Help Me Get My Math Back? 467
nwm writes "I am trying to refresh my math skills back to the point that I can take college-level statistics and calculus courses. I took everything through AP calculus in high school, had my butt kicked by college calculus, and dropped out shortly thereafter. Twenty+ years later, I need to take a few math courses to wrap up a degree. I've dug around some and found a few sites with useful information, but I'm hoping the Slashdot crowd can offer some good resources — sites, books, programs, online tutors, etc. I really don't want to have to take a series of algebra-geometry-trig 'pre-college' level courses (each at full cost and each a semester long) just to warm my brain up; I'd much rather find some resources, review, cram, and take the placement test with some confidence. Any suggestions?"
Define: "a few math courses to wrap up a degree" (Score:5, Informative)
Calc II, Calc III, Diff Eq, I II or III. Linear Algebra, Statistics,
There's a huge difference.
There's always MIT's Open Courseware. [mit.edu]
Engineering Math by Stroud (Score:5, Informative)
Re:If you can't handle calculus, science isnt for (Score:5, Informative)
Hi,
Working scientist here. Ph.D. I've been working 20+ years doing scientific research, getting grants, publishing papers in peer-reviewed journals.
I haven't done ANY calculus since I was an undergrad.
This site helped me (Score:5, Informative)
This tutorial site helped me through 6 years of school. Hope it helps you too! http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/
Some sites I've come across (Score:5, Informative)
Drexel's Math Forum [mathforum.org] (full disclosure: I'm a current Drexel employee and student -- but the Math Forum strikes me as pretty cool.)
Project Euler [projecteuler.net](more oriented toward programming and numerical methods, but interesting site for developing your math skills. The problems range from not-too-hard to mind-boggling.)
Purple Math [purplemath.com]
Krzysztof Wilczynski (Score:4, Informative)
cheat! and the TI-89 series makes it easy! (Score:1, Informative)
cheat! and the TI-89 series makes it easy!
Khan, MIT (Score:3, Informative)
You might like:
Khan Academy http://www.khanacademy.org/ [khanacademy.org]
(Get an account for the review software if you have forgotten college algebra skills as well.)
MIT's Open Courseware http://ocw.mit.edu/ [mit.edu]
Many of these courses now have full video libraries of lectures, homework and exam solutions, etc. You can buy a text and take the course.
I am interested to see other finds out there, though.
MIT Opencourseware? (Score:3, Informative)
Dunno about college placement tests, but to start thinking about maths in general there's nothing like just buying a couple of books and going at it (but make sure you have the answer booklet/solutions are in the back of the book). If you're feeling a little panicky you might even want to start with something really un-threatening ('Statistics for dummies' exists for that). You might want to see what the standard textbooks would be for the courses that are prerequisites for the ones you're looking to study, and perhaps ask which areas you would be expected to be comfortable with.
Also, the MIT opencourseware site is probably your friend: http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Mathematics/ [mit.edu]
As regards an online tutor, depending on whether you currently live near a college/university/miscellaneous site of higher learning, you might want to see if there are any postgrads in applicable subjects who are willing to tutor. In my experience online tutors are seldom worth half as much as talking to a real live actual human being, and they are usually more expensive. YMMV - especially if you are extremely busy an online tutor may actually suit you better than scheduling another real live person into your week.
Finally - good luck :)
Re:If you can't handle calculus, science isnt for (Score:3, Informative)
I was in the same situation as submitter. In fact, it was the reason why I switched majors from CompSci - being in a hurry to get a degree in a science and too much bullshit math I'd never use. I'll go back for Compsci when I can learn on my own terms, for fun.
However, you were spot-on about this: Calc 1 is 90% algebra(with 20-30% of the problems involving trig)and you're gonna be fucked if you don't have a good grasp of algebraic manipulation. My recommendation to submitter is to take online calculus(where available) at an accredited junior college and use a computer algebra system to help them through the homework visually, especially with regards to roots and asymptotes.
Constructing Maple worksheets gives one a good step-by-step process for visualizing the steps necessary to solve the problems. Iterative methods like Newton's, Simpson's, Trapezoid rule etc. would come naturally to a programmer.
Submitter - stats is just arithmetic and basic algebra, it's the concepts and knowing what to do with the data that are the hard part. Again get a T.I. and learn all of the functions, there is a LOT of tedium. Don't be afraid of the weird greek variables and big formulae...it's just arithmetic and algebra 1, you will hate it when you take it, but you will love it when you pass it.
Ethanol-fueled
Re:If you can't handle calculus, science isnt for (Score:5, Informative)
A Very Good Survey (Score:4, Informative)
There is a new edition, edited by Ian Stewart, which Amazon has:
What is Mathematics? [amazon.com]
I like the book because it is geared to an intelligent adult reader; it doesn't assume much technical math knowledge, but it gives (IMHO) an excellent overview of the concepts through calculus. It has exercises, too.
Re:Define: "a few math courses to wrap up a degree (Score:5, Informative)
UCLA has some great courses too.
science and magic [academicearth.org] was very informative. It doesn't hurt that some of the profs are also quite entertaining.OR science and magic on youtube [youtube.com]
Re:Sigh... (Score:5, Informative)
Math is useful in general. And western society doesn't just stress about learning math. An even greater number are probably stressed about passing english tests [ets.org]. Society thinks language and math are important to education; your basket-weaving and sculpture not so much. I personally don't see the problem with this.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
The Princeton Review (Score:2, Informative)
They have prep books for SAT Math 1 & 2 which covers (ironically) more complicated stuff, and I think that's what you really want. For getting your mind back in mathematics mode, I'd pick up both of those (twenty bucks each or less) and work through all the exercises you need to in order to jog the memory banks. Start with the GRE math and good luck!!!
