I'm enrolled in two mathematics based classes this semester, as part of my maths major (primary [elementary] education, but will be able to teach to year 10 in maths).

I have the same lecturer for both classes. One class is a statistics class, the other is called "calculus" but I don't think it will involve calculus. In the first two weeks (upto today - 2 lectures and 1 tutorial), he has introduces almost-new concepts or really hard versions of concepts, and he goes WAY too fast for me. But everyone else seems just fine. Everyone else seems to know what's going on.

He skips from one problem to the next, and as soon as he's finished one problem he practically rubs it off, or he doesn't follow a straight line with his steps (e.g. just going down the board, he might put the next line to the left or right where he decides to fit it in) and he stands infront of what he writes, and writes in a messy scrawl... By the time one problem is complete, he's starting another one that looks much the same but is evidently different, so I miss out altogether what has happened.

I spent most of today's lecture three problems behind, just working on it myself, until I didn't understand anymore. A lot of the time I asked the person next to me (supposed to be a friend, but wasn't helpful, and didn't feel like backtracking...).

I felt really lost and desperate, very stressed, and wanted to give up but if I stopped altogether I wouldn't get the content - this lecturer does supply notes electronically, but most of the problems he makes up on the spot, so they are completely lost if you don't write them down...

It was a 2 hour lecture + 1 hour tutorial back to back, and he lectured for 1 hour and 45 minutes literally without even a 30 second break. No time to collect thoughts, absorb information, refocus, or anything like that..

But as I said, this lecturing style doesn't seem to phase anybody else in the class.

As a result I feel very isolated as well as stressed.

Any help, suggestions, commiserations????
Anyone with a similar experience - how did you get through?

Two years ago I was in this situation, but there were 2 other people in the class who I had an unofficial study group with on the day when we had a long break between the lecture and tute for that unit (subject), so we had a good 4 hour block working it all out together and eventually became top students in the class. There isn't a situation like that in this class. I know or know of most of the people, and it wouldn't work like that...

Trust me, it is affecting everyone else in the class.

I had a prof like that who would start every lecture with "I know you already know this...." and would gallop off at a high rate of speed. (Structural Geology).

No one is getting most of this either, if they can't read what is on the board.

You should ask him to slow down or take breaks. :rolleyes:

Is he a new teacher?

I am in the same position (calculus III, Linear Algebra and Physics)
It seems that everybody in the class understands but they dont. My calc teacher gets particulary upset because he gets no feed back from any of the class, well execpt the people pulling a 100+ average in there.

Ask him to slow down and explain things, your class mates will thank you (probably not verbably)

Also try to ttake the best inclass notes that you can. This is how I have gotten to where I am now.
Does this forum have a homework help area?

I am in the same situation. I have a class with a very experienced teacher.. and he rushes through the lessons.

He is a pro to these kinda things and I guess he feels everyone should jsut get it automatically. He actually gets frustrated if someone stops him to ask him to repeat what he is doing.. or to slow down.

Its impossible to keep up with him.. I could take one second to attempt whatever he is discussing and then by the time I am done that one little part.. he has moved ahead 7 steps and by then I am so lost and frustrated.

I have heard alot of people complain about him..but there isnt anything we can do. He is considered a very good teacher.

Im very lost and way behind in that class I am sure I will have to repeat it.. hopefully with a different teacher so that I may actually LEARN something.

:mad:

Have you ever gone to the teacher after class to explain what is going on. If you are not getting it the professor can make time with you to go over it and help you understand it better. I understand what it is like for a professor to talk fast. I've got a tape recorder that I use for all my lecture classes so I can listen to them again at another time...

Good luck,

Andy...

Thankyou for your replies.

I think just trying to write everything down is a good strategy.
Today I tried about 3/4 of the problems again (evern if they were correct or worked examples) by writing down the question elsewhere, working through, and checking if i had the correct answer and procedure.

One thing I might try in the next class is things like saying "Can you show us how to do example 12?" - hopefully he will go at a reasonable rate, and not rub it off quickly....

I know that I need to take a proactive approach, not a reactive approach.

