There is just no way you are going to learn college algebra in a week. Why not actually learn the subject instead of trying to skate? Knowing algebra is NOT a worthless skill, I can tell you.
Jeez good thing I didn’t go into higher math. I have no idea what ** Linty Fresh** just said.
Put a fork in yourself.
Yeah, sometimes I get het up about a topic and Mr. Keyboard runs away from Mr. Brain. :smack:
What I meant was that mastering algebra is three parts working through problems to one part reading the intro to the chapter. I shouldn’t have said that it wasn’t about learning theory, but that just concentrating on the theory isn’t as important as doing the problems. In a week, Cisco could read about logs and quadratic equations, but he’d never be able to get through a test on them without the grunt work. Mastering algebra is all about grunt work, hours spent over a lined notebook holding a pencil with a good eraser.
I get excited about this sort of thing, because this is how I learned algebra and trig. For 20 years, I’d just chalked my inability in math to genetics, and it’s true that I need more time than most people to get it. But a few years ago on a whim, I bought a math book just to see if I could learn it on my own, and a few months later it turned out I could. Believe me when I tell you that if I can do it, anyone can do it. I am not an undiscovered genius.
So everything I said about working through the QF and log problems I learned through hard experience. There are simply no shortcuts. You learn by doing, and it takes time. If Cisco is reasonably intelligent–and I haven’t read any of his posts that suggest he is not–and he’s out to pass a class rather than gain a thorough understanding, and if he doesn’t have to worry about trig, then a few months should be enough.
I talked to my academic advisor - it seems she was mistaken about me only having until Friday to take the test. I have more like a month. So that gives me some (obviously much needed) breathing room.
It doesn’t really give you breathing room. You went from totally fucked to start now, do problems every day, and maybe you’ll have a basic understanding to pass the test in a month. I’d suggest you solve homework problems from whatever text you have for 1-2 hours a night. Set a plan for yourself and stick with it. You should be able to do it in a month, but it won’t be easy by any means.
“Sire, there is no Royal Road to geometry.” 
Euclid had to tell that to King Ptolemy I Soter (reigned 305 to 283 BCE). People have been looking for shortcuts to math for a long time and not finding them.
You need to practice, practice, practice. At each level, there are all kinds of ways to do things, and you have to have them down before you take the next step that depends on them.
Which brings up the question already asked by Paladud: What exactly are you trying to test into?
Out of curiosity, may I ask how one class could put you back a year? I assume the 4 year school that you would transfer to is ASU – couldn’t you just transfer in at Spring semester? They’re a huge state school, I would have thought they allowed this.
MAT142:
If you don’t have a solid background in algebra, you’re going to struggle in there. Math is one of those areas that really builds on itself, so without a solid foundation in the basics, you’re going to be hurting.
With a month to go, you can do it, although you’re really going to have to dedicate yourself. Plan on working 10-15 or more problems a day, and find people you can ask when you don’t understand something. Use the SDMB in addition to whatever other sources you have.
In addition to the SDMB, try these guys. They really helped me work through some sticking points, and I wouldn’t have gotten as far as I did in algebra and basic calc without them.
I don’t envy you having to learn so much so quickly, Cisco, and I must repeat that you’d be doing yourself a favor by taking your time, but if you live, breathe, eat, and sleep math for the next month, I think you have a shot. One more piece of advice: For a class like what you described MAT142 as being don’t stop studying on your own after you test out of MAT122. Crank out those problems until the day your start MAT142, and keep at it on your own time if the new class seems overwhelming. If you run into something that throws you, you probably need to review the underlying algebra fundamentals. Check the underlying concept and go back to basic algebra and do some problems until you understand it, and chances are you’ll be OK.
Good luck.
There are actually teachers who post class videos on YouTube. Some of them are pretty good and helped me with logarithms and quadratics.
Yeah, that.
But if you have a solid grasp of the IDEAS, and a quick mind, a month isn’t impossible.
I doubt that you really do have to “test past” MAT 122 (the college algebra) in order to take the class you’ve described. After all, it says right there: “Appropriate for the student whose major does not require college algebra”! MAT 122 is only one of the courses you could use as a prerequisite. The others are MAT 120 or MAT 121—what are they?
