10/21/2017 If you had to teach yourself math from basic...

(2017) - Quora

Learning About Mathematics Study Strategies Self-Teaching Mathematics Education Related Questions

Survey Question
Is it possible to teach yourself math to the level of a

If you had to teach yourself math from basic algebra to post-doctorate or PhD? I have made my way through
Trig, Calc 1-3, Linear, and Abstract...
high level mathematics, what would be your strategy?
What is the best way to self teach yourself math?

What is the best book for studying maths from basics

78 Answers
to high level?

Manjari Narayan, Statistics and Signal Processing What is the best book to teach yourself math?
Answered Jul 30 2012
In what order should I learn math from basic algebra
I second suggestions to read work by Ian Stewart. I do not recommend Serge to advanced topics?

Lang for anyone, he simply does not introduce concepts and results in a nice How do you teach yourself mathematics?
logical/progressive manner. I do particularly recommend the following to get up
How can I be good at maths and stop being afraid of
to speed with basic high school level mathematics. it? I'm currently in high school. I can't even do basic
algebra questions. It's very frust...

1. "What is Mathematics?" by Richard Courant and Ian Stewart Can you teach middle and high school math well if
your degree wasn't in math?
http://www.amazon.com/Mathematic...

In other languages
2. "The Princeton Companion to Mathematics" contains great intuitive
introductions to the basics in dierent areas of mathematics. Though written by En espaol: Si tuvieras que aprender matemticas
desde lgebra bsica a matemticas de gran nivel
well known mathematicians, the mathematical exposition is quite accessible to
por ti mismo, cul sera tu estrategia?
the layman. You can dive in as little or deep as you like En franais : Si vous deviez apprendre les
mathmatiques par vous-mme, depuis l'algbre de
http://www.amazon.com/Princeton-... base jusqu'aux mathmatiques avances, quelle
serait votre stratgie?
Auf Deutsch: Wenn Du dir selbst Mathematik
If you want to become familiar with undergraduate level of mathematics, I beibringen msstest, vom Basiswissen Algebra bis zu
recommend learning real analysis, linear algebra, basic probability, and basic hherer Mathematik, welches Programm wrdest Du
dafr verwenden?
combinatorial/discrete math. The last three are staple requirements for In italiano: Se dovessi apprendere la matematica
dall'algebra base no alla matematica di alto livello,
engineering of all kinds and computer science.
quale sarebbe la tua strategia?

1. Terrence Tao for Real Analysis http://www.amazon.com/Epsilon-Ro...

2. Paul Halmos or Gilbert Strang for Linear Algebra
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_s...
3. Probability Theory http://www.amazon.com/First-Cour...
4. Lovasz's Discrete Mathematics http://www.amazon.com/Discrete-M...

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Related Questions More Answers Below

Is it possible to teach yourself math to the level of a post-doctorate or PhD? I have

made my way through Trig, Calc 1-3, Linear, and Abstract...

What is the best way to self teach yourself math?

What is the best book for studying maths from basics to high level?

What is the best book to teach yourself math?

In what order should I learn math from basic algebra to advanced topics?

Kunal Mukherjee, Loves math

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10/21/2017 If you had to teach yourself math from basic...(2017) - Quora
Kunal Mukherjee, Loves math
Updated Jun 25

The answer is going

Search forto be quitepeople,
questions, long and
andcomprehensive,
topics read till the end, Sign In
its worth it:

See, Math is divided into the following 8 parts. Dont rush to do all
overnight, youll get demotivated and lose interest. Rather do it module
wise, in chunks that you can chew, Its like going 0 to hero in this order:

Module 1: Basics and Algebra

Module 2: Pre-Calculus

Module 3: Calculus

Module 4: Transformations

Module 5: Mathematical Logic

Module 6: Graph Theory

Module 7: Algorithms

Module 8: Cryptography

Module 1: BASICS AND ALGEBRA

Understanding number theory, what are real numbers(rational,

irrational, fractional, integer number, odd number, even number, prime
number, co prime numbers, relatively prime numbers) what are
complex numbers(rectangular form, Argand Diagrams, Polar
Form, Exponential Form, De-Moivres Theorem).

