Boy, Marina, I’m with you, and especially word problems. I know they are what turned me off to Math in the first place. I aced Logic in college, so it’s not that. I have this strange feeling that the teachers that handed out the word problems had no concept of how to explain to solve them either, which is why there was no explanation of how to go about it. The train ones were the ones that gave me a headache.
I just came back through the Seattle airport. The TSA agent asked me as I went through a question before I could pass. How many seconds were there in a year? I started calculating minutes times hours times days, etc. Anyone one out there know the correct answer? It’s actually very easy.
aneedle: If I were you, try asking the teacher to explain a word problem for you so that YOU can understand it. I’m really interested to see if they can. By that, I mean taking a non homework one and sitting down with you until you can do another similar one on your own and get the correct answer. If that particular teacher can’t, go find another one (or someone good at TEACHING Math and see if they can help you. I wish I’d thought of doing that. I didn’t get Math until my very last course and it was Math for Elementary School Teachers. We had this fabulous Jr. High teacher that could explain anything to our feeble minds. Wish I’d found him early on. Best wishes, I truly feel for you.