Stop Learning Math Wrong

[@TreSwayy]

The thing I notice most with math is how, a lot of the time. If you take a break, for a day and come back. You literally can understand something easily that seemed impossible to understand just a day before. The brain seems to work with it in the background it, and get that “aha” moment

[@lorenzocerrato7279]

So true. Apparently there's something happening in the brain during sleep that reinforce knowledge and connections accumulated during the day, that's way it's so important to have a good sleep routine

[@SequinBrain]

took me 4 days to get an algebra sequence once, was very surprised how, as you say, went from completely impossible to easy like a finger snap. that's so surreal

[@kevinmadden1645]

Well stated!

[@ignaciocabrera219]

it's our ram that gets full and we are not able to store or comprehend new information when it's full, just like a computer. that's why it makes no sense to try to push yourself past this line, it's not even a matter of discpline. once your brain is full you will feel it, that's when you need to sleep and start where you left it, until you are done. that's exactly how you are meant to prepare for an exam, start from zero get your "brain ram" full, go to sleep, rinse and repeat until you studied the whole program. you don't really need fancy learning techniques, just study and sleep like a baby.

[@shroomer3867]

What helps me immensely is to sleep on it, your brain subonsciously works on stuff while you're asleep and if you sleep the full 7-8 hours problems become easier to understand

[@wiggles7976]

There's a bit of structure to the video, so I summarized it somewhat: 1.) MAIN ONE: Don't use training wheels. Solve problems naked with just pencil, paper, and mind. 1a.) Question things. Ask why atomic statements are true. 2.) If you can't solve something, walk away from it for a bit. 10:40 3.) Get math problems thrown at you unexpectedly and solve them.

[@ankershiv]

I solve a lot of problems naked hehe

[@dw5chaosfan]

As someone who has some instruction experience now, I think the "people do better after doing this" operates under the assumption of "the assignments/exams are well-designed". I think a good future video topic would be how to design good math assignments at all levels :)

[@TheMathSorcerer]

I agree. Good assignments are important for learning well! 👍

[@kiran11101]

Well said,I think this applies to all subjects and not only maths.One of the reasons,why students are unprepared and / or underprepared for real life job assignments is because the subjects are neither designed nor structured in a way to make them ready by imparting skills and knowledge which will empower them to confront and conquer issues in real life situations.

[@jperez7893]

I know mathematicians don’t like this a lot, but solving practical problems for a lot of people gives math a real feel. For non mathematicians and students, teaching rote is uninteresting because it has no value. Whereas, if examples are made up of financials to teach geometric series, or 4d matrices immediately to teach projective computer graphics, or if you teach geometric algebra to teach 4 dimensional space travel and electric load distribution right away, they go wow. As musk said in analogy, it is better to teach math as learning to drive a car to go from new york to LA. Instead of learning tools secondary to driving

[@katnisseverdeen1444]

I failed a test a week ago and got depressed. Watching this video was painful because you dropped a true hard to process to me. I don't practice too much because anxiety and fear of failing. Worse, even when I practice maths I check the notes and pdfs some much, I didn't realize that until you posted this. I love maths so much I even watched college classes about subjects I feel attracted for but I got no trust on myself. We gotta be willing to suffer, to sacrifice ourselves for a better future and our passions. Thank you so much man, you have no idea how much you've helped me with your videos, you got a slowly silly student thinking a lot with your words. From an argentinian enjoying your content in this part of the continent, keep it doing man.

[@medicisounds1384]

Keep practicing! after doing 5-10 problems it all becomes familiar and muscle memory kicks in! Most things in life that you learn are just repetition

[@johncunningham650]

"We gotta be willing to suffer, to sacrifice ourselves for a better future and our passions." That is the undeniable truth regarding any passion- especially the sacrifice. If you want to excel at something like math, computer science, health science, sports, engineering, or some other field you must sacrifice something- honing your social skills, spending time with friends and family, sleep, video games, or other hobbies to name a few. All that above is what I sacrificed to SOME degree to become a good Software Engineer. My advice would be to reflect on your beliefs, goals, and how motivated you are to achieve those, then make those sacrifices. If your mindset changes (which it will one day), then rebalance what you sacrifice.

[@Dureshahwar-j7d]

It's the same thing with me. I would always forget a chapter after every gap of 2 weeks and if I will have that test again I would feel stuck and feel as if I'm doing it for the first time. And as for the luxury I open my notes a lot too.... Rather than trying to grasp the problems on my own.