Understand what algebra is, read the fundamental rule of

algebra(Fundamental theorem of algebra - Wikipedia ), Learn how to
solve linear simultaneous equations using substitution, elimination
and cross elimination method. Then shift to quadratic equations, how
to solve them using prime factorization, quadratic formula (Quadratic
formula - Wikipedia ), completing the square method(Completing the
Square ). Then move to higher degree equations, learn the synthetic
division method (Synthetic division - Wikipedia ) to factorize them.

Move on to set theory (Set theory - Wikipedia ), learn what are sets,
subsets, power sets, cardinality of a set. After that learn basic set
operations like union, intersection, set dierence, complement. Learn
how to represent sets as Venn diagrams. Learn about the inclusion -
exclusion principle(Inclusionexclusion principle - Wikipedia ). Learn
what are cartesian product of 2 sets, learn how relations are derived
from cartesian products, learn how

Move on to Matrix Algebra and learning whatre determinants are,

and all the operations done on them
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma... )

Module 2: PRE - CALCULUS

Learn about arithmetic progressions (Arithmetic progression -

Wikipedia ), geometric progressions(Geometric progression -
Wikipedia ).

Learn What a Logarithm of a number is, what is Anti - Logarithm,

what is the dierence between common log and natural log. Learn
how to read Log Tables.

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Move on to read and understanding what are Co-Ordinate geometry in

2 - D, understand what is an abscissa and an ordinate, know about the
distance formula, the section formula, collinearity conditions in that
order.

Learn about Statistics, collection of data and sorting them into

meaningful relationships by the use of histograms, frequency tables,
etc. Learning what is univariate data. Then learning about the concepts
of central tendency in a given data set and the ways to achieve it by
making the use of Arithmetic Mean, Geometric Mean, Harmonic Mean,
Median, mode, standard deviation, mean devaition.

Learn about Co-Relation and Regression, how multi-variate data is

represented and how are they related, Learn about karl pearson
coecient of correlation, Spearman ranks, etc.

Learn the concept of a factorial of a number, learn what are

permutations, combinations and derangements. Learn about the the
Binomial Theorem as it is very useful.

Next learn about, 3-D geometry: Intercepts, Slope of a line, Direction

Ratios, Direction Cosines.

Learn what are Vectors, Learn about Unit vectors, Learn about the dot
and cross products.

Next learn what is Linear Programming, how to optimize(either

maximize or minimize)data sets using graphical and simplex
methods.

Learn about Probability next, probability of an event, probability of a

negation of an event, what is a sample space, the standard layout of 52
poker cards, the Bayes theorem for conditional probability. Learn
about discrete and continous probability. Learn discrete probability
distributions like the Binomial, Geometric and the Poisson
Distributions and continuous probability distributions like the
Exponential Distribution.

Next move on to read what exactly is trigonometry, what re

trigonometric ratios of a right angled triangle, learn some basic values
of trigonometry at standard angles like (0 deg, 30 deg, 45 deg, 60 deg
and 90 deg). Learn about the ASTC system and shifts and periodicity
of trigonometric ratios in all 4 quadrants. Inverse Trigonometry

Module 3: CALCULUS

Move on to Dierential Calculus, learn the basic rules of

dierentiation, quotient rule, product rule, chain rule, parametric
dierentiation and all the derivatives of standard functions.

Move on to Integral Calculus, learn that integration is just the opposite

process of dierentiation. Knowing what is an indenite and denite
integral. Learn the integrals of standard functions, Learn the
substitution rule for integration next and the Bernoullis
Generalized rule of integration by parts when you got to nd the
integral of the product of 2 functions. The concept of odd and even
functions.

Next, move on to Linear Dierential Equations, learn the 4 methods

to solve a dierential equations that is, Variable Separable,
Homogeneous Dierential Equations, Bernoullis Dierential
Equations, Exact Dierential Equations.

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Move to Higher Order Dierential Equations, learn how to make an

auxiliary equation, nding the complementary function (C.F) from
that, and the particular integral using any of the 2 methods which are:
Methods of Undetermined Coecients or Method of Variation of
Parameters.

Next move to Partial Dierentiation, which dierentiating wrt one

variable while keeping others constant.

Learn the Leibniz nth derivative formula(General Leibniz rule -

Wikipedia ) next.

Module 4: TRANSFORMATIONS

Learn about Laplace Transformations and Inverse Laplace

Transformations.

Learn properties of Z-Transforms and their operations.

Learn Fourier Series and Fourier Transforms.