You’ll still need to know some background math to get into MAT 142, but you won’t have to know all the topics listed in the OP.
I feel your pain. I am 36 and a senior in college now (went back to school after a long absence). I’m not a “math person” at all–kind of math-phobic, actually. The last math I had taken was geometry in high school, and that was the 1987/1988 academic year. In other words, 20 years ago. Last fall I took my first math class since. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to do it, but I pulled off an A in Business Statistics. I have to take one more math class before I graduate and I’m not looking forward to it. 
I have no advice, really, nor do I know if you can do this in a month or not… I just wanted to come in and give you my support as another nontraditional student who had a massive time gap since her last math course.
As a college math teacher, students who come to class with attitudes like this frustrate me. I’m not sure how best to deal with them. I suspect that often, negative attitudes toward math become self-fulfilling prophecies, as the students who come into class with negative attitudes toward math, spend their time in class hostile and disengaged, and their time out of class doing as little math as possible. What can I do with a student whole attitude is or :mad: or “I want to get this over with as quickly as possible”?
I’ve read that, in America, people commonly believe that math ability is inborn: either you’re a “math person” or you’re not. In other countries, it’s seen as something eneryone can learn if they work hard at it, and being good at math depends on how much time and effort you put into it. From personal experience, I believe there innate mathematical aptitude that some people have more of than others, but that time, effort, and attitude can make a huge difference.
Self-fulfilling prophecy? Hostile in class? Doing as little math as possible? I spent hours and hours and hours every week doing math. I passed the class with something like a 97%. Our teacher was so awful at teaching that I ended up teaching a lot of the students the concepts once I got them down myself (a lot of the other students said I was the only reason they passed the class and said I was a much better teacher) I was hardly hostile!
I am afraid of math. I’m sorry if that frustrates you. I have an anxiety about it. It makes me nervous and sweaty and I nearly panic when I am faced with math. My self confidence takes an elevator drop through the floor the minute I see numbers. I will double check simple arithmetic on a calculator (I am nearly always right, I just don’t have any confidence in it and have a paranoia that I’m wrong, so I check it) and use a calculator to figure out tips in restaurants and stuff.
In the end I think that I’m actually fairly good at math, but it creates a really high level of anxiety in me, which I do not like at all.
I feel kind of bad for your students that you are automatically frustrated by a student who has a math anxiety. That probably sets up those students for an even worse experience and an even harder time. I have a 4.0 going into my senior year right now (i.e. I work hard and take my classes very seriously) and have had very few teachers ever in college that I did not consider myself to be on friendly terms with. And by friendly I mean going out to lunch, continuing to have an email correspondence after the end of the term, come back and say hi from time to time kind of thing. I’ve never had a teacher that I outright didn’t get along with. If I’d encountered teachers like you who are automatically frustrated with me right off the bat because I have a fear I can’t control? Jesus I’d probably just drop the class rather than put up with that. I’m glad I didn’t go to your school, that’s all I can say.
They are the same class with more hours. For people with math related majors looking to rack up their hours.
Opal: Thank you. I’ve had Thudlow Boink after Thudlow Boink after Thudlow Boink starting in the 7th grade and it’s really killed my desire to ever learn and/or enjoy math. Regardless, I will go into my next math class with a positive attitude, and I will study my ass off. I too have a 4.0 and I earned it, and I intend on keeping it.
If you’ve been working so hard on your statistics class, Opal, I don’t think you’re the kind of student Thudlow Boink is talking about. But I agree with his general point: mathematics seems to elicit a response that other subjects don’t in many people. I suspect it may be because mathematics builds upon itself in a way that other subjects don’t necessarily. If I read a research article in psychology, or sociology, I may be able to understand the gist of it despite being a non-specialist. But even with my Master’s degree I may at first not understand much of a research article in math; I’ll need to reread it many times and consult other sources to understand the concepts they use. So advanced math is “scary” to people (hell, even to me!) in a way that other disciplines aren’t, and they try to stay away from it and get it over with as quickly as possible when they have to deal with it. This doesn’t necessarily apply to you, Opal, since you seem to be afraid of math but still willing to put in the work you need to succeed at it.