Same. Let me tell you a story about why this is a good thing:
Growing up and through most of my undergrad, I self-identified as a 'writing person.' "I'm bad at math, but really good at English," I would tell others. My grades in HS and college reflected this -- A's across the board in English, C's to F's in math. 2/x
It took me a really long time, and therapy, to figure out why this was the case. I lost most of my 8th grade math education to a revolving door of teachers (6 in 1 year). In 9th grade, at BxSci, I got my period during a geometry exam. 3/x
The teacher refused to let me go to the nurse until after my exam, even with me keeling over in pain. I finished the exam and ended up vomiting for an hour after. Obviously, I got an abysmal grade. 4/x
After that, I continued to bomb almost every math/stats/quant course I took (somehow, I did fine in my econ courses, which should have signaled to me that I was not "bad at math"). I was pretty resolute about my arithmetic incompetency... 5/x
...until I got to grad school. I realized that if I wanted to do the research I liked, I would need at least a basic foundation in statistics. So I started taking stats courses that I knew I would do poorly in. 6/x
And I did do poorly... at first. "Why the fuck would you do this to yourself?" I asked after every class. Over time though, the information started to click. I could actually interpret stats results and, most importantly, apply quant methods to my work. 7/x
And as my comprehension increased, I started to enjoy it. I stopped seeing myself as a "writing" person and started seeing myself as a "stats-y person in training." I did better in classes. I fell in love with some stats research... something I didn't think was possible. 8/x
I think a lot of people have bad stories and experiences with "math-y" classes, particularly if you are a woman (and POC, especially BIPOC). I didn't realize how profoundly those experiences impacted the way I saw myself intellectually until much later. 9/x
But I really wanted to tell this story to say: it's never too late to get into math or statistics. It's never to late to say, "I want to get better," regardless of how good or bad you are at math/stats/quant work now. 10/x
Learning statistics did wonders for my confidence, as a person and a scholar, not because of the subject matter, but because I overcame something that I thought I could not do. 11/x
And if you're really lucky, you have some people who will help you. I am in debt to folks like @CMLiebler and @sethkjolly , who were so patient with me as I struggled with the basics, and David Weimar and Jon Pevehouse, who honed my statistics skills even more. 12/x
Finally, some tips for "aspiring quant people": (1) understanding the equation is more important than memorizing it. (2) Operations are like the verbs of equations, and to understand how to use them, you need to use them a lot. Exercise sheets are super useful for practice. 13/x
(3) If you're in a class, never be scared to ask a question or look dumb. If you're not in a class, find a mentor so you can ask someone questions. (4) Don't be hard on yourself when you miscalculate, but work hard to prevent yourself from doing it again. 14/fin.
