Utterly struggling with abstract stuff...

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As I am now more aware of, say, my thoughts etc, I noticed how much I struggle with abstract aspects of my subjects. I can easily recall, say, the structure of a knee joint, and the role of the components (but not really the names). I can draw out diagrams to explain the proposed mechanism of enzymes. But when it comes to equations and stuff not really rooted into reality, I suck massively. I already tried tables and mind-mapping, but it's still fairly difficult, as they still are fairly... meaningless (?) to me. I cannot count the times I have successfully solved some math problem, and not really know how I got there in the first place (even with working out!).

Anyone have the same problems and have found workarounds?!

The thing with equations is they really are rooted in reality, they describe a process in the simplest way possible.

You need to able to visulise what the equation looks like when plotted as a graph and how it changes as you feed different numbers into it. Use Matlab or even just Excel to create data sets and then plot them into various graphs. You can then play around with individual parameters to see how they affect the shape created.

Some people don't understand math equations when they are learned as equations, but if you start plugging in numbers and making graphs and relating to physical concepts, it may be easier to understand, like what milksnake posted earlier. Writing matlab scripts to calculate things from equations could help a lot.

I always loved statistics because they relate to the real world. I still do statistical calculations whenever I come across numbers in whatever book I happen to be reading.

I always asked for real world explanations in my math classes, and didn't get many answers.

What I ended up doing is writing out the equations, drawing out the curves and stuff, every single time. Always setting it up in the same way, visually, for each time of problem. Then just go through the same steps for each type of problem.

Sadly, I cannot plot stuff like genetic merit gain... which is the premier source of pain for me at the moment...