I am absolutely terrible at word problems.. even the most simple types.

For example..

A chemist working on his doctoral degree at MIT needs 12 liters of a 50% acid solution for a lab experiment. The stock room only has 40% and 70% solutions. How much of each solution should be mixed together to make the 12 liters of 50% solution he needs?

..That above example took me an hour to solve WITH help from the teacher.

Seriously.. my goal is to get into engineering but word problems absolutely destroy me. How much trouble will I be in once i get into higher math courses?

This post was edited by jimtheflow on Sep 16 2014 06:34pm

A lot of it has to do with time management and practice.
If you make practice a priority, it will settle in on your mind better. It is like drinking wine. You don't just gulp it all in. You take a sip, swish it around your mouth till it settles, than you swallow it.
Eventually you become mathematically mature and word problems will click into your mind a lot quicker.
You'll see a lot of internationals and people with English not their first language doing good in math and word problems. In theory you would think they would have trouble doing them because of the language barrier. But it's hard work and practice that lets them pull through.

If this gives you headache just think of it like this.

"You just need more practice". That's all there is to it. Just DO IT!

This post was edited by desertwolf on Sep 16 2014 06:53pm

Thanks!

Especially since math is going to be the center of attention in my future I SHOULD make time for it.