/sci/ - Science & Math

[Anonymous No.11317321]

How can i actually begin to understand math better?
I'm currently in my first semester and discrete/linear math is like an alien language so far. It's as if i have some mental block that doesn't want to understand any math.

What do /sci/?

[Anonymous No.11317334]

>>11317321
that just means you've reached your IQ limit

[Anonymous No.11317343]

>>11317321
What have you tried?

[Anonymous No.11317377]

>>11317343
i tried coaching class we have in my uni but i barely made any progress, everyone else seem to be way ahead of me even in the first couple day i went there.
Other than that i didn't bother much i just left it on the side so i could focus on other classes which im decent at

[Anonymous No.11317392]

>>11317321
Sit down in a study area with the textbook, a notebook, and a bunch of sharpened pencils. Work your way through the textbook, including the proofs and explanations in it.
Ignore advice that tells you to go watch meme videos in order to understand mathematics.

[Anonymous No.11318031]

Read slowly. Reading math is completely different from reading any other thing, you have to learn how to understand what's in front of you. Take your time to understand the concepts. Some may take very long indeed.

[Anonymous No.11318054]

>>11317392
>le funny furry anime uryzohns lemma picture
>shit advice
like pottery, go back undergrad

[Anonymous No.11318069]

>>11317392
>Ignore advice that tells you to go watch meme videos in order to understand mathematics.
Normally I'm with you here, but 3B1B's series on linear algebra is actually pretty decent.

[Anonymous No.11318073]

>>11317321
I don't understand why there's so many threads/posters made by imbeciles who establish that they have no math knowledge, and then immediately note that they're taking an advanced/semi-advanced course. How about starting from something simpler, you fucking retards? Or do you do it because you're afraid your little ego will be hurt if you're forced to not take differential equations while not having any knowledge?

[Anonymous No.11319515]

>>11318073
Well if i could chose to not do that math, i would definetly do it but those are mandatory courses in my school so im kinda fucked. Plus i kind of managed to pass any previous math i had with brute force learning without really understanding concepts.

[Anonymous No.11319573]

>>11319515
>Plus i kind of managed to pass any previous math i had with brute force learning without really understanding concepts.
I'm really glad I was autistic and bad at math when I was young now. I could only ever get As in Pre-Calc and such if I fully understood the concepts and that put me way behind competition. Now it seems like a lot of other students are slamming into a brickwall because they don't learn like this.
I'd recommend you spend a shit ton of time deeply understanding the concepts, not just replicating the calculations. Use PatrickJMT and other sources, the sticky has a bunch. Go to your professor's office hours and talk to them until you fully understand the essence of the material. If you can afford it, get a tutor to go over those things with you.
You'll be way more fulfilled by the math and be way better at it than the plug and chug retards.

[Anonymous No.11319816]

>>11317392
>Work your way through the textbook

Don't go through the textbook and do all the exercises, I failed calc 1 this way. Rework the homeworks and work stuff from your professors material if you guys don't have old exams. Only use the textbook if you need further understanding.

Study smart, not hard, a lesson I needed to learn after failing calc 1 despite studying 40 hours per week, simply because I calculated through the entire book and couldn't remember certain things because of that in the exam.

[Anonymous No.11319934]

>>11317321
Usually practice and relations to imaginable reality helps,...

Look at furiers transform as way to programatically equalize music, etc...

[Anonymous No.11319953]

>>11318031
What if you're constantly swamped with work in uni and don't have the time to get good at understanding mathematical concepts?

[Anonymous No.11320060]

>>11318054
>But these videos with charismatic performers make me FEEL like I understand everything! I shouldn't have to WORK and DO stuff!
>>11319816
Working your way through a textbook doesn't have mean doing every single exercise. Just make sure that you aren't skipping entire subjects/topics unless you're absolutely certain that they aren't going to be relevant. The bigger mistake is completely skipping definitions, proofs, and explanations. These are what let you understand what you're actually doing and why. When I see a linear algebra or calculus student give a nonsensical or irrelevant answer to a problem, it tells me that they memorized a few procedures without context, and they're just blindly throwing them at the paper.
>failing calc 1 despite studying 40 hours per week, simply because I calculated through the entire book and couldn't remember certain things because of that in the exam
No offense, but this is just another "I studied REALLY hard and just completely blacked out on the exam" story to me, anon.

[Anonymous No.11320180]

>>11317321
Just buy algebra book. And read read read. Really that is that simple

[Anonymous No.11320207]

>>11317321
Try to get a hold of the meaning of every single word. Definitions in math work differently than in ordinary language. "A cat is an animal with four legs" is, however true, in no way at all a type of statement that is useful in mathematics. You always have to think along the line of, well, given that we are talking about animals here (you have to be aware of context), does the description which I just read enable me to determine in any case when I get an animal sat before me, whether it is actually a cat or not? You have a checklist to go through:
four legs? check!
And done, it checks. The animal is a cat, mathematically.

[Anonymous No.11320419]

>>11319953
Then make time. There is always enough time to learn.