I had the same problem. There is a series of books for folks like us -"Pre-Algebra Demystified", "Algebra Demystified" etc. I used them to catch up for a gradua

I had the same problem. There is a series of books for folks like us -"Pre-Algebra Demystified", "Algebra Demystified" etc. I used them to catch up for a graduate level statistics course. One hour every morning for three months took me from pre-algebra through trig, and I did very well in class. I loved these simple books. They contain exactly zero owl-drawing.