Learn Numerical Methods Like Regula-Falsi and Newton-Raphson

Method .

Module 5: MATHEMATICAL LOGIC

Start with Basic rules of Logic, like: Commutative law, distributive

law, absorption law, idempotent law, law of negation, De-Morgans
Law.

Learn Rules of Inferences like: Rule of conjunctive simplication,

disjunctive amplication, transitive properties, Modus Ponnes,
Modus Tollens.

Learn about Open Statements/Quantiers.

Learn about the Pigeon-Hole Principle.

Learn about First Order and Second Order Recurrence Relations.

Module 6: GRAPH THEORY

Move over to Trees, learn what is a tree, tree terminologies like(what

is a root node, edges, siblings, child node, parent node, ancestor, leaf
node, level of a node, height of the tree, depth of the tree), what is a
binary tree, full binary tree, almost complete binary tree, Tree
traversals like: Inorder, Preorder and PostOrder Traversals.

Move on to graphs, learn what a graph is, learn graph related

terminologies like: (vertex, edge, path, loop, multiple edge, indegree,
outdegree of a node). Learn whatre Undirected, Directed and Weighted
Graphs, Bipartite and Complete - Bipartite Graphs. Then learn about
the transitive closure of a graph (Warshall Algorithm), learn how to
represent a graph using adjacency matrix and adjacency list. Learn
graph traversals like Depth First Traversals and Breadth First
Traversals. Learn the Handshaking Property of a graph. Learn
about the Konigsberg Bridge Problem.

Learn whatre Prex Trees and how to do derive Human Codes From
that, next study what are Human Trees/Weighted Trees.

Module 7: ALGORITHMS

Learn how do the classify algorithms: Brute Force, Divide and

Conquer, Decrease and Conquer.

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Learn Sorting Algorithms like: Bubble, Insertion, Selection, Merge,

Quick and the Radix Sorts.

Module 8: CRYPTOGRAPHY

Learn the origins of cryptography, learn about the Caesar Cipher, then
learn what is encryption. Learn what is decryption. Learn the
dierence between Symmetric Key and Asymmetric Key
Cryptography.

Learn how to generate prime numbers using Sieve of Eratosthenes

method, Fermats Primality Test and the Naive Method.

Learn Symmetric Key Algorithms like: The DES and the AES
algorithm.

Learn Asymmetric Key Algorithms like: The RSA Algorithm, The

Die Hellman Key Exchange Protocols.

Learn about Hashing Algorithms like the MD5 and SHA-1 algorithm.

Lastly I would like to conclude by saying that math is a very interesting subject
as it forces you to think instead of rote memorization of useless facts. Most
people lose interest in math due to a bad teacher or other reasons. However
dont lose hope and try to be good at math, crunching numbers, visualizing
relations in your mind.

Math is everywhere you name it, Chemistry, Physics, Applied Math, Pure Math,
Research, Fluid Mechanics, Signal Systems, Computer Networks, and yeah
Google Search Engine, too.

Learn how to use a scientic calculator, Buy a Casio FX-991 MS or FX - 991 ES.

Gone are the days where you had to visit a library, Now in 2016 you can use the
vast internet and there is YouTube channel called as Khan Academy just follow
his videos.

In the end, I just want to say, Knowledge is power and comes to those who
have a willingness to learn, experiment, think out of the box and persevere.

Happy Learning :)

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Neville Fogarty, Math Professor at Christopher Newport University

Updated Jun 25, 2015 Upvoted by Michael Paul Goldenberg, Masters degree in
mathematics education from the University of Michigan

Having taught myself calculus back in high school, I can make the following two
recommendations:

Follow an actual math track - don't try to jump into real analysis without having
taken calculus rst. In mathematics, many foundations are laid by prior
subjects, but not always in apparent ways. Here's what I did beyond my rst
algebra course, in order:
Geometry

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Algebra II

Pre-Calculus/Trigonometry

Dierential Calculus

Integral Calculus

Multivariable Calculus

Linear Algebra

Fundamental Concepts (proofs)

------------------------------
Graph Theory

Real Analysis (key)

Number Theory

Complex Analysis

Abstract Algebra (key)

One might take dierential equations or topology along the way as well.

After the dotted line above, I think that order matters signicantly less between
the various disciplines.

