What are some good math study methods for a high school sophomore? First, I'm not trying to make this sound like a "poor-me" story. I understand fully that every decision I've made leading to this is my fault. I am genuinely looking for advice.

So, I am a high school student who is a sophomore and feel I have developed an interest in mathematics a bit late. As an elementary and even middle school student, I was always not paying attention in most math classes because they didn't grab my interest. I think the reason for this is because most of my teachers were "old-fashioned" and didn't really bother to explain the awesome things you can do with math. So on my end of things, I only saw manipulating numbers which didn't seem productive to me. I have always had a deep interest in computers and how they work (you can see where this is going most likely). So, upon entering my freshman year of high school I developed a passion for computer programming. Now realizing that large portions of math are required to major in computer science, I am beginning to worry a bit. A large amount of people I meet automatically assume I am good at math, and I feel sort of guilty for wasting those years of my life barely paying attention. Currently I am beginning to enjoy math, though.

I feel that most math teachers don't capture the interest of the students because they don't show the engineering side of things when it comes to math. I love creating original things and have been told I am very creative. I would like to use that creativity and produce creations using math, but I think I'm a bit behind.

My math final is tomorrow, so I'm rather stressed out. The actual questions in this post are:


What are some good math study methods?
What should I do this summer to strengthen my math skills?
You might want to read this post on how to study math: it's about good study methods /strategies for math. There are some great contributions/answers to that question.  

Second, it is never too late to begin anew. Though you may feel like you've wasted "years" of your life, you've still got lots of time, and it seems you've got the motivation to build your math skills and explore your interests further and prepare for college.  While it will take discipline to get up to speed and continue in math, and lots of persistence and patience, be sure to dabble in what excites you about math. Explore and have fun with math!. 

Wish you the best, and welcome to the wonderful world of mathematics!
Khan Academy

Khan Academy is a non-profit organization that has a lot of instructional videos on you-tube and practice problems on their site. It helped me get through physics and calculus.