4 ms·

I've been trying to self-study mathematics since around the new year. I initially tried following this course, but with only a background of high school math th

I've been trying to self-study mathematics since around the new year. I initially tried following this course, but with only a background of high school math through precalculus I found this to be overwhelming. So after a bit of research I decided to start working my way through "How to Prove It" by Velleman, which has introduced me to many of the concepts that seem to be pre-requisites for this course: set theory, logic, proof strategies, etc.

cdelahousse 12y ago
Learning those topics will not be a waste of time. You'll see them come up time and time again on your path towards more CS topics.
bargl 12y ago
I did something similar last year with Statistics and Probability. The best place I've found for a linear course for online math is https://www.khanacademy.org/ https://www.khanacademy.org/ I was able to start at the beginning and get all the necessary math to actually step forward to some of the more complex courses. I'd suggest starting there.
- dnissley 12y ago
  I did start there actually. As much as I love Khan Academy there are lots of holes and the quality/thoroughness of video explanations really seem to drop off the further along you go. To me they were most useful when I just needed a refresher on the precise operations to go through in order to solve a particular kind of problem, but already understood it. It's hard to beat a textbook for learning material that is completely new to me.
cgag 12y ago
I'm working through that as well, it's excellent.
jonnybgood 12y ago
This may also help you if you're going the autodidactic route: http://hbpms.blogspot.com/ http://hbpms.blogspot.com/
nsfmc 12y ago
Hi there and congrats on working through this course. Most students coming into this class are learning all the formalized truth table/mappings/isomorphism/etc stuff for the first time. I took this class after having failed a course in Real Analysis and ended up appreciating it not so much as a math class but as a good intro to how to think about Theoretical Computer Science. Looking back at the psets, i think it's actually worth looking at them in reverse order just to not get too discouraged: the class ends on some number theory and begins with the Relation/Axiom/Set/Sequence stuff you see in early high level math classes. Some of that number theory/counting stuff is incredibly accessible from the outset, so the class doesn't just get monotonically more obtuse. That said, if you've worked through vellman and you finish up this class, you're more than ready to do a class in proper number theory, discrete math or even real or complex analysis. Somebody else said that this course was a prereq for clrs, it is sort of, but you could take them both concurrently if you had to, as clrs doesn't have such a strong focus on proofs (if you're interested, 6.045j is a good followup in automata/computability/etc, lots of regexes, state machines and turing machines) anyhow, i just want to say that it's ok if you don't get it all at once. i think i ended up seeing lots of these ideas two or three times in a variety of classes. probably the first time i was just mechanically spitting out proofs without understanding them. by the third time i came across them, they actually clicked for me. But there was value (for me at least) to exposure early on because you do know the things that are hazy and it's easier to dive deeper on those the next time you encounter them. have fun!
kaens 12y ago
"Concrete Mathematics" by Knuth is by far the best presented book on maths relevant to CS that I've seen. You could definitely work through it with your background (I did with a similar background), it's challenging but approachable.

cdelahousse 12y ago

Learning those topics will not be a waste of time. You'll see them come up time and time again on your path towards more CS topics.

bargl 12y ago

I did something similar last year with Statistics and Probability. The best place I've found for a linear course for online math is https://www.khanacademy.org/ https://www.khanacademy.org/ I was able to start at the beginning and get all the necessary math to actually step forward to some of the more complex courses. I'd suggest starting there.

dnissley 12y ago
I did start there actually. As much as I love Khan Academy there are lots of holes and the quality/thoroughness of video explanations really seem to drop off the further along you go. To me they were most useful when I just needed a refresher on the precise operations to go through in order to solve a particular kind of problem, but already understood it. It's hard to beat a textbook for learning material that is completely new to me.

cgag 12y ago

I'm working through that as well, it's excellent.

jonnybgood 12y ago

This may also help you if you're going the autodidactic route: http://hbpms.blogspot.com/ http://hbpms.blogspot.com/

nsfmc 12y ago

Hi there and congrats on working through this course. Most students coming into this class are learning all the formalized truth table/mappings/isomorphism/etc stuff for the first time. I took this class after having failed a course in Real Analysis and ended up appreciating it not so much as a math class but as a good intro to how to think about Theoretical Computer Science. Looking back at the psets, i think it's actually worth looking at them in reverse order just to not get too discouraged: the class ends on some number theory and begins with the Relation/Axiom/Set/Sequence stuff you see in early high level math classes. Some of that number theory/counting stuff is incredibly accessible from the outset, so the class doesn't just get monotonically more obtuse. That said, if you've worked through vellman and you finish up this class, you're more than ready to do a class in proper number theory, discrete math or even real or complex analysis. Somebody else said that this course was a prereq for clrs, it is sort of, but you could take them both concurrently if you had to, as clrs doesn't have such a strong focus on proofs (if you're interested, 6.045j is a good followup in automata/computability/etc, lots of regexes, state machines and turing machines) anyhow, i just want to say that it's ok if you don't get it all at once. i think i ended up seeing lots of these ideas two or three times in a variety of classes. probably the first time i was just mechanically spitting out proofs without understanding them. by the third time i came across them, they actually clicked for me. But there was value (for me at least) to exposure early on because you do know the things that are hazy and it's easier to dive deeper on those the next time you encounter them. have fun!

kaens 12y ago

"Concrete Mathematics" by Knuth is by far the best presented book on maths relevant to CS that I've seen. You could definitely work through it with your background (I did with a similar background), it's challenging but approachable.