I actually recommend looking at geometry because it gives you a nice

background in proofs. Proofs constitute a lot of higher mathematics, so getting
used to them early is important. On the whole, don't jump straight into
anything below the line without having an understanding of the stu
above the line unless you like being confused. For each course, either study
the book* from start to nish, or, more eciently, nd a syllabus for such a
course, either by asking a local teacher/professor or by snooping around
online.

Secondly, augment your books with someone who knows math. A friend who
majored in math back in the day (provided the day was only a few years ago)
should be sucient, as long as he's willing. Despite their best intentions,
textbook authors will inevitably confuse you, no matter which texts you select.
As such, every so often, you'll want to be able to pick someone's brain as to "Why
is integration by parts necessary?" or "Why aren't all groups Abelian?" Though
the internet (esp. Quora) is great, you can get live, personalized service from a
chum more eciently when it comes to many aspects of mathematics, as
diagrams & proofs don't always transmit well digitally. Take him out for a coee
- don't pay him. :)

Good luck!

*I won't recommend specic books for you - everyone has their own tastes.
However, if you were to nd and follow a syllabus, use the book the
teacher/professor suggests. This will make your life much easier.

80.4k Views 264 Upvotes

Steve Carnagua, Student of social psychology, life hacker.

Updated Jul 10, 2015

This is essentially what I've done over the past couple years. Okay, I knew
calculus from AP Calc in high school when I started out, but I really hadn't used

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it for 8 years. This is long, but I hope you'll nd it useful. I've bolded the specic
tactics I used to make it slightly easier to read.

The #1 thing you can do is begin with the end in mind. Depending on your exact
goal, you probably have a long and arduous road ahead. In order to stay focused
and even to stay in the game, you will want to have a specic goal (a PhD in
computer science, a job as a statistician, a job as a high school math teacher,
etc.). The more specic, the better, because then you can gure out exactly what
you need to know.

My rst step was to nd a tutor. I knew I couldn't do it on my own. I tried my

local university, by emailing professors for student recommendations, but that
didn't work, so I resorted to Craigslist. There, I was extremely fortunate to nd
someone with a PhD in engineering who wasn't happy with his day job and
willing to tutor me in the evenings. I think it was $25/hr., but it might have been
$30. Even though I had no money, it was one of the best investments I've ever
made.

I wasn't sure what I was going to do at this point, but I had to be working toward
something. I planned on studying for about 300 hours for the rst actuarial
exam, and then going from there based on my comfort with the material. With
my tutor, I reviewed derivatives and integrals, learned some probability and
statistics, and got familiar with mathematical notation. I was working full time,
so I spent about 6 hours a week with the tutor, and studied on my own an
additional 5-10 hours. My strategy was to work through a textbook written
specically for students studying for this particular exam.

In addition to using the textbook, I started working through MIT's multivariate

calculus course (available through OCW ), while using Khan Academy's
calculus videos when I got stuck in my book or the MIT course. I also liked
patrickjmt.com for calculus, as a change of pace and because he goes a little
further than Sal does.

After several months and gaining some condence with calculus, probability,
and stats, I decided to change course slightly (that's another story, but the
impetus was my tutor taking a job halfway across the world) and study to
become an economist. I started researching. That's actually how I discovered
Quora! (Quora helped with career advice, but not with learning math.) I looked
at Urch's PhD forums to get an idea of where I stood and what I would need to
know. Using advice from forums, professors' blogs, and local professors
whom I called and emailed (I found these guys through my network), I started to
build a curriculum for myself, in order to qualify for and survive a PhD in
economics.

I continued with the MIT course, used Khan Academy's linear algebra videos,
and found more specic economics courses on Utubersity. These things helped
me get up to speed. I spent a ton of time learning on my own before grad school,
but there is a lot of value in formal education. I also took two intermediate
undergrad courses just to be sure I wouldn't be completely lost with the econ
terminology. Unless you're still with a very capable and patient tutor, going to a
university is the best way to get the feedback and accountability you need to
learn graduate level math (if you call economics "graduate level math" :D).

While in school, I continued my extra-curricular education with Coursera.

There are some pretty good stats courses, specically ones about data science .

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I've taken a few of those courses, focusing on CS or statistical computing, topics
which fall outside of my main area of study now. Now that the end of my
program is in sight, I'm still taking Coursera courses and reading about subjects
that synergize with my traditional classes. By the way, I got this idea from Cal
Newport at Study Hacks , who has phenomenal material online about getting
into grad school and succeeding in a career.