[@patrickbeam9615]

One thing I would add is that once you feel like you have mastery, try to explain it to someone else. Doesn't matter if they know math or not, if you _really_ understand it, you can give someone an intuition about even the wildest stuff. If you find that you can't convey the idea to your friend, spouse, kid, whoever--probably missing something yourself.

[@douglasstrother6584]

inculcate (verb): to implant by repeated statement or admonition; teach persistently and earnestly.

[@jacobbaartz7710]

I would agree that independence can build up good problem solving skills, but as those skills are built up I would say collaboration is a great tool for problem solving.

[@ericcodina8192]

If youre imagining solving problems right before you fall asleep. You're on the right track.

[@Dureshahwar-j7d]

I totally understand your point over here. My math teacher would always write a formula on the board (that's a story about studying trigonometry) and would not explain where it came from and by using which formula we can create another formula or proves which gets me stuck but I'm going to make sure to learn them prior to actually using them

[@Russian-tk1sz]

This is officially my first day of my self-taught math journey, I'll go to the library and start with arithmetic and logic. Wish me luck.

[@michaellucas7177]

In another video, he recommends starting with set theory.

[@Russian-tk1sz]

@michaellucas7177 Thanks for the recommendation, I'll look it up

[@japethspeaketh7034]

In my case it's the opposite. I've learned that the wrong way to learn math is to be very stubborn when it comes to solving really hard problems. I was wasting a lot of time, like hours, being stuck at a hard problem because I was too stubborn to look for answer or ask for help. I believe it had to do with my ego being attached to how good I was in math. My ego got hurt when I couldn't able to solve a problem, despite learning the prerequisite theorems and all, because it signalled to me that I wasn't really good at math. I also refused to ask for help because I believed that asking for help would mean that someone is smarter than me in math (except for my professors). Now I have come a long way after slowly detaching my ego and my self of identity from my innate mathematical talent. I had to learn that my worth as a human being doesn't come from being good at math. Well, there's a long story behind why I attached my worth with how good I was in math. Another wrong way to study math, for me, is to waste a lot of time trying all the exercises from a section of a chapter. Well, I was told by my high school math teacher that "easy or hard, we should try out all the math problems with no discrimination". I took this philosophy at heart, until it failed to serve me when I was learning a lot of math and I had limited time on my hand. Now, I just attempt only a few easy ones, skip the ones that repeats itself and try out challenging problems. Because I used this two wrong method to study math, I had to waste more than 8 months learning Algebra (Linear and Abstract), which could have been finish within less than 4 month. And I still had some chapters that I haven't covered.

[@Dureshahwar-j7d]

You're doing amazing bro. In every walk, you're learning how things could have been better. So embrace such situations and you can do this!!!

[@MrMegatherium]

Great advice. These days I am doing around 4 hours per day , working on the things I am not strong in. Why am I doing it? Even though I am not exactly a brilliant mathematician? I do it so I can improve my confidence, because when you start improving, and understanding things that you struggled with in the past, you can feel better about yourself. I am 45 and finished my undergrad in math at U of Calgary 20 years ago, but something told me to try to again! Math is important!!!

[@muchomacho2504]

Heartily agree that math is important. In many situations and disciplines you often spot how understanding of mathematics could have averted some logical error.

[@RiteshArora-s9x]

Brilliant implies comparison. Don't compare

[@anniesizemore3344]

I'm studying art & math 😁.Both are creative. Doing division of polynomials in a Robert Blitzer college algebra book finally got me to understand where to place the decimal in ordinary long division of decimals. Could do most algebra. Could do simple calculus, but had trouble with where to place the decimal in division of decimals.,

[@pallavitirkey4571]

Me, literature and math! Creative fields!

[@anniesizemore3344]

@@pallavitirkey4571 I love literature too. Love reading😁. Don't love writing so much, but I still want to do it. Good luck with your studies in literature & math.

[@pallavitirkey4571]

@@anniesizemore3344 good luck with your studies! Hope you start loving writing too!!

[@michaelcampbell1043]

I’m studying art and math too! Wooo!

[@anniesizemore3344]

@@michaelcampbell1043 congratulations. Good luck

[@rwgolobish]

Thank you. I use a flashcard app to review content. I have created several hundred math flashcards and the app randomly selects content for me to review. When I can't recall how to do something, I mark the flashcard for a little extra attention. I always have a few concepts and formulas to review each day. Because I am learning on my own, I often use books, videos, and AI programs to help me. The approach you have recommended of only using resources when I'm "stuck" will help me use my time wisely. Much appreciated.

[@09PeaSweet]

Yes, flashcards are great for studying math.

