Want to be a maths major but I have no clue what I’m doing

To start off, I wasn’t really interested in math. I had personal things going on and wasn’t really interested in school in general. That changed senior year when I realized I was not going to do anything irrational when it came to living. I decided to go to college.

I chose computer science and I remember doing horrible on an assessment. Like I sucked at basic arithmetic and algebra. I went to community college and took accelerated precalc with the intention of transferring to a “prestigious” college. My precalculus class was split into two parts and I passed the first part with an A and part two with a B. I got that B after being burned out after trying to self study multiple subject at once and being a full-time student.

I passed Calc 1 with an A. I took calc 2 over the summer and it was accelerated. I got a B in the class because I was depressed again and also got diagnosed with anxiety, adhd, and severe depression. I’m currently in calc 3.

I say all this because I feel significantly behind compared to other math majors. Math feels like the only thing I’m actually interested in and I can’t see myself majoring in anything else. I’ve pretty much forgotten a good portion of precalc - calc 2 because I only focused on memorization and my GPA (because I wanted to transfer and I needed a high GPA).

I just feel kind of conflicted now. I don’t know what math track I want to pursue (applied or pure), I know I have to review calc 1-2 and actually understand but the books I wanted to read (apostol or spivak) need me to know proofs and that means learning how to write proofs, and I know I should review my fundamentals because my algebra and trig were kind of iffy (I made my fair share of trig mistakes in calc 2) and I don’t even remember geometry since I took it in like 9th grade. I also planned on retaking the SAT since I did pretty bad on it. The school I plan on transferring to is optional though, but I thought I should still take it to help with review and to show improvement, but that probably isn’t necessary.

Now I’m just kind of conflicted on what I should focus on.

Posted Sep 6, 2026, 3:24 AM UTC

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