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[University Statistics] Math placement testing? Looking to assess my skill set and determine where my "start over" point is.

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If you're going to learn yourself, I'd recommend Khan Academy to start. They have courses all the way from basic arithmetic through multivariable calculus. Just start doing exercises in the lowest math first, and if you find it too easy, just go to the next level. Keep doing this until you're seeing things that you haven't seen before. For you, a good place to start may be pre-calc, since you took it before and may be able to recover the fundamentals once the cobwebs come off.

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If you need actual course credit for these things, I'd recommend taking Calc I/II/III at your local community college. The courses are cheap and are often (reasonably) well taught, and you'll get a transcript from them that you can present to statistics MS programs.

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RE the "rant":

By all means, you are not alone. Societally, we seem to accept that some people are "just not good at math", and refuse to help them succeed. When someone does poorly in History or English, the solution is to get tutors, study harder, go to after school help, etc., whereas if someone is bad at math, they can just say "oh I don't get math" or "I'm not a math person" and the work stops there. No one ever says "oh well, I just don't get History" or "I'm not a History person" and resigns themselves to mediocrity. As a result, math education is swept under the rug for those who don't absolutely love to learn it, and we as a society are more than happy to accept that someone can never learn math. Not only is this downright insulting to those individuals, but it dumbs down the critical thinking skills of society. I remember when BK introduced a 1/3 pounder to compete with the quarter pounder, and people didn't buy it because they thought 1/3 < 1/4 since the number is smaller. As a prospective statistician, I'm sure you've seen a myriad of similar examples in your lifetime of society's lack of math/statistics understanding biting them in the ass.

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Very few people in the world have such a strong natural aptitude that they don't struggle at math through high school. I'm getting a PhD in math and I still remember struggling in math as early as High School. If I just told myself that "I'm just not a math person" or whatever, I would never become the (almost) mathematician that I am today. I'm very sorry that the education system had failed you (as it does many other potential "math people") but I'm here to say that you are more than capable of learning math. Mathematics is a beautiful subject, and no one is incapable of learning the basics.

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