[@petersantospago1966]

Hey great call on the allyn Washington math text book....I picked one up and I'm blasting right through it... Everything is broken down and there's practice problems for each broken down thing... It's not overly rigorous and he's great at explaining things and then there's technical problems... Great book...I have others but his is simply simpler. I only do it for (s&g's) like other things chess and sodoku... But it's fun... Anyway ty math sorcerer...I can see that you make a great teacher. 👍

[@ClayLawrence]

I will add that part of the problem is the way math is taught. When it comes to everyday applied math they teach you how to work out real everyday problems long hand on paper when you should be able to do your shopping with the calculator on your shoulders. One example is discounts. The vast majority of people I encounter try to figure the amount of the discount and they deduct that to see what their price will be. I tell them all forget the discount. It just creates an unnecessary step. If the discount is 40% then your price is 60% of the full price so ignore the 40% and just figure the 60%.

[@MitazasAlways]

Congrats for hitting over 1M subs 🎉

[@michaellucas7177]

I believe I never memorized my brothers name. I was familiarized with him and his name. Memorization is focused on repetitive iteration to the end of remembering it. familiarization is becoming familiar with a person,place, thing or concept for the purpose of applying that familiarity in varying situations. I believe that this is the process your intro is describing.

[@tgkmervin5998]

Step 1: Understand Step 2: Memorise Step 3: Practice

[@aarohgokhale8832]

Bruh, no

[@tgkmervin5998]

@aarohgokhale8832 wdym??

[@abx_egamer4874]

I love this video. Just pure MATH, difinetly helps in the future

[@singhnavjot]

Will be trying this strategy.

[@prasenjitbhattacharya2920]

I have a book recommendation. KC Nag class 10 mathematics book. Name of the book is "mathematics". Its however not an advanced book but the standard of the book compared to 10nth standard is extremely high. You wont see any out of the place chapters but the real gem is the problems and the proofs. Its a universal book for West Bengal board students (one of the many school boards in India).

[@Sam-yz7vm]

Extremely helpful, it does need courage to go again over a problem where you struggled or failed :-) but the reward is worth it

[@Coyote_te_te]

Compared to everything I did...I would have to say math is actually pretty fun when you can do it...I can't always do it, but when I can do it, it is fun. I like reading a math textbook...its better than reading a novel.

[@medicisounds1384]

Muscle memory and familiarity is the path to learning

[@cbbcbb6803]

The absolute best thing is to have a congenital smart patient mentor. Nothing beats that. I have had both good and bad teachers. I always, I mean always, learn well with good teachers. Never so well with bad teachers.

[@CliffSedge-nu5fv]

Congenital? Did you mean congenial?

[@doctordootch]

You can practice all the algebra, trigonometry, calculus, linear algebra, statistics, etc as they are problem based subjects. How do you practice proofs? Next to impossible. As well, some teachers need to teach students HOW to draw graphs in both 2d and 3d.

[@rafaels.p.6209]

Thank you!

[@borisdorofeev5602]

It's taken me years to understand that frustration and struggle is the currency you pay for knowledge. Nothing is free.

[@valentinrafael9201]

People should do this regardless of what they're learning.

[@cbbcbb6803]

Tell this to parents, teachers, and students. Demonstrate this in school board meetings and to city and county board members. Shout it from the mountain and hill tops as well as the roof tops. Shout it in the fields and on the street corners.

[@mrkingsudo]

This is great! I'm going to dedicate a lot more time to learning how to do math cold. I passed high school math by the skin of my teeth, but now that I'm older I want to learn math up through calculus. Do you have any advice or resource suggestions for a math learner who isn't in school?

[@nathanormsby2474]

Khanacademy

[@TreSwayy]

Khan academy is great but often times it seems the material is a bit out of order. Like you’ll learn something ahead of the video order or the video and material varies a bit

[@peterparker-zy9oe]

khan academy, professor Leonard and MIT OpenCourseWare are very good good resources.

[@nathanormsby2474]

​@@TreSwayyGood points, I would do KA first then supplement with a textbook for depth. Pretty easy to find pdf versions of the popular ones, KA provides more than a good enough base imo.

[@Victor...P1]

Professor dave explains has some of the best math Playlist.

[@mlab3051]

I have no idea, I topically bad at math eventhough I'm an engineer. For me math is like a tools box where we just need to use the right tool with right configuration. However, when some thing happen that I need to learn to understand, to analyze, It alway seem like some people already solve my problem and there is the answer out there but I need to find and understand the answer like try to reverse engineer (or reverse mathematics?) When it out of my book, my degree it always difficult for me until oneday I found the random person solve it for 10 years ago like I found Lambert W function for DDE from random youtube chanel but never heard of that before in control system class.

