There is no doubt that math is one of the most feared subjects at school, and I have always wondered what it is that causes people to feel that way.
I used to feel the same way myself way back in 2005, when I had started out on trigonometry and had no clue how to handle periodic functions, and I eventually quit that math course;
but a few years later I started to realize how useful math actually was, and that I found it pretty fun up until that day when I quit, so I decided to give it another try and really make sure that I mastered each topic before moving on, and as a result I now study second year in Engineering Physics & Electrical Engineering.
To me, this is a sign that everyone can learn mathematics, because I really did feel truly lost for some time back in high school, yet I made a "comeback" and got well past that part.
But what exactly is it that intimidates people from math?
I have heard a lot of people say that they feel that math is "pointless" - but in fact, math is the foundation for our entire modern civilisation.
You need math to be able to build cars, skyscrapers and computers, and fairly advanced math to construct aeroplanes.
And even if you believe that you will not have any great use for math, it is still an excellent way to practice your logical thinking and your ability to solve problems.
Personally, I think that the reason why math becomes hard and frustrating for a lot of people is because they didn't take the time to truly grasp some of the fundamentals;
if you are unsure about things like the order of operations or how to calculate fractions, then all other math will inevitably end up really hard.
If you haven't mastered Arithmetics, then you will have major problems with Algebra, because Algebra is everything that Arithmetics was, plus some more stuff.
And similarly, Geometry is highly based on those two courses, and so on.
So I believe that math is kind of like building a house - you need to make sure to master each course, one at a time, until everything feels as crystal clear as possible.
And I think that a lot of students don't fully realise the importance of this.