So, in summary:
1. Have a clear goal, and use it to dene your curriculum. Keep rening it
as you learn new things.

2. Find a patient and bright tutor.

3. Use online resources for intermediate up to slightly advanced material,

especially Khan Academy at rst. Don't be afraid to try new things if
you know where the basic tutorials (for the prerequisite math) are
online.

4. If you need a graduate level understanding, you probably want to go to

grad school. Find out what exactly you'll need to know from people who
do the job you want to do.

Best of luck!

71.3k Views 150 Upvotes

Brandon Smietana, Hilbert Spaces, Dierential Geometry, Category Theory.

Answered Feb 8, 2011

For pure mathematics I would start with:

Mathematics: Its Content, Methods and Meaning by Kolmogorov

http://amzn.to/bZJ1gk

The Skeleton Key of Mathematics http://amzn.to/e7mHe3

For exciting and useful applied mathematics at a basic level start reading David
G. Luenbergers's books. Particularly,

Investment Science http://amzn.to/9D2JWz

Information Science http://amzn.to/ebaxrX

Investment Science and Information Science are two of my favorite

mathematics related books. They have also been the most useful to me.

30.3k Views 22 Upvotes Answer requested by Xavier Nathan

Steve Denton, Interested in cognitive behavioural therapy, NLP and life-

coaching.
Updated Dec 4, 2016 Upvoted by Matthew Handy, I've been teaching Maths since 1992

I am a graduate of mathematics and theoretical physics, and a life-long self-

learner in these subjects, so I think I have a lot of experience in this area.

To answer the question.

It all depends what the questioner means by 'want[ing] to become very good at
math'.

How do you dene 'very good'? And what sort of mathematics do you want to
learn, and why?

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Let's address the second question rst. With any learning activity - and
particularly with self-directed learning - it is important always to have the
objective of that learning in mind, rstly so that you can plot an ecient course
towards it (thereby hopefully avoiding wasting your time on unproductive
detours and irrelevant distractions), and secondly so that you'll know when you
have reached it.

Mathematics is a kind of language (in fact, it is many, many dierent but

interrelated languages), and so there are parallels between learning
mathematics and learning languages. When you decide to learn a foreign
language, you must rst choose the language you want to learn, and this choice
will be guided by such considerations as the following:

The language's potential usefulness to you personally, i.e. is it widely

spoken, or required for your job, or do you plan to visit the country (or
countries) where it is spoken?

The language's aesthetic qualities, i.e. is its spoken form particularly

pleasing to the ear (e.g. many people like Italian because of its varying
rhythm and expressive tonality), or its written form and alphabet
especially pleasing to the eye (many people like languages with - to
them - 'exotic' non-Latin alphabets such as Cyrillic, Arabic or
Japanese)?

The language's level of diculty, i.e. is it an easy language to learn, in

terms of its pronunciation, written form and grammatical structure, or
a dicult one that you might perhaps choose if you are looking for a
challenge?

Mathematics is a vast and constantly expanding discipline, with several major

subject divisions (e.g. algebra, geometry, analysis, topology) and hundreds of
subdivisions and specializations. Just as with languages, dierent branches of
mathematics may have dierent degrees of usefulness to you, or dierent
aesthetic qualities in terms of the beauty of their central ideas or their written
form. And they will certainly present dierent levels of diculty in terms of
their grammar, vocabulary and conceptual abstraction.

So which should you choose? To sharpen your focus on just those areas that
might be of interest and relevance to you, ask yourself some basic questions,
such as:

Do I want ultimately to obtain academic qualications in mathematics,

or simply to study it for mental stimulation, as a purely recreational
interest? (Language analogy: Do I want to become a professional
linguist, translator or interpreter, or simply to learn a language for
pleasure?)

Do I want to be able to use my mathematical knowledge to solve

practical problems, or am I not interested in its practical applications?
(Language analogy: Do I want to use a foreign language to understand
books, music or lms produced in it, or to communicate with native
speakers, or just to learn it as an end in itself?)

Do I know which areas of mathematics interest me? Do I even

appreciate how many dierent areas of mathematics there are?