[@matijaxzivkovic8843]

Hey folks, I adore this guy.❤

[@BlackbodyEconomics]

A while back, I started building my own little "math palace" (the Method of Loci - aka: Sherlock Holmes' mind palace). Just a few key piece of info placed just right - with the right imagery here and there will make all the difference in the world!

[@diemausdietastatur8738]

i just want to say thank you.

[@Br4nd0nS4n7os1995]

Saludos desde Honduras.

[@japethspeaketh7034]

I wish this video came out 7 years back when I was studying new math for getting into one of our prestigious school.

[@Astarov]

Taking grad complex analysis as an undergrad next semester :D

[@Travis-L6E]

would love to know your thoughts on the old vs the new common core method children have for learning math.

[@ronniesan9805]

I needed this. I usually do it wrong. 😓Thanks Math Sorcerer!

[@chaoticoats]

my daily pre-study math sorcerer video while waiting for the caffeine

[@BuddyNovinski]

I could have used this concept a half century ago.

[@DeeLee-p8c]

1 plus 1 is ?

[@tumisomoselane7795]

Thank you very much

[@jenny2814.]

you turned what was supposed to be a 3 minute video into a 15 minute one. why?

[@dogmanimnotboring3986]

Hey bro i had cancer when i was about 5 and had it until 12 a large part of my life was in and out of the hospital and during those times the doctor said im hanging over the edge and if one little thing goes wrong boom its over and yeah no time for school cause well life and death and i want to relearn math from the ground up (i dont even know what a fraction is) so yeah im SUPER willing to put in the work my dream job is to become a nurse. Bro i really appreciate your videos bro its just that theyre a bit too far ahead if you could make a video about how to learn math with zero background please good sir i would really appreciate it id give you a shoutout in my graduation (jk) but really man id really appreciate it if you make a video about this and thankyou for your videos it really helps no pressure man if you want to make one its up to you thanks sending love from dogman

[@LuxscapeMusic]

Check out professor Dave’s introduction to mathematics playlist. It goes from the very basics all the way past calculus. Its excellent for a new starter or a restart.

[@dogmanimnotboring3986]

@LuxscapeMusic thanks bro I already did that it's just it's not clicking he does too fast like I don't understand the references and stuff like you got any books want to recommend? I'd greatly appreciate it

[@LuxscapeMusic]

@ I agree he goes too fast sometimes and doesn’t always show full working out. But its a good structure. I usually cross reference to other channels after watching Dave’s tutorials. The best book I have seen is “Mathematics a second start” by S. Page. It starts with simple fractions and gives you more practice. Manipulating fractions and practicing is essential throughout math. A good channel is TabletClass Math and another is JensenMath and also Mario’s Math Tutoring. I go to these if I don’t understand Dave.

[@dogmanimnotboring3986]

@@LuxscapeMusic thankyou kind sir

[@thatothato1804]

hi Maths sorcerer i am an 18 year old based in South Africa i did math in grade 9 then in grade i had to switch to math literacy because my grades were low , I’ve regretted doing math literacy because it affects my career choices but then im willing to relearn math and take a bridge test so i can go to university, i recently tried ordering the everything you need to ace math study guide but its not available here i was asking that you please assist me

[@jamalmouzoune2772]

Thanks Can you recommend a good book for a beginner in probability and statistics ?

[@franchebarletta8662]

sos un capooo te amooo

[@phenixorbitall3917]

Just great

[@jeffreybrauchler1291]

Hello Math Sorcerer.. Quick question... What is better for taking Math notes for an online College class ?? An ipad with a note taking app or handwritten notes ? Thanks !

[@supratimchanda-wk5ww]

"I have studied the MASTERS, not the pupils " .. Neils Abel 😊

[@NoWeights_NoProblem]

Cold palmer 🥶 🧊 ☃️

[@VictorLG-c2d]

Hey MS, whats your view on studying math to pass a standardized test (AP, CLEP, SAT, ACT,etc) vs studying math to learn, such as self study or a regular semester long class

[@marfmarfalot5193]

Well this can’t be the whole story. There is a mix of thinking but not realizing the whole story. In research the details are the important bit not some trivial calculation

[@PaladinLeeroy42069]

It's exactly like looking up the solution online when you're playing a puzzle game. Sure you beat the game, but you're not mastering it

[@firstname4337]

do it cold -- so don't wear a sweater during a test ?

