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I'm trying to review my math skills before taking the placement exam. It's amazing how much you loose after almost 10 years.
I am not sure what sort of college you are attending, but I'll tell you what helped me. I started school at the University of Mississippi, did one semester, and then had to move to upstate New York when my husband returned from Iraq. The only school up there (other than Syracuse University which was too expensive for my budget) was Jefferson Community College. It didn't bother me to do a semester or two there, and I was only a freshmen anyway. I could pick up some credits there and it wouldn't affect my degree at all. I always planned on returning to UM.
I had not been in a math class in 7 years, and when I was in high school math was, by far, my worst subject. At this point, I couldn't even remember how to do fractions or long division. I probably couldn't even have done something as simple as X+3=6, which is, I know, sad as hell. I took a placement test and didn't know how to do one single problem (how embarrasing). So, I took a class that was worth five credits and was two classes in one semester: Basic Algebra and Intermediate Algebra. It met 5 days a week, and it took you from maybe a 6th grade math level through Algebra II in one semester. The first day we did a review on how to solve fractions, and I flipped. Everyone there seemed to know what they were doing, and I was so lost. I truely believed math was going to prevent me from getting a degree, because UM requires 6 hours at the College Algebra level and above.
I just sort of plodded along, did my homework, and finished the semester with a 100 average. My professor was suprised I was a history major and not considering something along the lines of economics or accounting. My high school math teachers would have had a stroke. This semester, I returned to the University of Mississippi and took College Algebra. We haven't taken the final exam yet, but I currently have a 97 average. I still can't believe that I am factoring, doing quadratic equations, and logarithms when I seriously couldn't do a fraction just a few months ago. The moral of the rather long story is, take a refresher math course. It did me so much good. I had another friend who is older jump straight into College Algebra and fail it. Even though the class doesn't count towards my degree, even as elective credit, it was so very worth it.