If you are aiming to study mathematics at college/university to degree level, or

further, then your mathematical study will need to be suciently broad to cover
the sorts of topics you are likely to encounter in a typical undergraduate
mathematics course. The mathematics curricula of dierent universities will

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dier in their choice of topics and the depth to which they are developed in a
degree course, these dierences being dictated to a certain extent by the
interests of the lecturers, the research activities of the mathematics (and
physics) faculty, and whether the course is more geared towards pure or applied
mathematics. But all mathematics curricula will have certain broad subject
areas in common. The easiest way to discover what these are would be to visit
the websites of various university maths faculties and look at the subjects they
teach. These are likely to include the following topics (many of which overlap
each other) as a minimum (listed in no particular order, though some topics are
more advanced than others, and have certain prerequisites):

Set Theory

Group Theory

Algebra (linear, abstract, etc.)

Dierential and integral calculus of a single variable

Dierential and integral calculus of several variables

Ordinary dierential equations

Partial dierential equations

Real Analysis

Complex Analysis

Topology

Discrete mathematics (combinatorics, graph theory, etc.)

Number Theory

Geometry (projective, dierential, etc.)

Probability theory

Statistics (statistics is often taught as a discipline in its own right, rather

than as part of a maths course).

Generally, the more prestigious the university or college, the more advanced the
material in its degree courses will be, so some (e.g. Ivy League (US) and Russell
Group (UK) universities) will introduce topics at the undergraduate level that
others (e.g. smaller 'provincial' universities) would only cover at the
postgraduate/Masters level.

If you want to use mathematics to solve practical problems, then your choice of
mathematical subjects will depend on what sort of practical problems you are
interested in. But all 'practical' mathematical problem solving will require
certain basic skills, and familiarity with some of the more generic tools of
mathematics, such as algebra, geometry, calculus, combinatorics, probability
and statistics.

If you are thinking of studying mathematics purely as an intellectually

absorbing pastime or to 'improve your mind' (it serves both purposes for many
'amateur' mathematicians), but are unsure of which areas of mathematics you
might be interested in, or of how many dierent areas of mathematics there
actually are, then I recommend that you rst try to do a broad, high-level survey
of the eld by reading some nontechnical books on mathematics for the popular
science market. These should preferably cover many dierent areas of
mathematics, devoting - say - one chapter to each, rather than focusing on a
single mathematical area or theme for the entire book (such as the many books
on Fermat's last theorem). There are many such 'general survey' books on

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mathematics, but I particularly like - and highly recommend - those of the
British mathematician Prof. Ian Stewart, many of which I read when embarking
on my own mathematical education (I was 99% self-taught in mathematics
before going on to study it at university). Ian Stewart writes in a very clear,
accessible and entertaining style, and really brings his subject alive for the
reader. I can particularly recommend the following:

http://www.amazon.com/Letters-Yo...

http://www.amazon.com/Concepts-M...

http://www.amazon.com/Here-Inn...

http://www.amazon.com/Mathematic...

http://www.amazon.com/Natures-Nu...

Two other excellent books that follow the mathematical-area-per-chapter

format are:

http://www.amazon.com/Five-Golde...

http://www.amazon.com/Five-More-...

Once you have got an idea about the dierent areas of mathematics out there,
you can decide (perhaps based also on your answers to the rst two questions
above) whether you want to focus on one area alone, or a few particular areas, or
be a 'generalist' and study a wide variety of dierent areas. [1]

Now that you have decided which areas of mathematics you want to study, you
need to answer the rst question I raised: Exactly how 'good' do you want to
become as a mathematician? Once again, the language analogy is helpful: When
you are learning a foreign language, you have to decide what level of prociency
would be sucient for your needs. Do you want to be able to converse
condently and uently with native speakers (dicult - for most people)? Do
you just want to be able to understand books, music or lms produced in that
language (easier)? Or do you simply want to be able to use the language on
vacation, to read road signs and restaurant menus, and to ask and answer simple
questions in hotels, banks and shops (easiest)? The same sorts of questions
apply to mathematical prociency; do you want 'conversational uency', or
reasonable literacy when reading mathematical books, or just to be able to 'get
by' and read the road signs?

