It's kind of embarrassing to admit this, but...
My mother home-schooled me through most of elementary school. I was a somewhat intractable student, as far as I remember, mostly because I didn't deal well with frustration. If I understand something quickly, I'm fine; it has been my great good luck to have enough native intelligence that I understand most things quickly. If, on the other hand, I didn't get it after a few tries I would become frustrated, often to the point of tears.
I think my mother just thought that I had an attitude problem; that if I couldn't get it right away, I refused to even try. This isn't really true. My problem was (and is) that if I couldn't understand a problem right away, it would make less and less sense the longer I stared at it. My mind would start twisting into inexplicable knots, simple concepts stopped making sense, and sooner or later I'd burst into tears and throw my workbook across the room.
Arithmetic always did this to me. Once I got to higher math I was fine, but there was something about addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division that I could never wrap my head around. Mostly, this didn't really matter. After sixth grade, most teachers would let us use calculators and if I didn't have to worry about the numbers, math became a matter of logic. I'm good at logic; I'm not good at numbers.
One small problem. Calculators are not permitted on the GRE exams.
At the age of twenty-two, I have discovered that multiplying fractions still has the power to reduce me to tears.
I think my mother just thought that I had an attitude problem; that if I couldn't get it right away, I refused to even try. This isn't really true. My problem was (and is) that if I couldn't understand a problem right away, it would make less and less sense the longer I stared at it. My mind would start twisting into inexplicable knots, simple concepts stopped making sense, and sooner or later I'd burst into tears and throw my workbook across the room.
Arithmetic always did this to me. Once I got to higher math I was fine, but there was something about addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division that I could never wrap my head around. Mostly, this didn't really matter. After sixth grade, most teachers would let us use calculators and if I didn't have to worry about the numbers, math became a matter of logic. I'm good at logic; I'm not good at numbers.
One small problem. Calculators are not permitted on the GRE exams.
At the age of twenty-two, I have discovered that multiplying fractions still has the power to reduce me to tears.