Forums IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ PhotoReading, Memory Optimizer Algebra help

Can somebody who has photoread math textbooks recommend a guide for reading them? I just graduated, and since the algebra books were getting old, we were allowed to keep them if we wanted. For some strange reason I kept mine. Now I am starting to study cryptography, and am finding that I need a pretty strong understanding of algebra. I never paid any attention in class, so I really don't know how to solve anything other than 5x = 10, solve for x. I guess I should have paid attention. Any suggestions?

I've been studying a bit of math lately because I want to get a degree in mechanical engineering, and I'm about a year behind on the math level I need to be at just to start school.
What I usually do is go to the library, go through and find a few good books on algebra and calculus, and any others that seem to cover a lot of maths really well. I also get a book called 'Test Yourself Algebra'. It's filled with a bunch of tests to show you where your weaknesses are.
I photoread all the math books, then after at least 20 minutes I start taking some of the tests in the book, and sooner or later I'll get to certain functions that I'm not familiar with. So then I go back to the math books, find the sections that cover what I'm not familiar with. I start studying them, and I usually start to understand what's going on real fast. Then before I know it, I've covered several weeks of math in about a half hour.
I hope we can get a little advice from someone at Learning Strategies, see what they suggest.
I hope this helped.