Pretty much everyone (except perhaps tenured professors of mathematics) hits that point in their math training when they realize "I'm just not smart enough to get this." What point in your math career did you hit a brick wall?
Ask HN: Where did you top out in math classes?
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Re: Ask HN: Where did you top out in math classes?
#2For me the brick wall was social, not related to the math, and I hit it in geometry class in 10th grade. Our teacher was an idiot, and had trouble solving the more difficult proofs at the end of the homework. Day after day I would go up to the board and write down the solution to the problem he couldn't solve. Then, I would get an F for not turning in my homework, which I rightly considered to be a waste of my time, and the people who copied down my answers would get an A's. That was when I decided I had enough formal mathematical education. I taught myself the math to do AP chemistry in high school and tested out of pre calculus in 2000 in college. I am currently teaching myself calculus from Michael Spivak's Calculus. You couldn't get me back in a math class, but I love learning math.
Re: Ask HN: Where did you top out in math classes?
#3Long division. 1st grade.
I never really topped out, because I always figure that when I don't understand something, I'm not smart enough to get it yet, but that doesn't mean I'll never get it.
This pattern started, as I said, in 1st grade with long division. My dad had been trying to teach me math early, and I whizzed through addition, subtraction, and multiplication, but I just couldn't understand long division. My mom (who always took a dim view of acceleration) said "Just let him learn it in school with the other kids." So that's what we did, and when 3rd grade rolled around and we did long division in class, I got it right away.
I did similar things with algebra (dad first tried to teach me it in 2nd grade, didn't get it then, but I started rederiving it on my own in 6th grade and my teachers figured it was time to get me an algebra textbook) and logarithms (which I first tried in 8th grade, but didn't understand for 4 full years...that was my block through all of high school).
As for how far my formal mathematical training has gone - I aced up through vector calculus in college, and also took discrete math late in college and aced it. Also took Functions of a Complex Variable and Mathematical Logic, but got lost around halfway through each of them. Passed, but not really competent in them.
Re: Ask HN: Where did you top out in math classes?
#4When taking 2nd level honors linear algebra, we were given a takehome exam. I spent ~40 hrs on it and got just under the median grade. I was able to pull out a decent grade in that class, and I graduated with a degree in math, but now I know I'm not smart enough to hack it as a professor.
Not that I'd want to, anyway. Math is a great subject, but it's not what I'd want to do with my life.
Re: Ask HN: Where did you top out in math classes?
#5Algebraic number theory, when I was a graduate student in Oxford.
Well, sort of -- by that point I was pretty firmly on the CS side of the fence, and was just sitting in on the number theory classes out of interest. I probably could have grokked class field theory and L-functions if I had taken the time, but I was busy and it wasn't my research area...
Re: Ask HN: Where did you top out in math classes?
#6Recent evidence tends to indicate that 'not smart enough' is probably a myth. Almost everything can be attributed to exposure and effort at some point rather than some innate smartness.
A lot of advanced math takes some serious concentration to understand. For some non-practical aspects, I found that I lacked the motivation rather than ability to understand it . One particular class where I seemed to hit my tolerance was a theoretical linear algebra class. I could understand the practical applications of most of the topics but some of the theory seemed just out of reach. The book was extremely dry and I think the professor may have been taking lessons from Ben Stein.
Give me a private tutor, a theoretical linear algebra for dummies book, and a pending disaster for which this is the solution, and I bet the outcome would be a little different.
Re: Ask HN: Where did you top out in math classes?
#7I'm still asymptotically approaching the "top out limit point".
Re: Ask HN: Where did you top out in math classes?
#8Last class I attempted was trig, and failed completly. I enjoy math, but have given up untill after I finish collage.
Re: Ask HN: Where did you top out in math classes?
#9Calculus III... I think I could have got it, but it's tough material and I had a terrible professor, so I didn't really learn any Calculus III. I passed and did much better in my final math course, a one semester differential equations/linear algebra hybrid course.
Re: Ask HN: Where did you top out in math classes?
#10I went to Cornell College, which schedules classes on a "block plan", one class at a time for a month each. My first semester, I took four consecutive courses in calculus. By the fourth one, I was extremely burned out on math and barely squeaked by.
I ended up taking a couple more math classes before graduating (discrete math and linear algebra), have continued to study math on my own, and have recently been contemplating a master's degree in math, just because I want to learn more.
All of that is to say, I'm not sure that the math brick wall is constant, but perhaps sometimes you need to take a break to allow your mind to digest what you've learned so far.