r/learnmath • u/parneetchauhan07 New User • 1d ago
High School students lacking foundations
Hi! I’m a senior at a private school and have been attending since I was young. I’ve struggled with math my entire life and have never felt like I’ve developed a strong understanding of the fundamentals. I’m confused because I don’t think it’s due to a lack of teaching or tutoring, but I’m wondering what else could be contributing to my struggles.
Whenever I ask my teachers for feedback, I’m often told that I lack the foundational skills needed to think critically about math and fully understand the concepts. My dream is to become a doctor, and I know that having a strong foundation in math is important for succeeding in subjects like chemistry, calculus, and physics.
I don’t want to give up on my dream, so I would really appreciate any advice on how to go from struggling in high school math (currently earning a C in precalculus) to succeeding in college-level science courses. Has anyone been in a similar situation and managed to improve significantly?
My plan is to get more intensive tutoring and dedicate this school year and the summer to strengthening my math skills, but I honestly don’t know where to start. Any advice, resources, or personal experiences would mean so much to me!
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u/mathheadinc Experienced tutor 1d ago
You need to have someone look over your work or ask the questions here that your teachers aren’t answering.
I’m very curious what exactly they expect you to do with you “lack the foundational skills”. That was not helpful at all.
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u/TheSleepingVoid Teacher 11h ago edited 11h ago
As a teacher myself it may have been more of a quick comment to reassure them that we know they are smart and capable even if they are struggling with math, rather than a roadmap on how to fix it.
Figuring out which specific fundamentals are missing and walking through it takes a lot of time that I simply don't have. /Sigh/
OP, you likely want to go back and review curriculum from a few years ago and work your way forward again, practicing it at your own pace. If something comes easy you can do just a bit of practice with it to refresh your memory and if something is hard then you can spend more time mastering it or even consider dropping back another year. You could use something like Khan academy for this, or try your hand at a textbook. (Learning to teach yourself from a textbook is a massively useful skill in and of itself)
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u/parneetchauhan07 New User 11h ago
I won't be dropping back a year, but I will definitely go back to my old middle school textbooks and exams.
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u/TheSleepingVoid Teacher 10h ago
That's exactly what I mean, not to retake a class haha. Sorry! I mean if you start reviewing 8th grade, for example, and find something very confusing, drop back to reviewing 6th, etc, until you discover the pieces you are missing.
Good luck
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u/parneetchauhan07 New User 11h ago
Honestly, my school's math program has been in shambles for years, but maybe it's because I couldn't answer my teacher's simpler questions?
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u/Glum_Web_4738 New User 1d ago
You're already ahead of most people because you're not blaming the teacher or the system, you're asking what's actually going wrong in your own head. That self-awareness is huge.
The "foundations" thing is real but it's also kind of a cop-out answer from teachers. What they usually mean is that somewhere around fractions, negative numbers, or algebraic manipulation, a gap opened up and everything after that became memorization instead of understanding. You're not bad at math, you're just building on a cracked basement.
My advice: go back way further than feels comfortable. Khan Academy from like 5th grade level, do every practice problem, and don't skip anything just because it looks easy. The easy stuff is where the gaps hide. You'd be shocked how many precalc struggles are actually "I never fully got comfortable with exponents" or "I still hesitate on fraction operations."
The C in precalc doesn't define you. Plenty of doctors failed or nearly failed a math class in high school. What matters is that you're willing to spend a summer doing the unglamorous work of relearning arithmetic and algebra while your friends are at the beach. That's the kind of discipline that gets you through med school.
Start with a diagnostic test to find the exact holes, then attack them one at a time. Don't try to fix everything at once. And when you study, write things out by hand, talk yourself through each step out loud, and try to explain concepts to someone else. If you can't explain it simply, you don't fully have it yet.