Failing Sophia Algebra

[Avidreader]

Yes, I know that plenty of folk here find the course easy squeazy and could ace the tests with their eyes closed. But unfortunately for me, I was always awful at math. I had to grind 10,000 times more than my peers just to barely scramble by and get a D most of my life. I can answer logic math questions very well but my dark horse which is why I always fail exams:

The questions on exams have less than 2% of things in common with the exercises taught in class. So, add the frustration of grinding a subject that already always frustrated me for hours a day doing homework and homework and more homework and then always flunking exams getting 40%. Pretty much the only reason I passed grades at all was from homework. I never scored over a 63 on exams. One of the reasons my math skills are this bad is because the educational system when I grew up speedrunned everything and wanted to cram 3 years of courses in 10 months.

When I repeat an exact same exercise over 200 times, eventually it 'clicks' and not because I quite understand the why but because I just memorized how they want the solution and just want to get on with my life.
So, I had a glimmer of hope maybe Sophia Algebra would be doable for people as hopefully bad at math, and 90% of the lesson exercises are quite easy. But the milestone exams have tons of questions that don't have similar equivalent exercises in the course. For me, I forcibly need math exercises to be very similar to what I practised before or I derail and think I solved it right.

And I thiught I would get an 80 in the first milestone because most of the wuestions seem easy, but I only scored a 63. Milestone 1 is supposed to be the easy one!

I did Milestone 5 and got a depressing 36% 1st try and despite my efforts a 56%.
I could still theoretically still pass the course if somehow I repeat milestone 1 and do well miraculously and then also solve the remaining 3 milestones. But I don't harbor high hopes . Sophia has suggested me to take advantage of the tutoring but I had a very bad experience. Last year they changed the tutoring to some geolocked one that locked everyone in the planet except for the US and I wasted 3 weeks waiting for someone to solve the problem which if they did, I was not aware of it. I never wanted to try the tutoring cuse it left me a bad taste in my mouth. 

Considering the grind this course has been since I started it in November (my brain just gets fried if I do something emotionally exhausting so I can't do it everyday), I am starting to measure the pros or cons of just dropping out and not renewing the subscription since I already took most of the courses I need.
I still have another 7 days and am only missing the milestones but if the chances I'll fail everything really pins me to a wall cuse this was supposed to be the 'easy' option. I could only do half of the CSM course before getting frustrated. The course isn't as easy as people claim and insanely frustrating for people that get frustrated easily at math like me. It only worsens the mental blockage so I don't feel it is an option.
So, do I try to grind and end up failing the course with a 60% or cut my losses and cancel the subscription? I need the class, so not doing an Algebra course is not an option either.I already did Sophia Statistics. That one was grueling but still doable because I was already familiar with a lot of the material and exam questions were more similar to class exercises.
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[jg_nuy]

Not sure what school you are looking to transfer this class into, but my son had trouble with that topic (he struggles with math) and the following steps helped him:

1. He used the Math 101 College Algebra class at study dot com to work on his knowledge base, without the college saver membership. For TESU, that class is equivalent to Intermediate Algebra.
2. He then used Mat 105 Precalculus College Algebra at study dot com to study further.
3. He used the Mathway app for a detailed breakdown of problem sets, to increase the step by step understanding.

Once that was done, he then went back to the Sophia class.

Hope you are able to work it out.

[Avidreader]

Ooh that sounds like an interesting suggestion! That could be a good middle ground since I have an active study membership.

[bluebooger]

just sign up for chatgpt

it will explain the questions and explain how to get the answer

[bjcheung77]

@Avidreader, Basically, I was in your shoes with a similar math class: Statistics! I found out the reason was because the classes I took were calculus based statistics versus the algebra based statistics version (yes, physics also has the same type of options for their classes).  It took me three tries with a couple of providers to find the right class to complete my statistics requirement!  

ALEKS, when I first started years ago, I spent two months on Statistics, going through three of their classes (switching from one stats to another, I got stuck at 63% and couldn't go further, my brain fried).  StraighterLine, took Intro to Stats on their newer platform, I did a tad better at 65%, but ultimately still couldn't get the ACE credit.  StraighterLine, Statistics for Business, I finished this with an 85% as it's algebra based.

I would give Sophia.org a try, have them see if they can reset one or more of those modules, if at all needed, ask them you'd like to retake the class (I've never tried retaking anything at any provider yet). Technically, this should be the simplest of them, probably better than Study.com videos and such. If you need extra help, you can try the Modern States/CLEP, you don't have to take the exam, use their material for extra learning.

A controversial option, the use of different online calculators to show you how to step by step do your calculations.  What I mean by this is, not to use them to do the work for you, but to show you how to complete the concepts/process of those calculations to understand the subject more.  You can do a search on the board/wiki, a few have been mentioned before.

The 3 main ones I use are Mathway, Symbolab, Wolfram Alpha as they show you step by step instructions on how to get from A to Z in those specific questions.  After doing 4-5 questions, I got very familiar with the subject and can do the calculations with a regular online calculator from the course provider, or a physical calculator you have currently to complete the course with...

Symbolab is recommended on the WIKI for the BACS/BSCIS double degree for calculus based learning. An example provided earlier, Mathway was mentioned above and also recently in this Sophia.org Algebra thread: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...ge-Algebra

BTW, your posts and threads in regards to Mexican/Spanish related degrees are amazingly informative!

[wow]

Have you looked at Khan Academy at all? Not for credit, but as a possibly better way to learn Algebra. It might help the concepts click so you can do better on your next try.