[Blindmath] Struggling Mathematics Student

[Joseph Lee]

Hi,
Have you talked to another math professor in hopes that you'll get a better
overview on concepts and formulas? Perhaps if your current professor is not
accommodating, maybe try taking the classes again with a different
professor. Another option might be to take those courses during summer and
transfer the credits to your college.
For statistics, what matters more is if you are an eloquent writer and can
provide evidence to support your answer. Although formulas are necessary and
you need to remember a few values from Student's T Table and other
formulations, what's more important is using those formulas to arrive at
your conclusion and willing to defend your findings.
As for the question you posed: 1-I suggests that one of the roots is
negative, hence produces complex number (as you probably know). As far as
complex roots are concerned, a root of a negative number always produces two
answers: real+imaginary and real-imaginary, which are called complex
numbers. Another way of approaching this would have been common divisor, and
since there is none (actually, there is one, and that is 1), you need to use
a specific formula for quartic equations (fourth degree polynomial). Since
one of the possible factors are given, you can try finding out the other
three (or four) factors (why is it that I keep thinking of differential
equations?).
One advice: don't expect the professor to go by review sheets alone - some
will ask questions not on the review sheet, which comes from homework and/or
extra assignments 9mostly from homework).
Good luck.
Cheers,
Joseph 

-----Original Message-----
From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Clayton
Jacobs via Blindmath
Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2014 6:26 AM
To: blindmath at nfbnet.org
Subject: [Blindmath] Struggling Mathematics Student

I am a college student currently taking College Algebra With Limits and
Statistics. In both classes, I am not doing well. In College Algebra With
Limits, the professor speeds through his lectures, and even though I type
out the equations he puts on the board, I can't keep up with him. To make
matters worse, my Orion Ti-84 Plus calculator decided to give on me after
only having it for 4 months. The note packets are inaccessible, and while
the disability department at my college is translating the packets, it is
almost too late in the semester. Additionally, the professor does not
explain the steps he uses to solve the problems, so my tutor has to do all
of the work in teaching me. While I have aced my homework, I have failed
both of my exams so far. The first exam was inaccessible, and the reader
couldn't even read the exam properly to me to even make sense of it. The
second exam, which I took yesterday, covered material not even on the review
sheet. Here was one of the problems verbatim, which I tried my best to
solve. Factor the expression into a product of linear factors given that 1-i
is a zero. f(x)=x^4-7x^3+18x^2-26x+12 In Statistics, the professor was great
in trying to get me accessible notes, but fell short when formulas were
concerned. I still do not know how to compute the standard error, margin of
error, confidence intervals, and finding probabilities between z scores or
areas. I am at a loss of what to do at this point. Trying to explain
accessibility with formulas has been a nightmare, especially with my College
Algebra With Limits professor, who has adamantly refused to translate the
equations into accessible form because that requires too much work for him,
according to his statement. I had to file a federal complaint against this
college last year for failing to accommodate, in which a mediation agreement
was reached. Yet, in many ways, it seems the faculty have treated this as a
drop in the bucket. I have had such a bad experience with collegiate
accommodations that I have questioned why I even went back to college in the
first place. 
 		 	   		  
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