I'll conclude with a few words of advice regarding a general strategy for learning
mathematics from books. [2]

Firstly, understand that you cannot read a mathematics book in the same way
that you read a novel. Reading a mathematics book should be an active - and
interactive - experience, not a passive one. You will be required to follow
detailed arguments and - often complex and subtle - lines of reasoning, and to
continually answer questions that the text poses to you. In particular, you will be
required to check for yourself that you understand all the mathematical
derivations, ideally by reproducing the calculations and conrming the results
for yourself. You will therefore need a notepad in which to do your own
calculations as you read the book.

If you own the book, then make extensive use of annotation; underline,
highlight or otherwise mark signicant words, sentences and equations so that
they will stand out on subsequent re-reading. And you should always read
everything at least three times; rstly, with a light, skimming preview to get the
general gist of the material; then, with a detailed 'in-view' in which you immerse

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yourself in the material and attempt to achieve a complete understanding of it;
and, nally, with a review, in which you revisit the important points you
highlighted in the in-view and incorporate them into a higher-level framework
for ease of recall (I nd mind-mapping an invaluable tool for constructing this
framework). Add your own comments and thoughts in the margins as you go, as
these will help to put you back in the same frame of mind on a subsequent
reading, and may be important in recording and re-triggering your 'eureka!'
moments, in which you experienced a sudden insight or discovered a
connection with previous knowledge as you read the material. And if your own
calculations to conrm some statement or equation are brief enough, include
these in the margins too, so that you won't have to repeat them on a subsequent
reading. In short, a well-used mathematics book should look like a complete
mess when you have nished with it, its pages littered with your own
underlinings, highlightings, asterisks, question marks, exclamation marks,
comments and calculations! But that shouldn't matter, because if you have read
the book in the manner I have suggested, then you will have understood it and
memorized it, and shouldn't need to read it again :o)

Also, if you are aiming - in the language analogy - for conversational uency,
then it is very important that you not only read the text but also do the exercises,
because to achieve prociency in mathematics, as in any other subject, there
really is no substitute for practice, practice, practice!

Finally, in learning mathematics, you should follow the pedagogical principle of

'Learn it, play with it, own it!': When you have learned a new piece of
mathematics, take some time out from your reading to thoroughly familiarize
yourself with it by playing with it! Viewed in one way, mathematics is an
absorbing intellectual game, and playing with it is not only great fun but also the
best way to really learn it and understand it. By 'playing' with it, I mean thinking
up problems or posing yourself questions that you suspect might be answerable
using the mathematics you have just learned, and then applying that
mathematics to try to solve them. Or perhaps you might try to generalize the
mathematics you have just learned and apply it to a broader range of problems,
or connect it with other mathematics with which you are already familiar. All of
these activities will help to embed the new mathematics more deeply in your
mind, so that you no longer have to refer to your notepad or textbook in order to
recall it and use it, but can summon it up eortlessly. Playing with mathematics
will make it instinctive and second-nature to you, so that you can call on it at
any time and, like an old and reliable friend, it will always be there for you. :o)
When you have achieved this level of prociency in a mathematical subject,
then you can truly claim that you have attained the third stage of competence -
i.e. that you own it (or, in the terminology of NLP, that you have achieved
unconscious competence in it). And that should be 'good enough' for you, and for
anyone else for that matter!

Good luck with your journey of mathematical discovery, and have fun along the
way! :o)

[1] My own disposition is the latter, partly because I nd variety and novelty
stimulating, and partly because my other interest, theoretical physics, requires
familiarity with a broad range of mathematical disciplines. All theoretical
physicists are mathematical generalists to this extent (and this is one of the
reasons I was drawn to theoretical physics in the rst place); we are probably
familiar with more areas of mathematics than most professional
mathematicians, although our knowledge of any particular area generally won't
be as deep as that of mathematicians who are experts in it.

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[2] This is something I know a great deal about, as this is how I learned most of
the mathematics I know; book-based study has always been my preferred way of
learning the subject, even when I was at university. I generally regarded lectures
as an inferior form of instruction to self-study, partly because of the inherent
limitations of the 'chalk-and-talk' format (especially in a large lecture theatre),
partly because of the poor quality of some of the lecturers (e.g. the mumblers
you just can't hear, the droners who send you to sleep, and - perhaps worst - the
reluctant and disinterested lecturers whom you suspect regard lecturing as a
tiresome duty that distracts them from their more interesting research work),
and partly because their material was frequently so damned boring and
irrelevant to my real interests (particularly in theoretical physics). My
philosophy was that if I could nd a good book on a subject, written by an
acknowledged expert in it, then I shouldn't need to attend any lectures in it, and
attendance should therefore be optional (my lecturers took a dierent view, of
course...).

