Hello!

The amount of time it takes to memorize facts and figures for an exam is relative. If you retain information fairy quickly, your time is your own. You can do what you want, study then go see a movie. Or hang out with friends, then spend ten minutes looking over your notes for class. Especially, if you have spent a considerable amount of time with a particular subject. If your exposure  to the material is quite recent, then it’s very easy to pick up where you left off and master it. However, there are smart adult learners who have decided to go back to school and they have not seen math in years. He or she may feel like they received a previous education which was either outdated or lacking on some level.  But they want a degree so they enroll in a course that frightens them. The fallacy is that a student must read a text book for hours in order to start speaking math language. A book is not going to process the information for you. Everyone has their own way of retaining the material. The truth of the matter is learning does not discriminate by who you are, where you come from, or the lack of information you previously obtained from past experiences. Learn by doing. Here are a few foods for thought in terms of taking a course as an adult learner.

1. You can not memorize what you don’t understand in the first place. It’s not like saying Beetle Juice three times and all of the sudden you know it.  Learn the concepts first before you memorize the symbols.
2. If you don’t know the math basics- learn it. Because your average statistics course that involve math symbols will assume you know it.
3. If you are on a time constraint, only study what you need to know for the test. There is a misconception that a student will master a course in one semester. I will tell you right now- nobody will hire a person because you took math 101 for four months. Take away the fear of not knowing the full picture. Because the reality is the courses are never designed to teach you every aspect of a topic. If that were the case, we would have very big brains and a masters could be achieved in a day. Let’s be real here, no one is that smart. Period.

So relax and let go of fear and intimidation, when you sign up for any quantitative course. You are smart enough to take it. Your past experiences do not limit you from retaining the information. You can do it!

–Moore to follow Amy