Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 17 posts

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

#1

Post by Macintosh007 »

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.

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

#2

Post by dieselgate »

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

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

#3

Post by dmfdmf »

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!

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

#4

Post by hahnchen »

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.

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

#5

Post by arisbe__ »

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.

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

#6

Post by terrycody »

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!

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

#8

Post by muchas_gracias »

terrycody wrote: post #6

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. Howev…

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.

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

#9

Post by muchas_gracias »

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.
Post reply on HN