I had to think on it for a couple of days but what you described is basically what my physics teacher does.

I write the notes as fast and as neat as i can. Listen to his lecture and mark anything of real importance. (i.e. equations, special examples and what not).

The next day I will use the notes to help me complete my homework and this will reinforce what little information I did get from the class before.

I find that I have to study twice as hard in this class but its the only way I can get through it.

1. You need a Tape Recorder and especially a NOTETAKER. (See Special Needs Office.) A Videocamera to tape the lecture would be best, but I dunno how the Prof feels about it.

2. Study Groups (even 2 or 3 of your fellow students; kids who know what happened in YOUR COURSE'S Lectures)

3. 1:1 Tutor

N.B. I am not surprised that you are left behind. I felt the same way in math lectures.

ADHD is a working memory problem, so ADHDers have to review, review, review.

Like, "Hey Professor, why are you moving on to new stuff so fast? We just learned the last new stuff 2 minutes ago. Let's hover there a while and work some more problems and review solutions and concepts, dude."

ADHD also causes executive dysfunction problems, so we need more analysis and review. Need to ensure our problem solving steps are sequenced properly, in the formulas, etc.

Check this out... www.purplemath.com (http://www.purplemath.com)


I like it and it is helpful too.

I am in a beginning math class and he treats us like babies. He goes through everystep and most of the class leaves 10 minutes to the class.

Thanks Aunt Chris, that website is helpful.

Right now I'm about 3 weeks behind on the work for that unit - but I do have a basic understanding of everything that's been covered so far.

I'm just REALLY STUCK on factoring quadratic equations - especially when there's a negative in there. I can do practically all of them when it's all positives, even with weird numbers and fractions, but stick a horizontal line in between the numbers and I'm completely screwed! I have been looking at different websites about quadratic equations and factorisation; I printed off some things.

do you know the quadratic formula?

ax(squared) +bx+c = 0

are you talking about a problem when the (a) in the quadratic problem is a (-) number?

such as -3x(squared) + 8x+2=0
If this is the situation, remember you multiply both side of the equation by a -1!!!!

When you multiply both sides by a -1 what happens to the numbers in the problem? Do you remember?

Okay, when you multiply by a -1 the signs all change before the = sign... right and after the = sign...


have you read that section in your book? it is helpful for me to go to the book and do the problems ....my book is on the computer but I did buy the book.

I am a visual person and need the book in addition to the computer. I hope this helps.... I will keep my eyes open to see if you post anything soon.

ax(squared) +bx+c = 0

are you talking about a problem when the (a) in the quadratic problem is a (-) number?

such as -3x(squared) + 8x+2=0
If this is the situation, remember you multiply both side of the equation by a -1!!!!

When you multiply both sides by a -1 what happens to the numbers in the problem? Do you remember?

Okay, when you multiply by a -1 the signs all change before the = sign... right and after the = sign...


have you read that section in your book? it is helpful for me to go to the book and do the problems ....my book is on the computer but I did buy the book.

I am a visual person and need the book in addition to the computer. I hope this helps.... I will keep my eyes open to see if you post anything soon.
ahh no, actually my problem is factorising a quadratic equation
I can easily SOLVE one, but factorising is difficult...

I have no time now but i'll give an example later, I'll have to dig around in my books.

There's no text book for this unit either - there was a recommended text, but I didn't buy it. I'll look for it in the library. It probably won't help anyway :p

Actually I do have time now - as a side note, if I had not just called James to find out where he was, I would be waiting ready to leave for a very long time..... He had just woken up and isn't ready, but do I still want to do something?
*sigh..*

So it's like this.... here's the quadratic expression...

x(squared) + 11x + 18

= (x + 9) (x + 2)

which will then expand out to become the same expression
It's when you find something that ADDS to make the middle term, and MULTIPLIES to make the final term




But if it has NEGATIVES... I just cannot do it

X(squ) - 2x - 3


Any help?

factoring a quadratic is point blank simple, positive or negative term.

