Scared to death

[Sandra]

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Hey Guy's....I have always loved medicine. Over the years I have kept abreast of new developments in the field.But am in college now....one thing that frightens me more than anything else and that's the math. I have always avoided numbers like the plague all my life and now its biting me in the butt.I would rather take a beating than deal with it. Has anyone else been through this? I would so appreciate some insight. Thanks.

 

[relentless11]

Hey Guy's....I have always loved medicine. Over the years I have kept abreast of new developments in the field.But am in college now....one thing that frightens me more than anything else and that's the math. I have always avoided numbers like the plague all my life and now its biting me in the butt.I would rather take a beating than deal with it. Has anyone else been through this? I would so appreciate some insight. Thanks.

I hated math in high school. Took calculus and realized it was one of the most amazing things ever, considering it is the foundation of your basic sciences. In college, realized I hated statistics. Then last summer took 2 quarters of medical statistics an realized how useful it was too.

There will be many classes that you will hate, fear, and so forth as an undergrad, and probably as a med student. So time to start learning how to overcome fears, because if math scares you, wait till you do physics, statistics, and so on.

You can look at it as something you are afraid of, or you can look at it as a challenge that you can overcome. Past inadequacies in math are just that, its in the past. You as an individual is responisible for identifying better ways to deal with such classes. I learned that I just needed to keep doing problems over and over...which is common sense. More practice = remembering more. Ironic that I didn't realize that in highschool..lol. So yea...good luck with that.

 

[njbmd]

Hey Guy's....I have always loved medicine. Over the years I have kept abreast of new developments in the field.But am in college now....one thing that frightens me more than anything else and that's the math. I have always avoided numbers like the plague all my life and now its biting me in the butt.I would rather take a beating than deal with it. Has anyone else been through this? I would so appreciate some insight. Thanks.

Hi there,
As a physician, you do not have the luxury of "fearing" or "avoiding" anything that will potentially help your patients. Rather than thinking of math as something you have to "deal with" think of math as a tool for understanding your sciences and nothing more. Math may never be your favorite subject but you can bet your life that you are going to encounter plenty of things in medical school that will not be your favorites yet you will have to master them. Use your math as a tool and nothing more. You do not need the extra anxiety of "talking yourself out of doing well". You can just as easily "talk yourself into doing well."

njbmd 🙂

 

[supercut]

Plus you don't need advanced math. Even on the MCAT, there's not time...the review course people will tell you that if you're doing more than 4 lines of math, you've missed something in that question.

I don't think any of the math I do as a doctor is harder than the math required to balance a checkbook. And you are allowed to use a calculator!

If you want to be a doctor bad enough, you'll find a way to learn how to do the math you need.

 

[relentless11]

Plus you don't need advanced math. Even on the MCAT, there's not time...the review course people will tell you that if you're doing more than 4 lines of math, you've missed something in that question.

I don't think any of the math I do as a doctor is harder than the math required to balance a checkbook. And you are allowed to use a calculator!

If you want to be a doctor bad enough, you'll find a way to learn how to do the math you need.

I'd have to agree. Unless the OP wants to be an MSTP or something, or do extra research in the future which could involve higher math. Depending But thats probably the extent of why one would need to do derivatives and integrals while being a physician. Unlikely that one would whip those mathematical things out when seeing patients.

 

[TypeA]

I have dealt with the same thing. Or I should say AM DEALING with the same thing. I opted to get a private tutor to give me a good base before I have to jump into my Calc class. That way, everything won't be new to me and my questions (and mistakes) will have been answered without a grade hanging over my head.

Tutors are expensive, I grant you that. If it is option however..I suggest it.

 

[Sandra]

Thanks so much for your responses. I appreciate it.

 

[LynnKat]

Hey Guy's....I have always loved medicine. Over the years I have kept abreast of new developments in the field.But am in college now....one thing that frightens me more than anything else and that's the math. I have always avoided numbers like the plague all my life and now its biting me in the butt.I would rather take a beating than deal with it. Has anyone else been through this? I would so appreciate some insight. Thanks.

