I had a very hard time with Algebra. I never got past it in high school. I tried taking college algebra my 1st year of college, got a D.
I finally found a teacher who could explain it to me. He was a Vietnam vet who taught at Saint Leo College in Florida. He had his windpipe injured during the war & spoke with a shrill voice. He was able to explain it like this. You can do arithmetic? Yes. Ok, replace the variables with numbers & do the math. It worked! He explained what was so abstract to me.