This is why I want to go back to school, because I think I know how to learn now. But oddly enough, very few continuing education programs contain "Physics for People who were Scared of Physics" courses. Heck, I should look for some remedial algebra and see how far my brain can get around higher math. That would keep the brain limber.

Eve Salvail, still looking gorgeous and chic.

Connie, you might want to take a look at Thinking Physics [link] I have kind of the opposite problem - I learned physics in a very mathy way but have little in the way of intuition as to how and why the equations work in the world and had that book recommended to me for that. It's helped clarify things I thought I knew and covers quite a lot.

I was one of those people who hit college and had a hard time academically for the first time, but I dug in my heels and refused to be beaten by the hard science core curriculum and got my BS. I kind of regret it, because that process beat a lot of the enjoyment of those subjects out of me for a long time.

Heck, I should look for some remedial algebra and see how far my brain can get around higher math. That would keep the brain limber.

Absolutely.

Heck, I should look for some remedial algebra and see how far my brain can get around higher math. That would keep the brain limber.

I've usually found Purple Math [link] to be a good algebra resource. I'd like it better if they gave examples to work out on your own at the end of each section, though.

This thread gives a lot of recommendations for Khan Academy.

I play a lot of problem solving games to keep my brain limber. There are all kinds of games on the internet, on phones, on various devices that can keep you engages and have your neurons firing.

ION, I had a bloody nose this morning right before I had to leave for work. I hope the rest of you had better mornings...

I definitely had people telling me I was smart, but it wasn't my Japanese parents. However, they were always supportive of me. They didn't pressure me, per se, but they did have high expectations, with which I pressured myself. The stereotype is interesting, though, in that it's what I've complained about most of my life. People assuming I make good grades because I'm Asian and therfore must be naturally smart. And me asserting that maybe I just work really hard.

Only I definitely was lazy and unwilling to pursue what didn't come easily. Which I discovered in seventh grade (I attended a truly excellent middle school, high school nsm) when I was placed in an independent studies program. I was not an independent studies kind of person, and basically I was doing it because my perpetual unrequited crush was in there. Neither condition was conducive to successful studies.

Then I skipped my junior year and subsequently bailed college early, both basically out of academic arrogance. I regret the latter but not the former, although I would not mind retaking the advanced subjects I missed. (I'd been accelerating classes to be able to take the higher maths and sciences, which meant at the end of my sophmore year I realized I had well more credits than I would need to graduate. So I doubled up on Englishes, and then bullied my would-be junior English teacher into letting me write for submission that period in the guidance counselor's office. So skipping was easy but I missed out on trig, calc, and physics, all of which I would have enjoyed.)

This thread gives a lot of recommendations for Khan Academy.

I read about Khan Academy a little while ago, and thought it sounded interesting, then totally forgot about it. Taking a look now.

Trig moved me to tears, except for the portions where we could apply the formulas to real things. I got As in those sections and Cs in the theoretical sections, but to my mind it just meant that practical stuff was easy and theoretical stuff was too hard for me. And Geometry was also easy to me. So I just shrugged and figured I couldn't do theory, and that my teachers were just being nice when they praised me.

Damn, so classic for the situation.