Hello friends and family,

 Remember earlier in the week when I complained about my Statistics class? Well, get ready for some more of that as I have gone from bad to worse at math. I never have problems with school. I have always made excellent grades, graduated with honors, gotten the scholarships and the awards and done all of this with very little work on my part. I’m that annoying person who doesn’t have to study or do their assigned reading and still walks away with the A. Except in math. You see, I’ve just never mastered this art. I was good at math in elementary school but, like a lot of females, lost my abilities around adolescence. (Interesting sidebar-there have been a great deal of studies about this phenomenon. In elementary school girls outperform boys in math and then there is a drastic shift in the opposite direction with boys outperforming girls in math from adolescence on. Isn’t that strange and interesting? At least I’m normal in my post-adolescence math crappiness).

Point being that math classes have been getting the best of me since the 8th grade. Yes, I’ve made some A’s in these math classes, but it always took a lot more work than I like to put into things and I’ve still never really gotten it. Sure, I could master something for the test, but it was never lifelong learning. I can’t tell you the quadratic equation or how to do long division even though I mastered those at various times in high school. I just don’t get math. Just do not get it. Can’t look at a problem and know how to solve it and then do it and know it’s right.

Math makes me doubt myself in major ways. I never doubt myself, even when I’m wrong. But math. Evil math makes me feel stupid. Really, really stupid. Like people who say “supposebly” or “fixin’ to” or confuse the verb “teach” with “learn”. Yes, I feel like an idiot. Let me tell you why:

This week, after my not so stellar score of 70% (eek!) on my last quiz, I decided to calm down and focus a little more and do some more practice problems and write everything out and take my time. Okay, so I read the lessons about the mean, mode, median, range and standard deviation and did the sample problems and felt pretty good. Felt like I could take the quiz (which is open book, by the by) and do well. And then I got my grade. Prepare yourselves for something awful. Brianne, formerly smart person got a 50% on an open book quiz that she thought she aced! Oh, for shame! This is what math does to me! Every stinking (I wanted to use another word here that starts with F but thought I’d keep things G rated, you know, for the kids) time!! I cannot master this and it’s only the 3rd week of class. There are 9 weeks to go and I’ve already sucked it up. Why do I suck so badly at math? Why can’t my brain process this information? This is like the humiliation of the ACT test all over again. My scores:

English: 30, Reading: 35, Science Reasoning: 30, Math: 25. That’s right, 25! Infants could score a 25 for the love of Pete!

Well, sorry for the long rant but I just cannot get over my frustration with this. The fact that a subject in school is getting the best of me is one thing, but the fact that it’s my arch nemesis, Math, is another. I hate this.

I hope you all have a lovely, statistics-free Saturday and, as always, M Go Blue!

Sincerely,

Statistically stymied Brianne

P.S. I must say that having a blog on which to rant is a great thing. For example, I haven’t mentioned to anyone over the phone or in person that I’m so frustrated with my Statistics class. If you asked non-blog readers, they’d have no idea. But, here I am with this great forum for venting my irritation and self-loathing about this subject. Look at this, blog, you’re positively impacting my life. Score!