Just out of curiosity, what do you think it is that makes algebra so much more difficult for you than calculus?
Yep, I’ve been doing that. A lot of the exercises end up with a pair of binomials which is easy to check by FOILing them, so I’ve got that down. I also use a small integer to check things out when I’m not 100% sure that a given manipulation is valid. The rules are beginning to come back to me. I should have started reviewing earlier, but I was in class for the first half of the summer on top of my job. And then I went to Las Vegas for a few days…
I think it’s just because algebra is a huge subject. There are so many different things and sets of rules that you have to remember and practice. Calculus (the basic stuff anyway) is just learning derivatives and integrals and then spending the rest of the time learning how to apply those two things to different kinds of problems. Most high school algebra programs are actually two years long and they don’t cover nearly everything that you’ll need to advance.
Honestly, most of algebra isn’t that hard (I’ve been feeling sorry for myself again). It’s just that there are a few items that I never mastered (factoring polynomials are among them.) And the book I’m working from is comprehensive but frustratingly terse.
Ah. Yes, any subject is daunting when it seems like an ad hoc collection of disparate rules.
For what it’s worth, I think of algebra as also just a few basic elements that you gain experience applying in many situations: the rules of addition, multiplication, and occasionally exponentiation of variables. There may be a few other things covered besides these, but the basic rules are quite simple; I could give ten or so rules that would suffice to work out 90% of all algebra problems (things like “The order of addition doesn’t matter”, “a * (b + c) = a * b + a * c”, and so on). The only difficulty is in developing the intuitions to know what kind of manipulations to try in working out a particular problem, and that just comes with practice.
freido, A few months ago when I was preparing to take my placement test, someone directed me here -Khan Academy. My practice test placed me in remedial math.
I spent about 2 weeks reviewing everything from 1+1=2 through college algebra. After those 2 weeks, I placed into college level algebra.
I haven’t taken a math class since 1997 and the highest math I completed was Algebra 2/Trig.
I’ll be taking both my required math classes next semester (statistics and something else, don’t remember what) and I don’t have to waste any money on refresher courses.
I took the SATs 35 years ago so my memory for the details isn’t perfect. However, this point was exactly the impression I had from the math portion. In many of the problems there was the obvious brute-force way to get the solution but if you really understood you’d see a short cut. On a timed test that was essential.
Wow, cool site. I’ll be sure to check it out.
What am I, chopped liver? Did no one see post #18?
In my defense, it was really really late when I posted. I skimmed the thread before posting but it was just too late to read all that math.
Awesome site isn’t it? I’ve passed the recommendation on to so many people, including the program coordinator for the liberal parts program at my school (you have to place into college algebra to get into the program).
I was referring more to the OP. 
That site is astonishing. That guy does more before breakfast than I do all year.
Just wanted to thank everyone for the answers and pointers provided. After spending most of my spare nights and weekends reviewing all the algebra and trig that I have forgotten, I totally kicked the test’s ass and now have three semesters of calculus to look forward to.