Math phobia, why?

[kiddykat]

I know this sounds totally random. I think the main reason why I'm tolerant and like math here and there is bcuz.. when I was young, I remember sitting in 3rd, and competing with my guy buddies to see who'd finish our long divisions quickest with accuracy. We would chuckle and laugh so hard.. It was FUN!

The memory I associated in that experience is something that still makes me smile even until today. Thus, math is otay.

I think that for some, math may be scary because it's been demonized so badly?

To combat it- I would like to think of looking at each piece as a shape (not so as sigmas and all the detailed stuff); visualize it as a whole object (basic shapes & patterns), then apply..

TBH, I don't really like those humongo 13X13 matrices. Thank goodness for my TI-83. Don't know how life would be w/o it for meeh. Dang. . Oh yeah- and stats is personally just another animal all together.

 

[ygolo]

Making a game out of math is often effective at making it fun....little do people realize that many computer and board games are actually mathematical in nature.

 

[Nadir]

Hmm, my experience with maths extends only up to multivariable calculus so far, as well as some vector-plane geometry... I would say that I find math extremely enjoyable if I get to, for example, solve a problem correctly and flawlessly. I also find learning math and learning another language to be a fairly similar processes. Both have their own rules that must be adhered to in order produce something coherent.

Practice makes perfect, and it's usually this truth that I have trouble with. Not practicing what's learned often makes the knowledge fade away to some degree. But with youtube and similar means of visual learning available I generally manage to review the subjects (especially just before an exam) with a greater degree of permanency than before.

I would also say that I don't find math pleasant when there's no real context involved. I dislike solving math problems just because it's required (as in exams, though the requirement of passing and the prospect of a better grade does provide some artificial incentive) or simply because it's practice. I'd rather use math as a means of solving more concrete problems (as in computer science). I'm having my first computer science subjects the upcoming fall semester and looking forward to how it'll affect my perception of mathematics.