My Math Difficulties began with Pre-Algebra and Fractions

It was the summer before college when I had the best pass in my life. I never had enjoyed any vacation since the past years. in addition bad I became so pre-occupied with take pleasure in this escapement that I lost my penchant for erudition. Summer was fast subverting and I had to pack-up hastily and drive back home. And schooldays are coming.I felt ilk a lonely cavalier on my colleges first maths class. As e preciseone on the class each has varied high school backgrounds, I found it hard to cope up with the subjects pace. I got a very failing mark on my first quiz. And worse, it went on until the end of the semester.My young freshman mind found it tough to adapt to oft(prenominal) a demanding subject. I always had to sleep late at shadow solving problems and forgetting them when I wake up in the morning. My mouth gaped at the sight of endless assignments and workbooks. Our teacher could see our paroxysm, our pleading eyes hoping she would reverse gear her whistle and l et us take a break from the work. twenty pages of examineing and a worn out pencil erase keeps me arouse every night. I sweated over those sm every numbers above and infra the fraction line. How could I learn all this and still have era to watch Smallville? This wasnt a freshmans usual anxiety. I honestly thought I hated math. What is this subject anyway? why would I have to really put much time and agony into it?Nightmares would come in numbers dancing across my room. It would torment me mediocre thinking around how bad my day became because of that exasperating pre-algebra exam. It would send me peck lurching on the sofa everyday when I get home. Nothing had been that much demoralizing, when the test papers were returned and what you got isnt even enough to lift your suffer pride, what much than to show it to your mom.A research paper, published AnnaSierpinska, GeorgeanaBobos and ChristineKnipping of Concordia University in Canada(August2007), tackles about the frustrati on in students of mathematical courses. Their paper summarizes the reactions of the students and instructors they interviewed. They identified numerous causes of frustration, such as the fast pace of the courses, inefficient learning strategies, the need to deviate previously acquired ways of thinking, difficult rapport with truth and reasoning in maths, being forced to take PMC, insufficient academic and moral hold back on the part of teachers, and poor achievement (Sierpinska, Bobos and Knipping, 2007). These sources of frustration are discussed from the insinuate of view of their impact on the quality of the mathematical knowledge that students divulge in mathematical subjects.All of us go through all of the learning stages but not always on the same timetable (Hood, 1997). Sometimes, early(a) inclinations in us, like music and arts, develop much earlier than the others and we do not fully grasp many mathematical concepts until we reach adulthood. In our course of growing up, we learn through our environment and according to our direct of maturity (Hood, 1997).The book Taking the Frustration out of mathematics by Mary Hood tells us about the three distinct learning styles (auditory, visual and kinesthetic). She relates them to math learning. Along her book, she reminds us that each kid is assorted and that the parent is truly the expert on his/her sustain tiddler. If a child is not grasping a concept, she recommends putting it aside and working on it again at a later date. Frustrating the child leave only make a child hate math. Just because a child should be in a particular stage, does not call back that the individual child is ready for certain concepts. Eventually, he or she result be.Some websites, such as Coping with maths Anxiety offers discordant ways on coping with math frustrations. It recommends that the primary pace is to point that math anxiety is an emotional response. And since it is an emotional reaction, it can be in a infe rential or unconstructive way. Unconstructive ways comprises rationalization, suppression, and denial.By rationalization, we mean finding reasons why it is okay and perhaps even inevitable, and so justified, for you to have this reaction. By suppression is meant having awareness of the anxiety, but trying very, very hard not to feel it. Finally, there is denial. People using this court probably arent likely to see this essay, much less read it, for they carefully construct their lives so as to avoid all mathematics as much as possible (Coping with Math Anxiety, www.mathacademy.com/pr/ minitext/anxiety).The constructive way to manage math anxiety involves making as aware as possible the sources of math anxiety in one own life, accepting those feelings without self-criticism, and then learning strategies for disarming math anxietys influence on ones future study of mathematics (Coping with Math Anxiety, www.mathacademy.com/pr/ minitext/anxiety).I never had much luck on my first col lege math subject. It took me countless sleepless nights before it dawned on me that I had much more things to prove and accomplish. One time or another, each of us go away be haunted by math frustrations. We may take it as a frustration forever, or we could take it as a positive degree challenge to move on to much greater heights, where our past chastening becomes too insignificant.ReferencesPrinted ReferencesArem, Cynthia. Conquering Math Anxiety A Self-Help Workbook. Pacific Grove, CA Brooks/Cole Publishing, 1993.Burns, Marilyn. The I Hate Mathematics Book. Little, Brown Company, 1975.Buxton, Laurie. Math Panic. London Heinemann, 1991.Mary Hood, PhD 1997, Taking the Frustration Out of Math, Elijah Company, January 1, 1997Online ReferencesCoping With Math Anxiety, (www.mathacademy.com/pr/minitext/anxiety)Professors Freedmans Math Help (http//www.mathpower.com/)Soloman/Felders Learning Styles