A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science (Even If You Flunked Algebra)

by Barbara Oakley

The slight differences in the hemispheres give us a sense of why two different processing modes may have arisen. But be wary of the idea that some people are “left-brain” or “right-brain” dominant—research indicates that is simply not true.17 Instead it is clear that both hemispheres are involved in focused as well as diffuse modes of thinking. To learn about and be creative in math and science, we need to strengthen and use both the focused and diffuse modes.

Once you are distracted from the problem at hand, the diffuse mode has access and can begin pinging about in its big-picture way to settle on a solution.4 After your break, when you return to the problem at hand, you will often be surprised at how easily the solution pops into place. Even if the solution doesn’t appear, you will often be further along in your understanding. It can take a lot of hard focused-mode work beforehand, but the sudden, unexpected solution that emerges from the diffuse mode can make it feel almost like the “aha!” mode. That whispered, intuitive solution to whatever puzzle you are attempting to deal with is one of the most elusively cool feelings of math and science—and art, literature, and anything else creative, for that matter! And yes, as you’ll see, math and science are deeply creative forms of thinking even when you are just learning them in school.

As we mentioned earlier, there are four or so spots in working memory.

“I also believe too many students do homework just to get it done. They finish a problem, check their answer in the back of the text, smile, and go on to the next problem. I suggest that they insert a step between the smile and going on to the next problem—asking themselves this question: How would I know how to do the problem this way if I saw it on a test mixed together with other problems and I didn’t know it was from this section of the text? Students need to think of every homework problem in terms of test preparation and not as part of a task they are trying to complete.” —Mike Rosenthal, Senior Instructor of Mathematics, Florida International

You may object that it is stressful being under the timer. But researchers have found something fascinating and counterintuitive. If you learn under mild stress, you can handle greater stress much more easily. For

Over the past decades, students who have blindly followed their passion, without rational analysis of whether their choice of career truly was wise, have been more unhappy with their job choices than those who coupled passion with rationality.8

A number of students have told me over the years that they “really knew the material.” They protest that they flunked because they don’t test well. Often, the student’s teammates tell me the real story: The student does little to no studying. It’s sad to say that misplaced self-confidence in one’s abilities can sometimes reach almost delusional levels. I’m convinced this is part of why employers like to hire people who are successful in math and science. Good grades in those disciplines are often based on objective data about a student’s ability to grapple with difficult material.