Maybe a problem is trying to learn it by reading it. I was a college math major, and I admit that I might have flunked out had I been told to learn my math sub

Maybe a problem is trying to learn it by reading it. I was a college math major, and I admit that I might have flunked out had I been told to learn my math subjects by reading them from the textbooks without the support of the classroom environment. It may be that the books are "easy to read if a teacher is teaching them to you." Talking and writing math also helped me. Maybe it's easier to learn a "language" if it's a two way street and involves more of the senses. Perhaps a substitute to reading the stuff straight from a book might be to find some good video lectures. Also, work the chapter problems, which will get your brain and hands involved in a more active way. As others might have mentioned, there's no strict formal math notation. It's the opposite of a compiled programming language. In fact, math people who learn programming are first told: "The computer is stupid, it only understands exactly what you write." In math, you're expected to read past and gloss over the slight irregularities of the language and fill in gaps or react to sudden introduction of a new symbol or notational form by just rolling with it.