You can do this if you want it badly enough! I had pretty good math grades in high school , butI was awful at Math as an undergrad and my math SAT was not good. It almost kept me from attempting the sciences as well, even though I needed them for what I wanted to do. I decided to go for it and what helped me was a review of basic math.

As it turned out, my problem was mostly panic and that for whatever reason I had poor basic skills because I let myself get overwhelmed. I used a review book and dilligently went through the exercises from basic factoring through trig the summer before I started. It helped me a lot. Also, if you have the time and money and one is available, you could take a math course at a local community college to brush up on your skills and help you build confidence. For the science classes you will use lots of algebra and you'll use trig in physics (unless for some reason you take calc based physics). It is definitely possible to make it through as a recovering math-phobe 🙂 . I somehow managed it, and I'm sure you can as well!

 

[kai_zen]

Hi there,
As a physician, you do not have the luxury of "fearing" or "avoiding" anything that will potentially help your patients. Rather than thinking of math as something you have to "deal with" think of math as a tool for understanding your sciences and nothing more. Math may never be your favorite subject but you can bet your life that you are going to encounter plenty of things in medical school that will not be your favorites yet you will have to master them. Use your math as a tool and nothing more. You do not need the extra anxiety of "talking yourself out of doing well". You can just as easily "talk yourself into doing well."

njbmd 🙂

👍 it's so true. it has something to do with attitude towards the subject. in highschool, i was so poor in physics, i had to retake a couple of exams and barely made a passing grade-and absolutely hated class despite having a great prof.
but guess what, since i started college and did a 180 on my attitude towards classes, my grades changed and i ended up with a 3.9 in physics, and had fun doing it! as njb said, it has something to do with thinking of the subject as a tool towards your ends. and also facing your fears and telling yourself that you not only can do it, but will do it!
best wishes for your doing math!

 

[OctoDoc]

....one thing that frightens me more than anything else and that's the math. I have always avoided numbers like the plague all my life and now its biting me in the butt. I would rather take a beating than deal with it.

You need to change your attitude about your math anxiety. Instead of wanting to take a beating rather than dealing with it, you have to want to learn mathematics. Trying to learn math when you have a negative attitude (that includes trepidation) is inherently self defeating. By acknowledging your fear, and deciding to not let it stop you, you will be in the best mindset to succeed. Your phobia probably won't ever entirely go away (unless you discover that you are a math prodigy 🙂 ). However, if you have a positive attitude about math, and learn what you need, math will never again seem so scary.

You can do it!

 

[thirdunity]

Hey Guy's....I have always loved medicine. Over the years I have kept abreast of new developments in the field.But am in college now....one thing that frightens me more than anything else and that's the math. I have always avoided numbers like the plague all my life and now its biting me in the butt.I would rather take a beating than deal with it. Has anyone else been through this? I would so appreciate some insight. Thanks.

Hi Sandra!

I *hated* math. Oh, how I hated it. The dread of math was a contributor in my choice to drop out of high school, the fact that I didn't finish college in my 20s, and my choice of careers.

But now - I love math.

Lick the math monster. You can do it. The thing is, approach math *on your own terms*. Get the books, and start studying them. Get tutoring. When you get back in class, you'll already have some familiarity.

For every hour of book, do two hours of math lab, tutoring, or non-book work. Books such as the "Demystified" series (Pre-Algebra Demystified, Algebra Demystified, Geometry Demystified; they go all the way up through Calculus and higher) are *much* better at explaining and breaking down the problems in plain and simple English than the math books are. There are also a number of videos and computer tutorial programs (an excellent resource) that you can use.

You can beat math anxiety, because I did. It will just take some effort and motivation.

 

[Gatewayhoward]

It seems like most of us in medicine are more wired for the sciences than mathematics. Since returning to college after a year off, I found my math skills are atrocious. So I'm retaking college algebra. I figure mastering the basics will make the upper level courses much easier.