The second topic-- Algebra

My second topic was on algebra, and it included two chapters -- the introduction and its manipulation.
I almost fainted when I just started on the chapter introduction to algebra. It was nothing like what I had learned in primary school, with all the letters all over the place. Adding and subtracting algebra with the same letters were simple, but slowly, it came to algebra with different letters and coefficients. I had to struggle with the concepts, and at one point, I daydreamed in class. Then multiplication and division came along, but the methods were easy to grasp. I could "sail" smoothly through this period.
After that, was algebraic manipulation. I had to struggle again, as expanding and factorisation was not as easy as I thought. I gave up trying to understand how a string of algebra could become longer, and how it became shorter. Then, after a disastrous test, I worked harder and could understand some of the concepts.