How do I study what I missed in high school?

Do you have access to a GED program? You may be able to work something out with them in regards to resources for those classes. Not sure it will work, but worth a try.

 

The internet isn't always good for learning maths, except maybe geometry. It's good for sciences like biology, chemistry, and physics. It's just not the same as learning in a class. You'll find yourself depending heavily on memorization. Amazon.com sells lots of used textbooks for prices as cheap as $20, hell I even bought some for about $5.

 

I highly, highly disagree.

If you want to learn math concepts, check out people like KhanAcademy and PatrickJMT. Those are the two I've used and I'm taking 3rd-year engineering math, so they cover a wide variety of subjects. They basically make video tutorials on different math concepts. They often give examples as well. They're really well done IMO.

As for the list of concepts you'd need, however, I'm not sure where you'd get that. Check the course listings for the program you're entering? Perhaps you could call the university and talk to an advisor? I'm sure you aren't the first person with this dilemma.

 

My advice would be to find a few old versions of the test you'll be taking (usually they have these things archived online or in their library - if they aren't available you could just find a similar test from another university, or an old highschool exam) and go through it and see how much you can do. When you get to a question you don't know how to approach, then you can search for help with that specific problem - it will work much better than just trying to learn everything without having much direction or knowledge of what is actually useful or necessary, and then attempting the exam and hoping you covered everything you need.

Doing this also gets you prepared for how the questions will be asked in the test.

 

iTunesU is a really good resource for learning various courses. Ive watched and listened to many quite interesting subjects (of course, I do it because I actually enjoy listening to them...) I'm sure they probably have something for pretty much anything you may want to learn about for a simple college proficiency test. And most importantly, its all completely free to download!

Edit: I just did a quick search for Geometry courses on there, and came up with about 10 or 15 separate collections, two of them being from the aforementioned Khan Academy, and one specifically for GED preparation.

 

there's youtube videos of science and maybe math subjects lol.
particularly biology where you have to visualize stuff.
chemistry is about taking observation of behaviors of certain things...

i remember actually youtubing/googling for one concept for calculus, I think it's the chain rule

 

I wish I could say the same, I'd be all set if I could only pass any math exams or get above a 19 on the ACT's, even taking all those classes doesn't guarantee anything even if you do put in the work. Heck I don't think our class valedictorian can get 36's in multiple categories. You've certainly got the smarts it that's your concern, you shouldn't have any issue learning things if you put your mind to it.

I can relate to the not doing enough in high school, looking back I wasted a lot of opportunities that I really should have taken advantage of. It was just one of those times though, I don't really know what I was doing or where I was going so that really hurt me.

Look at local bookstores, libraries and other places where students may have dumped their old books, older or disused books are often set aside and sold for lower prices than ones that are in demand so they may be better to learn on with a budget.

Getting some sort of credit would be greatly useful too, it'll help you not only in purchases but in other situations when you'll need that feedback from creditors (Loans, rates, etc). Just don't abuse it, even if you did then there's always time to fix it (Sooner rather than later).

 

l tell you what. l was briefly in the juvenile correction system and l PROMISE you l learned nothing in our "school". l think the curriculum was nearly special education but the state was permitted to call it standard so our credits aligned with the public schools.

l looked at your age and l'm not sure about your state but here, students over 21 don't even need to show ACT or SAT scores. Though, l started out in community college.


l did take about 1 semester of general ed classes to make up for what l was missing in my transcripts, but generally if you test well enough and are over a certain age, many exceptions are made.

l'd visit some of the online free education sources people mentioned but you won't need to cram as much as you think you do.

 

High school drop-out myself, proud owner of a GED, I'm embarrassed to say how many years between high school and college for me. I totally know how you feel.

Way late to the party, but in addition to khan academy, oak road systems was amazing for me freshman year. I'd start with trig without tears. All the hard stuff you get hit with right off is gonna be trig and exponents.

Trig Without Tears
Exponents, Derivatives, and Integrals, oh my!

Once you're really good with that you're gonna wanna head to Paul's online math notes. That will take you all the way from calc 1 to anywhere.

Paul's online math notes

And at some point if you do science you're gonna wanna learn vectors

Introduction to Vectors in plain English

From high school algebra to advanced math! The 'net's pretty awesome I think.

Oh BTW, I really think you should learn the greek alphabet early on. And if you're a computer nerd like me LaTeX.

 

There's a ton of stuff online and you can get used textbooks for DIRT cheap on Amazon.

I didn't have a break in between, but I did muck up my high school years. I just never felt like I was running on all engines - I got by. I got A's and B's and a few C's - I'm not at all stupid, either.

But in college, I finally learned how to put the pieces together. So, while you are studying and trying to learn some things, maybe take it upon yourself to go the distance. This might sound crazy, but learning a foreign language is a great place to start. That's what helped me to realized I could study, and there wasn't something wrong with me. You force yourself to sit down and learn vocab or concepts.

Or, if that isn't your thing, maybe it's something else that is similar.

Best of luck!

 

Education is overrated...

....build a sailboat instead (geometry, engineering, carpentry, fluid mechanics, hydrodynamics, aeronautics and God knows what else) then sail it (celestial navigation, meteorology, logistics, electronics, communications, triangulation, laws of the sea, commerce, etc.)...got my point?

If not, here it is: you learn by doing and tinkering, getting your hands dirty, by getting into the muck of reality: you are well-equipped to figure things out for yourself, especially because your survival depends on it.

Beats sitting in class all day, or sitting in front of a computer...and you'll actually remember what you learned, instead of learning to pass someone's conceited notion of a "test"

 

omg... can u go online and buy some used (cheaper) version of college prep materials? lol. some shit like AP or intro college stuff might suffice

 

My 12th grade social studies teacher actually told me once something like: "The reason we have high schools is so that we have a place to keep people until society is ready for them." He also said that the basic stuff we actually needed we learned by the end of elementary school (reading, basic math, etc).

My teacher was about one year from retirement, and he was more than a little cynical and burned out by that point. But his comments were thought provoking. Which is more than I can say for the school district chosen/approved social studies text books.