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YouTube True Story:
Overcoming A Fear of Math
In this video, Barbara Collins, a partner at McMillan LP, shares her experience overcoming her youthful fear of math and a failing grade in high school. She eventually resolved to apply herself by studying hard for algebra in post-secondary. The result? She achieved an A, boosting her confidence. She later completed a Commerce degree and then enrolled in law school. Her story highlights the importance of perseverance and self-belief in achieving academic and career success.
Is Math Really Scary?
As a child, she admits she was always afraid of math. She said the concepts and homework were often overwhelming.
Upon graduation from high school, she decided to give math another try. She enrolled in a college algebra course and worked hard to understand the material. She was surprised to find that she was actually good at math when she applied herself!
Her success in #algebra gave her the confidence to pursue a degree in #finance and #law.
Now she's a partner at a national law firm where she practises corporate finance and securities law with a focus on mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and public and private financings.
Advising senior and junior companies on securities law as well as corporate and commercial matters, Barbara has significant industry knowledge in the mining, technology (high-tech and bio-tech), and forestry sectors. Her corporate and securities work includes local and national prospectus offerings, Toronto Stock Exchange and TSX Venture Exchange listings, private placements, bought deals, initial public offerings, normal course issuer bids, amalgamations, plans of arrangement, M&A, capital pool companies and corporate reorganizations. All of these involve some very challenging MATH!
The Importance of Perseverance and Self-Belief in Math
Her story shows you can overcome your fear of math and achieve success. The most important thing is to have perseverance and self-belief. If you are willing to work hard and never give up, you can achieve anything you set your mind to.
Tips for Overcoming Your Fear of Math.
Don't be afraid to ask for help. If you are struggling with a concept, don't be afraid to ask your teacher, a friend, tutor or classmate for help and coaching. Many high schools and post-secondary schools offer "peer tutors" at free or low-cost rates.
Practice regularly. The more you practice math, the better you will become at it.
Break down complex problems into smaller, more manageable steps. This can make problems seem less daunting.
Don't give up. If you make a mistake, don't get discouraged. Just learn from it and keep trying.
Use some math help services (see additional resources below) and watch some educational how-to videos on #YouTube for help if a tutor is unavailable or too costly.
Additional Math Help Services Resources
There are several excellent free math help services for helping high school students with math. These sites offer various resources such as videos, practice problems, interactive lessons, and explanations across all levels of high school mathematics. Here are some of the best below. Apps, videos and British Columbia-based tutors:
BC-based tutors often available at K-12 schools and post-secondaries
Check out your local School Districts to see if they have Peer Tutors.
Google Peer Tutoring Vancouver School Board for example to get recommendations like this.
A list of FREE global math help websites: These sites cater to different learning styles and preferences, whether you prefer watching videos, practicing problems, or reading through detailed notes. They provide a range of resources to reinforce math skills and prepare for exams. 1. Khan Academy
Website: Khan Academy
Description: Khan Academy offers a comprehensive collection of free video lessons, practice exercises, and quizzes on various math topics from basic arithmetic through advanced calculus and beyond. The interactive platform allows students to work through problems at their own pace, with step-by-step guidance.
Features: Video tutorials, practice problems, personalized dashboard.
2. Desmos
Website: Desmos
Description: Desmos provides an interactive graphing calculator and various math tools that help students visualize concepts like algebra, geometry, and calculus. Desmos also offers activities and lessons, particularly for high school students to explore and understand math concepts.
Features: Interactive graphing tools, math activities, and exploration.
3. Paul's Online Math Notes
Website: Paul's Online Math Notes
Description: This site offers extensive notes and tutorial-style lessons on topics ranging from pre-algebra to calculus. It's especially useful for high school students who need detailed explanations and worked-out examples to understand complex concepts.
Features: Detailed notes, example problems, and worksheets for practice.
4. Wolfram Alpha
Website: Wolfram Alpha
Description: While Wolfram Alpha is more of a computational tool, itâs a great resource for solving math problems step-by-step and understanding the solutions. It covers a wide range of math topics and helps students solve equations, plot graphs, and compute functions.
Features: Step-by-step solutions, interactive problem solver.
5. Mathway
Website: Mathway
Description: Mathway is a math problem solver that helps students solve problems across many areas of math. It offers instant solutions to problems, along with explanations for how to approach similar questions.
Features: Instant problem-solving, step-by-step solutions (limited free access).
6. IXL Math
Website: IXL Math
Description: IXL offers a comprehensive set of practice problems and skills-based lessons for high school math. Although there is a paid subscription, IXL offers a limited number of free practice problems each day.
Features: Practice questions, immediate feedback, skill tracking.
Calculators can help give you the answer but you should still know the steps.
Website: Brilliant.org
Description: Brilliant provides interactive problem-solving lessons and courses in math, science, and engineering. While some content is behind a paywall, there is a selection of free lessons that can be useful for high school students looking to deepen their understanding of math concepts.
Features: Interactive learning, problem-solving approach, and challenging puzzles.
8. YouTube Channels
9. Mathisfun
Website: Mathisfun
Description: Mathisfun offers a clear, visual approach to understanding mathematical concepts. The site covers topics from basic arithmetic to more advanced algebra and geometry. Itâs an excellent resource for high school students looking for easy-to-follow explanations.
Features: Clear, simple explanations, interactive elements and visual aids.
11. Desmos Classroom Activities
Website: Desmos Classroom
Description: Desmos provides free, interactive lessons that can help high school students in class better understand mathematical concepts. These lessons cover topics like algebra, geometry, and statistics through dynamic, student-centered activities. But this website is designed for teachers to use in their classes.
Features: Interactive activities, real-time feedback for students and teachers.
12. OpenStax
Website: OpenStax
Description: OpenStax offers free, peer-reviewed, openly licensed textbooks that cover various high school and introductory college-level math courses. The books are available in PDF, web, and ePub formats.
Features: Free math textbooks, interactive practice problems, real-world applications.
13. Chatgpt
Website: Chatgpt
Description: Chatgpt can actually help solve math problems by copying and pasting the question and it will give a step-by-step solution to solve the problem.
Features: Step-by-step solution, answer specific questions that you have.
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