As someone lacking a solid scientific background, reliance on math was much more of an issue. I managed to get through Chapter 1 very slowly because I had to learn math concepts to understand what the code was about (Khan Academy helped a lot). Some sections took me up to 3 days to complete ! The beginning of Chapter 2 which is about data manipulation was actually much easier for me. Then I got to the section on the picture language which I found boring and I was also having less time to devote to my study, so I've given up at that point. But I'm really glad I made it so far. What I've learned so far is very precious and one day I'll carry on with the rest of the book !
Compared to the math, Lisp was a non-issue. I didn't even notice I was learning it. But I'm a "practical" coder lacking formal training, not a science student learning to code.
Skip the picture language section. Better to go through the book skipping a few parts then to stop because you can't do every single exercise the first time through! I just started chapter 4, and judicious skipping has thus far been the right choice. If the options are "skip a little and gain the value of the rest" or "try do it all, but get stuck and quit" choose pragmatism!
Also, a trick I like to do with the exercises is struggle with one for 20 minutes or so, and if I am not making progress, look up the answer. Usually that helps me understand what I was missing enough to then do it myself. That happens maybe 1/5th of the time, and usually because the question was vague or oddly worded, or most commonly, I didn't know how to test that it was correct.
Compared to the math, Lisp was a non-issue. I didn't even notice I was learning it. But I'm a "practical" coder lacking formal training, not a science student learning to code.