Drop a Decimal, Carry the One and Call for Help! (Wait...I do need math?!)

I was good at math in high school.  Now, I was no Mathlete (that was middle school...lol) or anything, but I managed to get decent grades in most of my college prep-track math courses.  Heck, I even took calculus!

I can't say I hated it (cue Damon Wayans and David Alan Grier's "Men on Film" characters from in Living Color).  I liked math.  I like solving problems, so math, no big problem. All, except for one math section, which struck fear in the heart of my TI-83.
 Geometry. The course was more exactly called Geometry, Trigonometry, and Analysis.
More like "I'm Ruining Your GPA with Some C Minuses."
 (Yeah, I was one of those students who swore their parents were going to throw them off a bridge if I came home with a B-.  It's a wonder no one called CPS on us.)

I hated Geometry.  I don't care about imaginary/complex numbers, don't really like rhombuses (I'm more of a  circle person myself) and the only time I want to hear a "cosine" is when I tell my friends a funny story (look it up if you don't remember, that's actually quite clever if I do say so myself). I didn't do well there, and was glad to be done with that class, and happy to  think, like most my age, that I'll never have to see that stuff again.

I can add, subtract, multiply, divide, tell time and make change.  I can even do my taxes ( with the help of some software).  I'm good, right?

So, needless to say, my heart sank a bit when I received my Macro Econ syllabus.  Now, I expect to see some math.  Algebra, Calculus, stuff I can remember or fake with a calculator if needed.  Not the G-word,  not that!  All this on top of the fact that, when I last took any of these subjects, Facebook didn't even exist yet (tell that to the kiddies and I'm sure you'll get a gasp of horror!) 

What to do?  I have a test in this stuff on the first day of class!  Well, I have pulled up a few resources to refresh what little math memory I have left.  If you have mistaken E=mc2 for the Quadratic Equation, you may want to bookmark them as well.


Are you smarter than your calculator?

Resources Available:

Your School’s Math Department- Check to see if there is a bulletin board or website postings for pizza- or money-starved students willing to tutor! ( So your next math problem will be “How many pizzas do I have to buy to pass this test?)

Other School’s Math Departments- many of the best resources I have found have been free teaching aids posted online by other University professors. A quick Google search of “quadratic equation” or “systems of equations” (not quite as scary as it sounds) should yield some great step-by-step instructions.

Dean of Students or Academic Support Services/Advising- I also learned from my advisor that many students aren’t as confident in their math skills (we are not alone) and has set up tutoring and study group sessions.

http://library.thinkquest.org/20991/alg2/systems.html - Math for Morons Like Us

Hey, insult me all you want, just show me how to do it!

My professor suggested, and I will be humbly buying:

RECOMMENDED COURSE MATERIALS

1) Algebra Success in 20 Minutes a Day (Skill Builders), 4th ed., LearningExpress Editors (ISBN 978-

1576857199)

2) Geometry Success in 20 Minutes a Day (Skill Builders), 3rd ed., LearningExpress Editors (ISBN 978-

1576857458)