I'm not hating college or anything like that. I think it's great still, but my problem is just writing an essay and doing word problems in math, both of which I'm struggling with at the moment. The situation doesn't make sense to me because I do understand what I need to do with my essay, but I can't bring myself to doing it or actually being good at it. Same thing with my math homework, I can do well in math but the word problems are such a pain to do. I feel as though I lost some confidence in myself and I'm worried it will lead to me failing the semester. That tutoring center the admissions talked about in orientation is closed for Labor Day and my math homework would be due the next day, which leaves another addition to an already tight schedule. The essay is just another thing I'm worried about because I never written a college style essay before. I feel like I'm becoming overwhelmed and don't know what else do.
With the essay just try and relax. If its your first essay for college, the professor will be lenient and usually the first is the hardest because you don't know how they grade. But once you understand what they want and how they grade it gets easier . The math problems all it takes is practice, practice and more practice. I used to be the pits at math problems but all it takes is dedication and working through all the examples your textbook offers when it comes to solving these and that should help. If worse comes to worse you can use cramster and find your textbook they have the solutions however, I will caution you DO NOT use this as a substitute. It may help you solve the problems but if you don't understand or have a hard time figuring out what to do, it will be apparent on the exams. Also if you are still having a hard time understanding the problem perhaps you could write down the steps needed to solve the problem, i.e.: 1) Read the problem 2) List all the information that is given 3) Identify the math equation(s) needed to solve…. 4) etc.
Did you ever learn the technique to solving word problems? The trick is to filter out all the crap info and put the good stuff in a regular arrangement. I'm going to use the most basic example but it goes something like this. All of that gets boiled down to (5+2-1)/2 to equal 3. The same principle applies to any level of math. Essay writing is much more of an art that can't be explained in one little forum post, but it should be done in basically a 1-3-1 ratio: One part proposal, 3 parts evidence, and 1 part implication. What idea are you exploring, what proof do you have, and what does it mean? That's all an essay is at its barest.
