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Thanks! my own strategy is to try to get it explained to me in as many different ways as possible; I think it's often easiest to learn by integrating a bunch

by lsc 7y ago

Thanks! my own strategy is to try to get it explained to me in as many different ways as possible; I think it's often easiest to learn by integrating a bunch of different viewpoints of the same thing. on the other hand, I haven't had a lot of luck with calculus, so who knows.

Tainnor 7y ago
Are you better with other kinds of maths? IMHO many people struggle with maths because they're not used to the fact that you have to read maths differently. You can't just digest it quickly like many other subjects. You have to ponder over definitions for a while and play with them and try to come up with examples and counterexamples.
- lsc 7y ago
  Nope, I'm not any good at any of the maths. My own model is that it's like reading, you need a critical mass of vocabulary and/or grammar (one can make up for the other, to some extent) before you can understand much of anything. with most subjects, if you understand 80% of the paragraph, you can fill in the blanks pretty easily, and thus your learning rate goes way up. That, and I think like reading, it takes a lot of practice, and that practice is really hard before you are good enough at reading to see the story. I think I'm at the point in math where I can't read it well enough for it to tell me a story, so practice is a real slog, just like it was for reading at that point.
  - Tainnor 7y ago
    Don't despair too much; maths is a hard subject and even the best mathematicians struggle with new material. You're dealing with crazily abstract ideas and your brain just has to get used to them. That takes time. If you're having trouble with specific material (e.g. calculus), sometimes the reason might be that there's something else that you don't quite understand well enough yet that is a prerequisite. In such a case, the first step would be to identify what that is (it could be unfamiliarity with trigonometry or a lack of skills in algebraic manipulations) and then go back and refresh that.

by lsc 7y ago

Tainnor 7y ago

Are you better with other kinds of maths? IMHO many people struggle with maths because they're not used to the fact that you have to read maths differently. You can't just digest it quickly like many other subjects. You have to ponder over definitions for a while and play with them and try to come up with examples and counterexamples.

lsc 7y ago
Nope, I'm not any good at any of the maths. My own model is that it's like reading, you need a critical mass of vocabulary and/or grammar (one can make up for the other, to some extent) before you can understand much of anything. with most subjects, if you understand 80% of the paragraph, you can fill in the blanks pretty easily, and thus your learning rate goes way up. That, and I think like reading, it takes a lot of practice, and that practice is really hard before you are good enough at reading to see the story. I think I'm at the point in math where I can't read it well enough for it to tell me a story, so practice is a real slog, just like it was for reading at that point.
- Tainnor 7y ago
  Don't despair too much; maths is a hard subject and even the best mathematicians struggle with new material. You're dealing with crazily abstract ideas and your brain just has to get used to them. That takes time. If you're having trouble with specific material (e.g. calculus), sometimes the reason might be that there's something else that you don't quite understand well enough yet that is a prerequisite. In such a case, the first step would be to identify what that is (it could be unfamiliarity with trigonometry or a lack of skills in algebraic manipulations) and then go back and refresh that.