I wouldn’t mind knowing more, but the problem with moving on in the old maths game is that you lot ^^^^^ (you know who you are) keep putting letters where numbers should be and get all uppity when a numptie asks a question. Shame on you. Shame.
Don’t think of them as letters, think of them as symbols with meanings. It then becomes a lot easier, lots of people focus to much on “why is the freaky mathematician now putting letters into my mathematics…. I thought maths was about numbers….whaaaaa” As soon as you get over that and accept it, it becomes easier.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mathematical_symbols
Khanacademy, is very very good for easing people into maths.