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Help Me Get My Math Back?
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?"
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.
This book uses programmed learning that goes step by step through everything you will need and more. It is designed for self study. There is also a sequel book that goes into some much higher stuff. I used just this book as preparation for classes requiring calc 3 as a prerequisite.
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 tutorial site helped me through 6 years of school. Hope it helps you too! http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/
Helpful handouts from Germanna Community College's tutoring Center. (I used to work there a few years ago; these resources are not only helpful, but free.)
Drexel's Math Forum (full disclosure: I'm a current Drexel employee and student -- but the Math Forum strikes me as pretty cool.)
Project Euler(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
Paleotechnologist and connoisseur of pretty shiny things.
Keith, I would start with YouTube. Crazy as it sounds, but there are many free training videos there. Especially, look up channels maintained by the universities like i.e. MIT or Yale, etc etc. They have recordings of lecture sessions available for free to watch, of course. And some of them are of finest quality. Anyway, that is just a start... Good luck, KW
Another thing that you might want to brush up, in addition to those things the parent post mentions, would be trigonometry. A healthy portion of the various calc courses I've taken have used trig identities fairly heavily. It also helps to remember the values of trig functions for common angles. Depending on the college, you may have to be decent at mental arithmetic. My school frowned upon using calculators in class.
SSC
I have gone through those at MIT, just for fun. I also found that Khan Academy was really interesting and perhaps is easier for some. Strang at MIT is awesome and also the courses at Yale are good.
UCLA has some great courses too.
science and magic was very informative. It doesn't hurt that some of the profs are also quite entertaining.OR science and magic on youtube
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. 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.
Because it is the basis of all fields of science.
And quite a few fields of art.
I *HATE* math, but I use it every single day, and in the areas I'm known for, I can do the math needed...mostly in my head. I've also found that as I've tried to branch out of my areas of expertise, that I can't rely on the few areas of math that I know fluently, because I'm starting to bang my head against the ceiling.
For instance, I took a few basic undergrad courses recently (I have a masters in psychology), and I couldn't remember the damn quadratic equation...I could get the answer just fine -- if I wanted to spend 15 minutes solving it (or as I did, write a quick plot app on my laptop to show the answers figuring it out computationally as opposed to mathematically)...and it was only after one of my twenty-something classmates looked at me and said Dude, Why Don't You Just Use The Quadratic Equation that I realized how much I had forgotten (I had no use for math 20 years ago and slept through this).
It is funny how knowing the simple concepts can make your life simple. Anyone can brute force just about anything.
If you don't want to do anything science based...and this includes almost any social science even if people think these are not real...or any advanced art (I have a friend that does weavings, and to get what she wants, and for the patterns to work out in real life, not just paper, she needs to know math to get these to work)...math is the basis for all of this. Oh and the chess algs? it is all math...pretty advanced math...it isn't chess these guys were after...it was computational mathmatics to attack a human problem.
This summer, I am signing up for a 100 level math course and getting the basics back again...I wish I would have done it before...it sucks that I can get results from Mathematica or SPSS, but I can't do simple algebraic equations. You might not think it interesting or necessary, but then again, I can't tell if you are being serious or if your humor is just VERY dry...if you are serious...wow...
Wow... the firehose is in full spray mode today. First off, thanks to those of you who actually responded to my question and suggested books, sites, DVDs, etc. You've given me plenty to look into. I don't know if it's worth it to even mention it at this point, but here's a little more information. I didn't mention it earlier because I was trying to keep the post short and focused (not that it helped, with all the arguments about calc vs. stat I started!). I worked in IT for ten years doing everything from electronic form designs to help desk to network administration to database administration to network engineering to phone cabling to basic web design. Since I have the work background, I want a piece of paper to go with it. It's as simple as that. Well... that and I'd really like to finish a degree at some point in my life. Current degree program: Associates in Information Technology at a community college, all online. Reasons: 1) cost (not going to throw my money away on lower level courses) and 2) I live in Albania right now, and in Mexico before that (and who knows where in another couple years - my wife's job will move us every few years). So, access to English speaking tutors - limited; access to local college resources - very limited; access to good US libraries - none. I might go on to a bachelor in IT at some point, but at this point I just want to wrap up this degree. Am I willing to do the work and learn the material? Yes. I simply do not want to waste my time on entire semesters of material that I might be able to refresh myself on in a few weeks to a month. If I hit a spot where refresher material just isn't cutting it, I'll take a full course. I don't want to test out of calculus - I want to slay that particular beastie with my own two hands! I enjoyed math in grade school and high school. Who knows? Maybe I'll learn to enjoy math again and get a degree in it. And to respond to the "bag groceries" comment, been there, done that (worked six years in a grocery store after dropping out of college, also a car wash and fast food). :-)
Check out Kahn Academy http://khanacademy.org/. They have short 10-15 minute video on all types of math in easily digested servings.