I hope its okay for me to mention Ebay. There are several copies of Blitzer's College Algebra on there for as little as 5 dollars. I bought two of of his book Thinking Mathematically, which is very basic math with some algebra thrown in, and his book Introductory & Intermediate Algebra For College Students. I ordered 4 math total and it only costed me 18.85. Those Blitzer books I bought weren't over 5 dollars each. They also have his books, , Precalculus, and College Algebra & Trigonometry,

[Fridaahs]

Near 100% in my all of my math courses, last class taken Calc 3. I'm not naturally anything special. I just worked my butt off. Here are my tips.

I used a lot of PatrickJMT videos on YouTube and followed a lot of practice midterm/final exams on youtube throughout the course, not just before texts. I like clean looking notes help, but focus as much as you can paying attention to what the professor is explaining. I littleraly had to take pictures of the board (ask your professor first) and leave in blank pages in my notebooks to write out later. I was the slowest note taker in my class. Conversely, when you know your completely lost and dont be afraid to let the professor know. They will be pretty helpful and honest when the actual best thing to do is to just copy notes and ask for help later. Those times can suck, but we all learn at our own pace. Also, you know your doing just fine if you can ask specific questions and are not just saying your lost or you dont understand. Don't be afraid to go over examples again with your professor at office hours. Learning to speak math takes time and if you can clearly communicate, you can get better and faster help. Highly recommend practicing the examples your professor does in class because they will basically be what you should expect on your tests. I also started a 3 people sized study group where we basically did our homework or practiced problems in the study center every day. The best way of learning is through teaching. If you study with others, you learn how to teach each other. The professor who ran the math tutor center also basically became our calculus mother. Also, before tests, I super recommend creating cheat sheets with really simplified and neat information your test will be covering and then practice questions until you can do practice problems comfortably without looking at it. Another thing that comes to mind if you want good math grades, and this will sound a little harsh, is to do as absolutely as best as you can from the beginning of the course. Math is cumulative, you can't just say you'll learn it later. Cuz if you do, what was the lesson before tends to become what is expected to become second nature later. It's OK to be stuck and have difficulty at times, but make sure you stay responsible for getting yourself out of that hole before you get buried and overwhelmed. Also, I took a programming course and if you really enjoy coding, you might find it fun to create programs to do specific types of math questions. That sounds intimidating, but once you get the hang of it, it's kind of fun. Plus it will get you used to typing our your solutions for math because you may have to do homework online and they normally give you limited number of attempts for each problems. It sucks to miss an attempt because you forgot to use a parenthesis. Typing out math problems can also be helpful in looking up problems online so you can follow along.

I would love to go back and start math all over again right where you are going to be starting. Math is so cool and fun and there is so much you're going to get to explore.

I get overwhelmed with the idea of having to earn high grades. Instead, I tell myself that I start class off with 100%. And then its up to be to try my best not to lose too many points.

Best of luck to you. Don't give up. Your going to be incredible. Hope you enjoy the math journey.

[suzukigsxfa]

I've worked in the IT field as an application programmer and business analyst. The highest math j studied was Calc 2 and barely passed with a C-. I've always been a logical thinker and I've struggled with teaching myself math. I've now hired a great professor on preply to help me through the concepts. I'm on linear algebra. So that I can grasp AI and ML and data science. I'm in my 50s

[glennedgar]

My sons wife tried to get a Pjd and failed the math qualifier test at the end of the first year. She became a senior director at Amazon.

My daughters future husband got a masters degree in statistic and failed the math qualifier at the end of the first year of economics Phd. Currently hr is very successful doing ecconomic projections for tech companies.

[ardiris]

First up, programming is the least important topic in a CS degree. I know that makes no sense, but I graduated GA Tech cum laude and I still only knew the C language at the level where I began. The CS curriculum is at least 90% applied math. Oh, right, I did in fact learn LISP, but the language itself was only covered in the first two days of class. Late Adds were out of luck.

The point of the math through linear algebra is to set CS students up for the first important math courses for software designers and engineers. Those being combinatorics and Big O.

In fact, I recommend watching videos on those topics now despite not knowing exactly what they are talking about. If nothing else, a reasonably bright high school student should get a sense for where all this is heading.

After taking combinatorics, I was ashamed of the software I had designed before that class. The topic is THAT important. I was a radiochemistry lab manager with only an associates degree before I went back for my CS BS, and I had already written my own lab management software that connected multiple measuring instruments. However, it would never have scaled up to multiple labs. Knowing combinatorics would have changed all that.

Caveat: This is the short YouTube response, which means its accuracy is fuzzy. BTW, fuzzy variables are another topic that will turn programmers' worlds upside down.

(:

[surrealistidealist]

I think it's really important for math people to connect with each other. Just having conversions about math can make us better. Sometimes another person can just point out one thing that makes everything suddenly click when we're really stuck. Or they can show you a useful new approach or technique.

[Wandering_Horse]

I am in the same situation, I am just getting started in CS and taking College Algebra this semester. My strategy is the in person course with attached Math lab, plus I use 'Calc Workshop' online course. For me personally I enjoy the 'in person classroom' feel that the course delivers. I apologize to Math Sorcerer for introducing an outside product, please don't take any offense.