[tjpnz]

I was bored out of my mind at that point so tuned out. 7 years later I was struggling through the math portions of my CS degree and now with 10 years in the workforce I'm genuinely frustrated about not being allowed to do the shiny stuff (namely ML). The NZ school system at the time basically fucked me when it comes to basic mathematics and now in my early 30s I'm trying to fix this using Khan Academy. It's not easy and I know I'm going to struggle a lot more being significantly older. Maybe things have changed in the intervening years but I still hold genuine scorn towards whoever designed that math curriculum. This stuff is actually important.

[sethammons]

It doesn't need to be harder because you are older. Many young minds lack developed abstract thinking. I recall hearing that many don't develop this until their mid twenties. My first pass in 9th grade of geometry and 11th grade trigonometry were rough. I later self-studied and found the material to be crazy approachable. If you are still struggling, I advise going further back in your studying or getting a good tutor who will help fill holes in your knowledge.

[wDcBKgt66V8WDs]

Anecdata but I definitely developed better abstract thinking at the end of and even after college.

I've always thought I got more patient or maybe the research phase of debugging and programming required me to get better. Maybe I just got older.

[leesec]

IMO do top down ML stuff and learn the math as-needed. This is recommended by Rachel Thomas and Jeremey Howard of fast.ai as well. There are a lot of great resources for the specific kinds of math you'd need for ML. I personally am self-proclaimed terrible at math ( also had very been schooling ) and was able to ML with not much extra work after their courses. Good luck!