If I recall correctly, the book does mention that it was designed with students at MIT in mind. I also recall that the students finish a couple calculus courses

If I recall correctly, the book does mention that it was designed with students at MIT in mind. I also recall that the students finish a couple calculus courses before taking the SICP course, so the math contained therein isn't exactly new material to them. For the most part I believe you're mostly complaining about chapter 1 though, maybe chapter 2 when they talk about painters and the exercise with the chessboard. Those are two that come to mind that tend to be excruciatingly long and unnecessarily difficult for beginners. I would advise you to go through the book again, and while this does come off as somewhat snooty, I would say that if you don't understand the math or physics behind some of the exercises, then you should spend time trying to figure out the algorithms for them. Most of the value of the book is actually through the exercises, as typically those are the spots where you'll eventually start to have those "aha!" moments when working with scheme. As a disclaimer, I should point out that I had quite a bit of programming experience in C++, Python, and other OOP languages before trying SICP. Luckily, I never struggled with the math, and learning Scheme came quite naturally. However, the common problems associated with thinking in Lisp do apply, and it may take several cracks at the book before you really understand the beauty or essence of what SICP tries to teach.