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.

People who are good at cooking: If a recipe calls for sliced zucchini to oven-roast in with the chicken, can I use a bag of frozen, or will it be too mushy at the end?

I not only had the advanced track math & science classes thru high school, the slight majority in those classes were girls! Can't say enough for the peer support that gave me.

( this was mid-70s! )

And I enjoyed the heck out of it, too. But I went to college to become A Writer which in retrospect was a poor choice.

If a recipe calls for sliced zucchini to oven-roast in with the chicken, can I use a bag of frozen, or will it be too mushy at the end?

It will be mushy, but it will still taste good.

I've told my calculus story in here, right?

I completed messed up my first semester of calculus in school because while the math was okay, conceptually I was not getting it. The teacher told us about calculations that involved spinning a washer around an axis and to get the hollow point.

For 5 months, I thought he meant a washer (as in dryer) and I could not get how a 5 cm washer was anything we should worry about. I did not get visually what he was driving at.

It was not until 5-10 years after that, that I learned the name of the metal disks that were lying around my house and that I saw my father use all the time. It was then that I understand why I missed the boat.

Thanks, Jessica!

I don't know whether or not to be surprised that so many of us had similar experiences -- believing we were smart kids, getting by without having to work too hard, and therefore thinking that we just weren't good at anything that didn't come easily. I still feel that way, though at least these days I'm more able to recognize the mindset and talk my way out of it on occasion.

My favorite teacher in HS, both at the time and in retrospect, was Ms. DeFeo, my English teacher in 9th and 11th grade. She gave me my first C, and though I was mortified about it at the time, it did motivate me to work harder in her class, and to realize (maybe for the first time) that being a smart kid didn't automatically mean I'd get As all the time.

She was also a cranky, eccentric, funny, outspoken, unabashed feminist, and she let me write a paper on Jeanette Winterson's Sexing the Cherry. God, I loved her.

Looked at Khan Academy, glanced at the basic math section, realized my utter ignorance of fractions. Now want to hide under a desk with my pathetic brain and just read smutty fic all day.

edit: (off to Khan Academy to study fractions)

For 5 months, I thought he meant a washer (as in dryer) and I could not get how a 5 cm washer was anything we should worry about. I did not get visually what he was driving at.

OK, this adds way more incentive to my vague "I ought to find some visual aids for that section" thoughts. My class will be getting to that in a few weeks.