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Math

What Types of Skills Are Best for a Math Major?

If the idea of working on problem sets, finding solutions and solving real-world problems appeals to you, becoming a math major might be right up your alley. But what are the key skills you’ll need to rock the math major and feel confident in your career prospects?

Here are four skills that all of the most successful math majors possess.

Strong quantitative skills

Fact: You can be a math major unless your number-crunching, quantitative and logic skills are extremely strong. Majoring in math is not for those who did “okay” in math classes in high school; you need to be confident in your abilities to solve problems.

Organizational skills

Math majors take a lot of notes in classes, so you’re going to have to think of an efficient system for note-taking on many different subjects and also organizing the notes you take. You’d be surprised how easy it is to get lost if you can’t keep track of the notes you’ve written or the problem sets you’ve finished; successful math majors are able to keep all of their documents straight.

Patience

It may seem like a strange skill for a math major, but think about it: You’re spending hours upon hours every day working on difficult problem sets, and it’s easy to get frustrated and give up.

However, math majors need to be able to stay calm and ask for help when they need it, and the most successful people in this major are those who are able to remain calm when a problem doesn’t make sense, try out different strategies to find a solution and turn to others if the answer isn’t obvious.

Problem-solving skills

Right up there with patience is the importance of having a problem-solving mind, one that desires to find the solution to any problem and will work tirelessly to find it.

The great thing about majoring in math is that your calculations and equations can solve big real-world problems, but you have to be curious, ready and willing to take on new challenges, many of which won’t have obvious solutions right off the bat.

Next, learn more about this college major such as Finance and get more career tips for internships and entry-level jobs such as Top 10 Things You Should Look for in a Company