“I hate algebra. I don’t get it!” is something I often hear.  Seeing letters instead of numbers in maths scares some people and a barrier goes up.  From then on, algebra is a topic to dread.

One thought that can make algebra far less daunting is to remember that the letter simply represents an unknown number.  It’s a little like primary school when you were given, for example, 3 + [ ] = 5, except now you have 3 + x = 5.

Therefore, just remember that the letter is an unknown number.