240.7k Views 790 Upvotes

Steven Clarke, High school and college math instructor for over 17 years
Answered Dec 16, 2015

I'd work through all of the problem sets on this page , in order. If I got stuck on
a problem and did not have access to a math teacher or tutor, I would use online
resources such as Khan Academy , Pauls Online Math Notes , and Wolfram
Alpha , and Mathematics Stack Exchange to get back on track. I'd also look
for inexpensive used textbooks and free online textbooks that cover high school
algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and calculus.

When I nished with those problem sets, I would take a look at some good
textbooks on linear algebra and dierential equations. If I felt I could learn on
my own using those and some online resources I would continue my self-study.
If not, I'd look for college courses in those subjects. For anything beyond those
topics I would need to look for college courses in upper level undergraduate
topics -- real and complex analysis, modern algebra, number theory, set theory,
topology, dierential geometry, etc. Only a very gifted person could learn those
topics on their own, and I am not so gifted.

Finally, I would try to nd someone with similar goals and at about my skill level
to work with. Two (or three or four) smart and motivated students working
together are frequently a better resource than one good teacher. And throughout
the entire journey I would try to spend as much time as possible communicating
with people at all levels who enjoy math.

18.1k Views 33 Upvotes Answer requested by Darnell Wiggins

Rohit Malshe, Chem Engineer, Programmer, Author, Thinker, Amazon engineer

Answered Feb 6

Yes, you can do it very easily. Just watch in this video how :)

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Second, the inspiration from the days of IIT-JEE preparation! No IITian

would ever forget those golden days, when they slog 1214 hours a day for two
years trying to get a rank in the JEE. No matter where your intelligence stands, it
would have to be an enormous amount of work put into solving a large number
of problems spending hours over them.

My inspiration to you would be that you refer to one of the best

syllabuses in the world, that is not only all encompassing, but has been
designed and iterated too many times by some of the best math
professors, lecturers, and teachers all over India. It has tested the
knowledge of some millions of students, and I can tell you that students
who make it to the topmost ranks in the IITs are usually also
international math Olympiad champions. IIT-JEE syllabus is one of the
most famous syllabuses in the world, and covers a very wide range of
topics. If you improve your knowledge in all these aspects of math, you
can be signicantly better than a lot of people in the world.

Now that I have boasted about IIT and JEE preparation, here is how the
strategy would look like.

My strategy would be extremely simple to follow, but a very hard pathway.

Sometimes hard is the way to go really.

I would pick these books one after the other, and just go after solving all
possible problems until I would be able to tell myself, that I have
understood the subject well enough. Some examples are merely
following, and there are more.

RD Sharma class 11th and RD Sharma class 12th

Co-ordinate Geometry for IIT-JEE

Dierential Calculus for IIT-JEE

Integral Calculus for IIT-JEE

Algebra for JEE Main & Advanced

Vectors & 3D Geometry

Trigonometry for JEE Main & Advanced

IIT Mathematis by ML Khanna

Problems Plus In IIT Mathematics

COURSE in MATHEMATICS for IIT-JEE (TMH)

A Practice Book of Mathematics JEE Main & Advanced

Then I would pick books written by some foreign authors to try and test
my knowledge, and then when I have gured out that I have gained
sucient knowledge, I would go after next subject or next book. This is
very simple to sound, and very hard to follow! I cannot even remember
the number of hours I used to put into solving problems from a wide
variety of books.

Second, there are a lot of courses on Coursera for advanced

mathematics, and I have really liked them. Math is quite complex to
understand initially, but once you understand the language, logic, and
how to apply it, it is a lot of fun to go through it. I have taken many math
courses in grad school, and did well in some, did only average in some
others, but at the end of the day, it all had to do with number of hours I

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was putting into them. Understanding those subjects is not the most
dicult thing in the world, if you give them some time.

I would then gure out how to use Mathematica, Wolfram

Mathematica because once you have the understanding, you should
rather gure out how to apply it than to actually solve and put in a lot of
work.

Once I have done all this, I would pick up Matlab, and nd a problem to
solve, and then apply all the basics I would have learned.

Stay blessed and stay inspired!

6.2k Views 20 Upvotes

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