How I went from hating math to loving it! (and how you can do it too in just 3 steps)
Who loves math? Well… I do…but I used to hate them! Now I want to share my experience with mathematics and how I started to love them
Why people hate math? (according to science)
Unlike other subjects, in Mathematics there is only 1 correct answer and an infinite number of wrong answers, solving problems correctly requires a lot of memorization (of formulas and processes) problem-solving thinking, and also requires you to make many mistakes repeatedly, and it has been shown that humans just hate to admit they’re wrong.
Mathematics can cause so much anxiety in students that there is a phenomenon called “Mathematics Anxiety” and it can even impact on University students (can you imagine how strange a concept like “History Anxiety” or “English Anxiety” would be?)… so everyone can agree that math is a difficult subject, at least more difficult than others or a difficult task for most people…. But keep in mind that not everyone hates mathematics, there is a research conducted by Texas Instruments that shows a very interesting fact:
In a group of 1000 students between the ages of 13–18 years old, 46% love or really like math, 24% hate it, 30% are indiferent
On second thought, when I was a kid, I was part of that 24% who hate math! Even if I’m a big lover now, I used to hate them
Why did I used to hate math?
When I started learning math, I was in school, first grade we learned addition, and it was amazing, then we learned subtraction, then multiplication and then division. It’s like it happens all over the world, right? But I had some problems… as I started to learn more and more subjects, I realized that I was not good at math besides the basic stuff, and that was just the beginning of my school nightmare!
I have never achieved a high score in Mathematics, even as the person with the highest score in all other subjects. When I started learning physics it was the same story… I just wasn’t good… and the worst: I accepted not being good at it.
After graduating from high school, I really wanted to understand mathematics, since it is a very interesting subject, but it is also a nightmare. During the process, I started to LOVE math.
Then, how did I start to LOVE mathematics?
I started completing all the Khan Academy grades courses, and after a while I started with statistics and probability. I went from not knowing why “2/4 equals 1/2” to knowing complete geometry formulas. But I was also wondering… why was I so bad at Math in school… and now the story is different? After thinking about it, I realize that I never really understood math, I didn’t understand why it would be useful, I didn’t understand why things were the way they were, and I also didn’t fully understand what I was learning.
Now that I look back, I never understood any of the math I learned in school, I just “memorized” it and threw it all on a test. Sometimes I got good grades, sometimes I didn’t, but most of the time I didn’t. What changed in me is asking myself 3 questions:
- Why is math useful?
- How to study math correctly?
- What’s the logic of mathematics?
Why is math useful?
Everyone’s answer is different, but I began to see mathematics as a science of numbers, quantity and space… but if that sounds too boring for you, take math as an opportunity to improve many skills, such as:
- Thinking to solve problems
- Getting used to failures and learning from them
- Learn new things
- Improve your memory
Keeping this in mind, also check what things you are into… everything around you is full of math, in fact, this platform has math too! Have you seen that spinning cube Medium has? Surprise! It’s done with math too.
And if you haven’t been good with math so far, try other resources besides school or college, try different routines and see which one suits you.
How to study math correctly?
When I first read “limitless” by Jim Kwik, I learned about learning styles and the fact that everyone has a different way to learn new things. I will share with you how I learn math and how I can learn any topic (specially math) so fast:
- Select a math-related concept: I usually only take one course, whether it’s on Khan Academy, Coursera, MIT OpenWare, or whatever, and every day/week I have a topic to learn.
- Know what that concept is used for: Real life examples of that concept, what it can be used for in daily life or at least in professional life.
- Start reading it: Start watching the course, reading about it, or any other way you can get the sources to learn it.
- Understand it: understand why things look the way they do, why things are the way they are… you can understand that in Mathematics.
- Use the knowledge: the most important part of the learning phase is to put the knowledge into practice, so in mathematics, doing exercises is super important.
- Correct your mistakes: Mistakes are the best teachers, so you can complete as many exercises as you can and correct your mistakes. With these fails, you can see what you understand and what you don’t.
What’s the logic of mathematics?
Why does Pi equals 3.14? well… the answer is very simple and interesting if you’re looking for the logic behind it.
This is very important, check for the logic behind formulas, concepts, names, etc.. Everything in Math has a logic, places like 3blue1brown are amazing as they provide the logic behind tons of different math concepts and if you have a creative mind it’s absolutely amazing
Conclusion
Right now it’s exactly all I’m doing to relearn all high school math, and it’s coming off amazingly. Maybe learning math in college is a different story, but in most subjects in general, not just math, it’s important to understand “Why are some things the way they are?” and you can get amazing results from this question.
Follow the 3-magic steps:
- Understand why mathematics are useful
- Understand how to study mathematics correctly
- Understand the logic of the concepts you learn
Yes, math is hard, and it’s actually hard to love it, but if you have any choice but to love it or hate it… better love it and study hard!
That was it for now, thanks for reading :)