[@XYReason]

it's not the advice they need. they need to learn to deal with the failiure by preventing it. Failure should not never happen formaly, otherwise you should let them pass to encourage them by formal approval. I had my rituals "6 different problems in an hour", or 100 problems in 7 days before the test on my own. Before that I always tried to persue the professor on immediate introduction to the topic. But yeah, university is a filtering system. People compete and are tough to each other. And hardly you could get skillful at biilding an entreprise on a freemarket economy through meritocracy. University is trying to simulate it by ranking and eliminating people, but it's limited. You must follow the old - current rules of the environment. People are making mistakes, even the professors are clueless because the expirienced something long time ago or never, plus are getting into a vanity about it. And if you get some researches on your own you are wasting time and energy for getting a denial at the future. You got everything except good perception on life, you'll never get it to be on point. Just be aware of your biases/capacities before starting doing something, maybe you are hyped, maybe the material is drying out your energy, you need to get thankful of getting aware of that and get concetrated on material through "writing, wiping, and sighing" and not goals.

[@ctfholtz3257]

Please don't response have a phd in medicine and psychology. i forget too much, hence, it's hard to learn. I don't forget medicine/psychology. => want to become a medicine/psychology researcher. Does that make sense? => they want to send me to a luxury rehab now. i don't know whether for real or not => crystal clear thinking (world class entrepreneur)=/=mathematical thinking => my company=psychology/medical science/(AI), not math, not art. => work on the company, not in it

[@אריהרווח]

Nice

[@WitchLuw]

So get so good at it, you don't need your notes anymore

[@LukaTsotsonava-e1v]

Hi my name is luka am in 8 class and i want to be so good in math can you tell my about books what i need to read?

[@Karol-g9d]

Math ? First build an index of evrry math tool you'll need . Like map but for math . If you do not with each math rule . You can ask ai to print you one . Color code everything . This way you will not cheat unconciously , exemple , -n , is it within reality sandbox ? Or its part of imaginaries

[@chrisray9653]

Don't be an AI. :D

[@aIbertI2798]

NO, JUST PIN ME........ UGHFFF I CAN'T START STUDYING MATHS UNTIL YOU HEART MY COMMENT OR JUST RESPOND TO THIS. NO, YOU CAN'T TREAT ME LIKE THIS!!

[@soroushsalahi2810]

You are similar to jeff bezos

[@pega7us]

The problem is, the way tests are time restrained doesn’t give enough time to think. You’re supposed to just solve by reflex, like a trained rat. It’s terrible.

[@michaeltesfaalem3446]

If only I believed in myself

[@ChristianHoltz-ti2pp]

Please dont response Learn ai, solve autonomous driving/ai art. Have 4 twins now

[@capy0]

repond

[@pgb9607]

You are a mathematics guy, but I am an english major. The title of this video should be "stop learning mathematics wrongly" because learning is a verb and the part of speech you need here is an adverb. Adjectives modify nouns and adverbs modify verbs. Carry on

[@picardcook7569]

Imagine basing your personality around grammar pedantry and not even getting that right

[@CliffSedge-nu5fv]

The word English should be capitalized.

[@kontobiol3020]

I strongly disagree. This is state of mind of human being who stopped himself in last century and who what is petrifacting believes in civil system (or pretends to do so). Dear author, lets talk about people who matters in term of inventoring with usage of maths, Chuck Hull (physic), Scott Crump (chemical engineer), John McCarthy was mathematician and he was excellent in it. Math is a part of science. That does not metter if you know 1000 or 50 equations, but how you use the knowleage. But do you know what matters for real? Who do you work with + who is your family. You cannot progress if people do not want to/ you have got no funds. And even if you do, most often you will be outpaced by people who find similar things to you in reality but have got funds to work on them and to make invetions exploiting some phisicial properties of anything.

[@muchomacho2504]

I can neither agree nor disagree with you because I can't figure out what the hell you're talking about. Here's a suggestion: next time write it in your mother tongue and run it through a translator.

[@kontobiol3020]

@muchomacho2504 you yourself should have said language instead of tongue; so stop the hell talking others what are they supposed to do.

[@muchomacho2504]

@@kontobiol3020 No, pal. I did not say trongue, I said tongue, which is perfect English usage. This is obviously beyond your reach but it doesn't make you a bad person; I'm sure I'll never understand whatever patois you speak.

[@CliffSedge-nu5fv]

​@@kontobiol3020No one can understand you.

[@pirate4579]

First! Pin me! Pin me!!