Brooks: Making Math Accessible

Coming to Dartmouth, I hoped to finally have the opportunity to pursue an interest in math with thoughts of minoring. I took the math placement test but was worried about not having any background in trigonometry. A math professor told me not to worry. My algebra was solid, so he suggested I take Math 3 and teach myself trigonometry during my spare time. Looking back, that idea was laughable. I had two pretty hard courses in addition to Math 3. I made an attempt and even had two wonderful friends do their best to help me through it. Maybe I could have done more to succeed, but I would have had to make this pursuit my sole focus of the term. Eventually, I dropped to Math 1. But it was too late, and I was too far behind. I withdrew from the course.