For any equation(which can be factored) of the form Ax^2 + bx + c

All you do is sit down and take the c term, and break down all the ways that you can split it up. If c = 6 then you have (6*1 or 2*3 and the reversed numbers 1*6 and 3*2) if negatives are involved on the b term, but not on the c term, then both factors are negative (- * - = +), but if c is negative then only one factor is negative. Just guess and check.

Ex. x^2 -6x + 8 -> c term can be made into (1*8, 2*4)
looking at the possibilities you can see that no combination of 1 & 8 can be made into 6, wheras 2 + 4 = 6. However b = -6, so just put a minus sign on each one.

ex2) x^2 -7x - 8 -> c term can be made into (1*8, 2*4)
looking at the possibilities you can see that no combination of 2 & 4 can be made into 7, wheras 1 - 8 = 7. Then our factors are +1, -8

Some equations cannot be factored in this method. For the generalized quadratic -> Ax^2 + bx + c, use the quadratic formula. I don't feel like typing it out, but you can wikipedia it.

solving both for the positive and negative possibilities will give you the answers

let me re-iterate for clarity, sorry for the double post.

1) Find all possible whole number solutions for obtaining c (ie x*y=c)

2a) If c is negative, then one term (either x or y) is negative. If b is negative , then the larger one is negative, if b is positive then the smaller one is negative.

2b) If c is positive but b is negative then x & y are negative

3) Look at the posibilities and add and subtract the numbers accordingly to guess and check an answer

4) If that cannot yield an answer then use quadratic formula.

Hey Additive

Give me a problem and I will ask my instuctor what to do.

Is it just factoring polynomials with the quadratic formula

x^2 -3x-1

are you doing the foil method ?

Hey Aunt Chris.... I write all this for a SECOND time , owing to the fact that apparantly I pressed some keyboard combination that took me back a page...

I write all this, also, assuming that ^2 means "squared"

I can do this..

2x + 4
= 2 (x + 2)

and this..

x^2 - x - 6
= (x - 3) (x + 2)

So now I can do ones with negatives; thanks JS84 for your insight into the actual simplicity of that.

I now know that it's not NEGATIVES that are my problem, it's just weird numbers that do not complement each other...

e.g. I cannot do this...

16x^2 - 9
=


Then there are much harder examples where I have to not only factorise things ("where necessary," it says...) but I also have to do other weird things that don't make sense to me. I can't do it and I feel really stupid!

I'm meeting a friend tomorrow to help me with it.. if she can. And if I go back to the lecturer tomorrow (in the lecture) and ask for help about this, it will look like I haven't been doing the work, because this is from Tutorial 2, and this week is Tutorial 5... I will ask, and he can see many many many scribbled out pages of work I got wrong and gave up on because I just had no (swear word) clue what to do!

I don't even know what it is that I don't know, e.g. if you visualise maths as a ladder of concepts, needing all below concepts to climb higher, I don't know which thing I am missing that won't let me do this! Everyone else in the class can do it...

btw, I haven't heard of the "foil" method.

oh that isnt too bad let me see

The F O I L method mean

first = F

outer =O

inner = inner

last = last


take the problem 16^2 - 9


16 and 9 are perfect squares.

the square of 16 = 4

the square of 9 = 3

( 4x + 3)( 4x -3)

do you understand what I did?

I have a Bachelors of Mathematics, and one of my professor said "when your head starts to hurt, that's when you know it's working."

It's probably the only thing I retained from his class (or from any other class, really). I could *never* follow a math lecture. Ever, ever ever. I relied on learning from the book or trying to understand the notes that I transcribed from the blackboard.

The only times I'd been successful at understanding the material in my many, many math classes was to read and understand the material prior to class. You're going to save yourself a ton of time by reading the textbook ahead of time. My piece of advice? Ask your professor to tell you what he's going to cover next time and read & understand that material before class.

yeah - thanks Aunt Chris.
My friend also showed me that answer today - i never knew you could have a number of x (e.g. 4x) in a bracket, i though ti just had to be on its own.

your welcom ADDitives . Anytime if I can help. I will.

hello,

Many adders have these problems with math. Try to look at :

http://www.addforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=487376#post487376

Maybe the math problem should have a thread of their own