I've always had an interest in science and becoming a scientist has always been a dream of mine. My problem seems to be my lack of math ability. In high school I took algebra and pre-calc and did well but never dared go any farther due to fear of failure.I feel like I should start learning math from the very basics again. Maybe I just didn't get it as a child. Anyone here like me? I'd like to become a scientist and contribute to society but I'm afraid I won't be able to due to my math inadequacies. How would I go about self-studying math?
How would I go about self-studying math?
Check out some curriculums, buy some books and start reading, as with any other subject, I suppose? I don't understand this thing people have about maths. Yes, some people have a talent for it and get it faster, but somehow in the US maths seems to be regarded as the exclusive domain of the loathed species of Nerds. It's not inherently any different from other theoretical subjects, it just happens to be more universally useful.
To OP, I've always had a love of maths. Calculations would not always go well for me though, but understanding what I was doing was more important to me than getting the right answer. I've been studying maths both formally and in my spare time simply because I've enjoyed being able to reduce concepts to numerical situations and then fiddle with those expressions until they break (hence the coupled love of algorithmics). I would encourage anyone who has an inclination towards maths to exploit it. It doesn't matter if you're scared of maths (that's the reason I didn't study maths as a degree in university; a choice I do regret), just get some books, and read through them.
If you like things along the lines of statistics, probability and very practical applications of maths, I would recommend maths books geared towards business managers. If you like physics, any first year college physics book has lots of equations that you can mess around with (also they usually have an appendix with nice concise notes on foundation-level maths). If you're feeling ballsy, get your hands on a college level linear algebra (Anton & Rorres do one called Elementary Linear Algebra, another one would be Contemporary Linear Algebra) and a book on calculus (again, Anton's Calculus or Thomas' Calculus are both good beginner books) and just go through them, doing the exercises to build your confidence (which is obviously very important).