/sci/ - Science & Math

Theoretical physics grad here. Never felt I had a grasp of proper rigorous mathematics, like all physicists we skim over it and focus on the physics. Now a software engineer.

Anyway I've been reading a first year maths student book, really basic stuff, getting me back into the groove ready to apply to a math-phys masters.

But I'm being hit by that realisation grad students get of "holy shit there's so much I don't know". Even this basic stuff for a couple hours a night after work is taking ages, it takes maths students 3 or 4 years to learn all this studying fulltime.

Basically what's more useful to a wannabe mathematical physicist? Would I be better off with a primitive 1st or 2nd year math student's understanding of pure maths (ie. keep slogging at the fundamentals), or do I skip ahead to advanced topics and accept that I'll never have a pure mathematicians understanding on these topics (like your average theoretical physicist does in other words).

Next on my reading list at the moment is Geoff Smith Introductory Mathematics: Algebra and Analysis.