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> I personally did work myself up to the graduate in math during the last two years of High School & first year of college. ...how in the world did you manage

> I personally did work myself up to the graduate in math during the last two years of High School & first year of college. ...how in the world did you manage to do this? Did you actually self-study, or were you placed in a gifted program? Self-studying all of undergraduate mathematics is more impressive than actually studying all of it in a four year classroom setting. Doing so as a teenager is amazing. The most gifted person I've ever known in mathematics is actually a physicist who entered Harvard at 16. He was already taking undergraduate math courses at 13/14 and had mastered all the undergraduate material by the first semester of his undergraduate degree. For the remaining years of his undergraduate degree he took graduate math courses. But in order to do that he needed to not only be gifted; he was placed in a program for extremely gifted kids sponsored by Stanford University from his preteen years. I don't think your anecdote is a great comparison for the OP's expectations (or for calibrating advice they'd benefit from).

joe_the_user 8y ago
How in the world did you manage to do this? Did you actually self-study, or were you placed in a gifted program? I read quite a bit on my own, I took some courses at UCLA through a high school scholars program (including the undergraduate honors seminar). The entirety of the undergraduate program might be a slight exaggeration but I was ready for graduate level courses when I got to Berkeley. I think going through the material requires determination, not necessarily being extremely gifted. But then, it seems like people at someone's gone through a bunch material say by that fact they're gifted. Thus having done this, one is tautologically gifted. I've never tested at the extremely gifted level but I'm doubtful of single-measures of intelligence regardless. Edit: I don't think your anecdote is a great comparison for the OP's expectations (or for calibrating advice they'd benefit from). Neither of us know the OP. It's kind of up to them to calibrate what process works for them. Scanning a lot of math until I found good, clear explanations worked well for me.

joe_the_user 8y ago

How in the world did you manage to do this? Did you actually self-study, or were you placed in a gifted program? I read quite a bit on my own, I took some courses at UCLA through a high school scholars program (including the undergraduate honors seminar). The entirety of the undergraduate program might be a slight exaggeration but I was ready for graduate level courses when I got to Berkeley. I think going through the material requires determination, not necessarily being extremely gifted. But then, it seems like people at someone's gone through a bunch material say by that fact they're gifted. Thus having done this, one is tautologically gifted. I've never tested at the extremely gifted level but I'm doubtful of single-measures of intelligence regardless. Edit: I don't think your anecdote is a great comparison for the OP's expectations (or for calibrating advice they'd benefit from). Neither of us know the OP. It's kind of up to them to calibrate what process works for them. Scanning a lot of math until I found good, clear explanations worked well for me.