Ede’s Success Story

I first attended college in 1966 as a bright eyed, rebellious 60's teenager.  I partied way too much and totally blew the opportunity for an education.  After two semesters, my parents decided that their money would be better spent elsewhere.

In 1986, married and with three children who were exhibiting signs of being more intelligent than me, I returned to school.  I met with a counselor at Seminole State College of Florida who informed me that since I had been to college (at the turn of the century mind you), there were now both math and science required courses.  In 1966 you only had to deal with math if your major required it--mine did not.

I immediately told the counselor that there was no way I could "do math."  She immediately told me that if I didn't, I would never get a college degree.  I went to the testing center and promptly scored in the fourth grade range on the math placement test.  To this day, the director tells me no one has ever scored that low!  I spent the next term in the math lab getting my very basic skills up to an 8th grade level and then entered Basic Algebra.

The first day of class, the instructor passed out a 10 question "pre-test."  I, of course, did not know one answer, and I panicked.  I ran out of the room, straight to the rest room where I threw-up everything I had eaten for the entire week before the pre-test!  When I returned to class (totally mortified and feeling very much less than brilliant) the instructor was assuring the class that the test didn't count for anything and that our grades were for comparison purposes only, etc.  When class was over, he asked me to stay, and I didn't let the poor man get a word in edgewise.  I just rattled on about how I couldn't do this and how my life was over and on and on. He invited me to the math lab (now the Academic Success Center) and also suggested I speak with someone in the counseling office about my math anxiety.

I went to the math lab that afternoon and except for classes, rest room breaks and home to feed the family, I never left!  When I graduated two years later, I had successfully passed Basic and Intermediate algebra, College Algebra, and Statistics.  I got A's in all the algebra classes and a B in Statistics!  My instructor was incredibly patient with me.  I would do one homework problem, and he would check it for me.  Then I would move on to the next one.  I knew my confidence was building when I finally could go three or four problems before having him check them.  When I finally left the math lab, they threatened to bronze my chair!

I also took my instructor's advice and went through a math anxiety program offered by the college's testing and assessment office.  I finally learned that throwing up was not acceptable behavior and this time around, I really worked hard at learning math.  This go round I didn't waste time "winging it" as I had all through high school so long ago.  I was taught to accept math as a puzzle and that I had all the pieces—I just needed to figure out how they went together!

I am more than proud to say that I graduated from Seminole State College of Florida, went on to whiz through the University of Central Florida in 3 terms, and graduated with a degree in History and a minor in Geology.  A day doesn't go by that I don't use some of the math I learned along the way, mainly statistics, but I would have never gotten there without those basic math classes.

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