Not enough information. (Score:4, Informative)
You haven't specified what kind of degree, and therefore, what kind of coursework is required. Moreover, even the same level of coursework taught at different institutions can vary widely in difficulty. "Undergraduate calculus" at, say, Caltech is nothing like "undergraduate calculus" two blocks away at Pasadena City College. The same goes for statistics.
If your intention is to obtain a degree, the best starting point is to figure out which text(s) are being used in those courses that are required for that degree. This will give you some idea of the scope and level of difficulty to expect. Otherwise, you could end up studying a great deal of ancillary information. Such things may be good to know, but will not contribute to your stated goal.
Regarding your plan to dive right in, I appreciate and understand your enthusiasm but I also think it is misguided and potentially counterproductive. You could very easily make it much more difficult for you to obtain your credits by not reviewing basics beforehand. Mathematics is not a subject that is easily cherry-picked, nor is it amenable to rote learning. It is more like a vast edifice, a tower whose foundations support increasingly complex and abstract concepts. Furthermore, it is a topic which is best learned through actual understanding. For instance, if you understand what integration actually means, rather than viewing it as a mechanical operation on a function, you will find it easier to interpret other concepts that employ integration, such as the calculation of moment-generating functions of continuous probability distributions.
On some level, it's possible to "get by" with simply learning the mechanics of computation and symbolic manipulation. That is pretty much what calculus is (as opposed to analysis). But if you want to make it as easy as possible on yourself, at the very least I advise you quickly review nearly everything at the high-school level, from algebra to trigonometry. Then take a more detailed look at the AP Calculus curriculum; any gaps in knowledge should be readily apparent and immediately addressed before continuing further. From there, you should compare against the aforementioned college coursework and texts.
Success in learning mathematics is not so much about the details of what you know as it is about how to think analytically and abstractly.
iTunes U (Score:3, Informative)
Re:If you can't handle calculus, science isnt for (Score:3, Informative)
I suggest Schaum's Outlines myself. Cheap, comprehensive, mostly well-written.
Lockhart's book is the only recommendation. (Score:3, Informative)
Lockhart, famous for his critique on “mathematics” “A Mathematician’s lament [maa.org]” is currently writing a book, to teach math the way it’s supposed to be taught.
I decided to wait for it, since all the other stuff on the market is the same retarded backwards-“teaching” shit, with the same stupid “learning rules by heart”.
Practice, practice, practice (Score:3, Informative)
Learning the tools is only half the job.
Skill is being able to pick the right tools throughout the process.
For me, at least, it's never been enough to learn the tools and techniques.
As you've already learned, use it or lose it; if you want it back, start working the exercises.
thanks, and more info (Score:5, Informative)
Re:If you can't handle calculus, science isnt for (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Why? (Score:3, Informative)
All you need to do is be (or get) really good at supporting the systems that had been maintained by people who were laid off, and you'll have more work than you can handle.
If you're trotting out a dog-and-pony-show and trying to sell businesses new ways to "cultivate holistic technologies" or "reintermediate broad-based paradigms [robietherobot.com]" you're completely SOL [onlineslan...ionary.com].
However if you don't mind enhancing 15 year old ERP system to handle a new business process, and you're good at making all the stuff they bought during the "boom" (that never actually worked) do what they need, you'll have to hire more help just to answer the phones.
Amazingly enough, "Providing services that are actually needed, to companies that can actually pay for them" still works really well as a business plan. In fact, I haven't changed my business model in the last 20 year and see no reason to do so now. However if you're happier doing something else, don't let me discourage you.
Re:If you can't handle calculus, science isnt for (Score:4, Informative)
As a mathematician with a statistician wife, I'm surprised by the number of responses like yours. Many people here are asserting that they never use calculus but constantly use statistics. Do they never work with a continuous distribution? No z-tests, f-tests, t-test, chi^2-tests? No exponential, gamma, beta, gaussian, log-normal, logistic distributions?
Or maybe they just don't know that probability theory is based on integration, and every time they compute an expected value, correlation, variance, co-variance, skewness, kurtosis, regression, etc. they are using calculus-based techniques and results. That would go a long way to explaining why my wife is consistently busy consulting with scientists who have worked themselves into a corner with their data. They designed their experiment to produce sub-optimal data and can't do the analyses to extract the meager conclusions their design entails.
Sorry, I don't mean to pick on you in particular, but to say that one uses statistics all the time and never uses calculus is preposterous.
Re:If you can't handle calculus, science isnt for (Score:2, Informative)
>Having an understanding of what a derivative or integral of a function is a good insight to have, no doubt.
Learning calculus is to statistics what getting undressed is to sex.
1] You have to learn algebra so that you can figure out how to take derivatives.
2] You have to learn derivatives to learn how to integrate.
3] Once you can integrate you can integrate y=1/x from 1 to x and then learn what a logarithm is (real, Naperian logarithms, not log10 that the engineers uze.)
4] Then you can evaluate the integral of y=1/x from 1 to infinity and discover from where arises 'e' the base of logarithms.
5] *NOW* you can contemplate e to the negative x squared and understand the distribution of men's chest sizes and distributions normal and otherwise.
To claim you know anything about statistics with out knowing integral calculus is to make the silly claim that you know all about sex from having seen a few copies of Playboy. To understand sex you and a partner must get out of you clothes, and once you get good at it you will need a shower afterwards. To understand statistics is just as much work, just as messy and just as rewarding; and just like sex, not something one brings up in every social circumstance.