Ask HN: Best way to re-learn math after high school/college?

51 points Jul 27, 2022

I'm currently in my mid 30s, and feel like I've forgetting how to do basic math. My day job is programming / web development, and I often feel like a fraud that I don't know (or remember) basic (and not so basic) math.

Does anyone have any recommendations on the best routes to go when re-learning math later in life? I'm a big fan of online courses—and am ideally looking for a platform that sets a solid foundation and progresses into more advanced math topics.

Maybe something like Khan Academy would be a good route to go? I want to look at all my options.

hahnchen Jul 28, 2022

https://youtube.com/c/3blue1brown

This is my favorite youtube channel. He makes advanced math videos and some videos on applications of math in cs such as Cryptography, Information Theory and Deep Learning.

Most of the videos don’t require prior knowledge other than basic algebra. For the ones that do, he has made some series to teach them. They include the essence of calculus, linear algebra, etc.

dmfdmf Jul 28, 2022

Math is a hobby of mine and, as an adult, the best way to learn math is by trying to solve problems that interest you, i.e. for fun.

I'd recommend getting a copy of Mathematica. The home/hobby version is only $376 for the desktop version though you could start on the cloud version for less. MMA is great for checking your algebra (the bane of my math work) and graphing and using it for "what if" questions.

Also, hang out on the math and mma stackexchange forums and read posts and when something interesting strikes you dig in. Years ago I discovered that the lemniscate is the inverse transform of the hyperbola. It wasn't a formal proof but close enough and I was pretty excited about discovering something like that on my own. Also, check out John D. Cook's and Daniel LeMire's blogs for interesting ideas to investigate.

Enjoy!

lordviet Jul 28, 2022

One of the best math teachers on YouTube has to Professor Leonard. He has a lot of different courses and doesn't shy away from details. His way of teaching really worked for me.

If you follow along you will get a solid foundation accompanied by a lot of "aha" moments.

https://www.youtube.com/c/ProfessorLeonard

fjell Jul 28, 2022

I came here to give the same link! It’s indeed the best Professor ever. I’m in the same boat and re-learning math. I’ve watched several lectures so far and it’s so good. He explains everything very well. Check out his playlist “Intermediate Math”

Test0129 Jul 28, 2022

Having done this both ways I can tell you there is certain value in going to class. For earlier math such as algebra through pre-calculus it's probably sufficient to learn online. I would not use youtube or coursera, but rather MITx which I will explain in a few.

However, if you have a community college that offers night classes at an affordable rate I would choose this path. The reason being once you reach calculus and beyond having a real living human being there to help you understand the concepts is something that is invaluable. Especially Calculus 3 (or the equivalent "vector calculus" course) where it gets very hard to wrap your head around things like divergence, curl, flux, etc. Calculus based probability is another course where having someone available really helps. Personally, things like differential equations can probably be self-taught if you have a very strong foundation in calculus. But if you're not strong there, you will want to also take classes at the university for that.

If you can't get into a class for whatever reason and you want to go online I would use only MITx. I've taken several online courses from them and the quality is superb. They run courses with real humans available for questions and you can usually get things answered quickly. Pay for the verified track for leverage.

It goes without saying you also should spend time on a forum dedicated to math. Physics forums is a good place where you can ask questions and get answers.

I highly recommend also looking into the open university (https://www.open.ac.uk/courses) as an option. Their costs are affordable and the education is top notch (though strangely organized if you're from America).

nerdyadventurer Aug 10, 2022

Is open uni bachelors good if you want to do post grad research afterwards?

arisbe__ Jul 28, 2022

If you just want to watch courses (not the best way to learn), I got you with this aggregation of course playlists: https://youtube.com/channel/UCjgQ2pJDjZlhdI4Ym7NQdUw

You have to click the multiple playlist titles (the ones with left/right sliding arrows) to see all the playlists for that category because YouTube truncates the lists.

I need to add more courses (including a few more basic ones) but YouTube has a memory leak issue that prevents me from doing so right now.

If you watch one course I would recommend Bill Shillto's only course.

terrycody Jul 28, 2022

I am in the same boat with you, just not from US. I am eager to learn English from absolutely ground 0, from grade 1, currently I can access all math textbooks in my country which is really good, I think the best way is read the page 1 like you are kid to the last page. This can simulate the environment and will not miss any subtle details which later may proved to be very important to go further in math world.

However, I got a question, where to buy/find all math textbooks a kid would use in USA? I tried, but can't any clues on this. Since I am eager to check how USA kids learn math from grade 1 straight to the undergraduate.

A website called WorldCat, but seems lack school textbooks.

I just need a complete textbook lists of grade 1 math -- undergraduate math. I understand different schools may use different textbooks, but where to find the catalog? I can't find them!

muchas_gracias Jul 28, 2022

As a former child from the US, my only recommendation is not to take the US school system too seriously. Every state has a different system which is further broken down into subsystems where the quality of education can be completely different. 20 years ago the standard quality of math education was terrible where I grew up, I spent my whole life trying to find resources that were outside of the system. And when I was a teachers assistant during university I was often surprised how little math the students knew. That being said, find a textbook on algebra with a solutions manual and do all the exercises. If you can't figure out an exercise use online tutorials or lectures to make sure you understand all the concepts. If you can figure out all the rules and tricks of algebra you'll have a more solid foundation than a huge proportion of American university students and you'll be ready to apply them to the other fields of math you want to study.

dieselgate Jul 28, 2022

You mention Khan Academy in your post and was going to suggest that - on similar threads that seemed like a highly “rated” recommendation. It’s less of a defined web course/series but seems pretty good for picking and choosing different topics to get into, there’s a lot of coherence with everything IMO. Maybe udemy could be good if you like web courses with linearity - not sure what they have for the math you’re looking to do but at least try to get courses when they’re on sale. Good luck

openfuture Jul 29, 2022

Learn how to program and head into theorem prover territory, the undergraduate math curriculum and beyond is being built in those tools so you can watch it unfold and learn it as the material progresses. You will understand it since it will be communicated in a language that you understand formally and it is literally the math that math students are learning.

I'd recommend agda as a place to start.

muchas_gracias Jul 28, 2022

Have you considered getting a textbook and its solutions manual and then just trying to do all the problems? When you find yourself stuck you can turn to Khan Academy or whatever for the particular concept. I just find that lectures aren't as effective as working problems until you're stuck.

DkrSeuss Jul 28, 2022

I can neither recommend nor commend this dude's content enough. Hope he helps you as much as he has me. https://youtube.com/c/TheOrganicChemistryTutor

BOOSTERHIDROGEN Jul 28, 2022

Currently I’m following Strang MIT course Linear Algebra with Howard Anton books

will5421 Jul 28, 2022

Assuming you had textbooks at school, read them.

downboots Jul 28, 2022

Hire a tutor. Much faster. Downside: cost.

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