I’m a civil engineer, too. Struggled through all of my math classes in high school except geometry (for some reason I was so good at it that I practically could have taught the class myself). And yet I eventually understood all of it . . . it’s just that I was kind of like a year behind schedule. I could have aced Algebra I if I had taken a final exam in the middle of Algebra II, I finally understood Algebra II during my trigonometry/pre-calculus class the following year, etc. I think it’s because I never took to learning those subjects when they were “book subjects,” but everything clicked once I was in a situation where I had to know them almost by second nature in order to deal with another subject matter.
“And yet I eventually understood all of it . . . it’s just that I was kind of like a year behind schedule.”
I know a fellow (Masters in math, a whiz in math applications in software) who says that math is best learned “twice baked,” meaning that the second time you learn a chunk of math, it settles in your head, and you go from a modest competency to something closer to mastery.
In my sons’ high school, much of the first quarter (even the first semester) of each math class is a recapitulation of the prior year's work. Some folks (like my younger son) think this is a pure waste of time, but for many folks (like my older son), it gives them a chance to really solidify what they sort of half-got the year before.
sitetest
Hated calculus. So much I thought about dropping out. Till I hit my fluids class and it made sense. Just need to see the “why” of the math.