Research Statistics. Those used for experiments. I had poor math skills since forever. But I wanted to go into research knowing I would need to take multiple stats courses and not just cram and pass but actually learn it.

I spent a lot of extra time re learning high school level algebra. Order of operations that I had never really learned.

I probably spent 15 hours of extra time outside of class (first stats class) each week just trying my hardest to learn. Watching YouTube videos over and over. Doing example problems over and over.

Not gonna lie. There were a lot of tears and I often questioned if I was capable. But I felt like I had to try.

I found this one guys YouTube channel for stats and at the start of every video he gave a little pep talk. At first I rolled my eyes but by the 2nd video I think I was needing it and it honestly helped so much to hear someone say. “Yes this is hard but you are here trying and I’m going to hold your hand while we figure this out.”

I ended up with 1 point shy of a B+ for that class. Me who had failed algebra twice. Who avoided math like the clap.

That was for my B.A. While working on my masters I was required to take another stats. And funny enough had fellow students asking me for help. I found this so amusing I laughed and had to explain I wasn’t laughing at them. But at the fact someone wanted me to help. They thought I was competent.

When working on my PhD I was a teaching assistant for a stats class and found many students coming to me for help.

The thing is. I struggled so much. It was so hard and confusing. Anything about stats that could confuse me , did.
So when students got stuck on something, I knew exactly what they were getting mixed up about and could help give them examples to fix their problems.

I think being bad at math and struggling so hard to learn it has ultimately made me a decent teacher of stats. Or at least a good tutor.

I also feel like I really get stats. I don’t have a vague basic understanding. I really get why different tests are used in different scenarios and what needs done first and why.

Whereas I find a lot of fellow students don’t grasp this part of understanding statistics and often need someone else to tell them what test to use.

I don’t know if everyone learns this way. But for me, I think being bad forced me to be more attentive and understand deeper just to be able to do it at all.