So.. Maths

[Narj]

Hey chaps,

I'm doing a lot of programming these days and I'm finding that my maths is really letting me down. I did calculus and similar level subjects at college but I've forgotten pretty much everything since then. I am really useless and the most complex maths I understand is in the areas of algebra and trig, along with some probability.

What are my options for bringing things back up to scratch? I really can't face reading wikipedia as my brain just shuts down as soon as I see the complex formulae. Are there any popular curriculums that colleges do as night courses that I could consider? Should I think about doing an access course and perhaps A Level maths at a local college?

I must say that I bitterly resent posting this, because as a teenager in the 8-bit world, I was writing some really mental stuff based upon gemoetry and fractals. I just can't remember much!

Cheers muchly!

 

[RomanNose]

Khan Academy would be fine
What did you get at A level? If you received a good grade the first time, then chances are you just need a little brushing up.

 

[UncleRuckus]

The Khan Academy helped me tremendously.

 

[Posty]

khanacademy.org has video tutorials and questions for all levels of maths and its free (Bill Gates pays for the running costs)

 

[PermaBanned]

If you can stand the use of the word 'math' over 'maths' then:

http://www.khanacademy.org/

 

[Narj]

Khan Academy would be fine
What did you get at A level? If you received a good grade the first time, then chances are you just need a little brushing up.

I scraped maths for engineering at BTEC HNC level tbh... keywords I remember are differentiation, integration, polynomials. Our teacher was a genius but i struggled. I got close to top marks in everything but maths.

I've never had problems with applied mathematics at all (formulae, transposition etc). Pure maths has always destroyed me and my confidence, though. I really do appreciate the beauty of maths and what it can do, I just can't get my head around most of it.

 

[Posty]

just out of curiosity as i dont know anything about programming but why is maths important for that?

 

[Antar Bolaeisk]

I scraped maths for engineering tbh... keywords I remember are differentiation, integration, polynomials. Our teacher was a genius but i struggled. I got close to top marks in everything but maths.

I've never had problems with applied mathematics at all (formulae, transposition etc). Pure maths has always destroyed me and my confidence, though.

Do you still have that big green book that all the engineering courses seem to use? If not then I suggest you get it (I've forgotten the name, was it Stroud or something like that?) and work through the relevant sections. The easiest and best way in my opinion is just to work through the logic of the math and that book seemed to lay it out rather well.

Then again I've never had to even look at it and still got top scores so what do I know

 

[Narj]

just out of curiosity as i dont know anything about programming but why is maths important for that?

When you get asked to do statistical analysis on huge amounts of data, or to write an algorithm involving some sort of complex function, you soon drop your bowels when you realise that you don't actually understand how to mathematically solve the problem.

Do you still have that big green book that all the engineering courses seem to use? If not then I suggest you get it (I've forgotten the name, was it Stroud or something like that?) and work through the relevant sections. The easiest and best way in my opinion is just to work through the logic of the math and that book seemed to lay it out rather well.

Then again I've never had to even look at it and still got top scores so what do I know

I did have that/those book(s) and I think I burned it/them in some sort of ritual as soon as I passed....

EDIT: khanacademy looks good but I think I would probably benefit more from 1 to 1 tuition or night classes in all honesty.

 

[PermaBanned]

I really do appreciate the beauty of maths and what it can do, I just can't get my head around most of it.

That was exactly how i felt about it. Looking back now i'm sure with a completely different approach i possibly could understand it, but in the classroom environment i just wasn't absorbing any of it. Contrast to my other subjects which, while challenging at times, always just made sense and were much more likely to 'click' in my brain in a way that meant i would actually remember it come exam time.

I ended up dropping it, but with the help of Khan Academy i think i can learn stuff as an when i need it now. The thing with programming is that you have to pick apart whatever you want to do and apply it at the most basic level, which while more time consuming would help (well, me at least) to grasp the concepts.

 

[UncleRuckus]

You may as well try it, P.

You may be surprised! With the videos there's a place where people can ask questions if they don't get it, drills for remembering and revision to make sure it's stuck.

 

[Narj]

I ended up dropping it, but with the help of Khan Academy i think i can learn stuff as an when i need it now. The thing with programming is that you have to pick apart whatever you want to do and apply it at the most basic level, which while more time consuming would help (well, me at least) to grasp the concepts.

I'm absolutely fine with picking things apart and dealing with them logically, I'm just completely unable to fulfil the requirements when it comes to doing something remotely more than fundamental maths wise. If someone gives me a large database and asks me to do some sort of analysis on it beyond the basics then I'm stuffed. I can't even remember how to begin with long-term trending, for example. I would probably take a median of x periods and work out an average difference over the period from the start and the increment between start and end, which is most likely completely wrong.

 

[sigma]

http://www.mathcentre.ac.uk/ is a handy resource

 

[PermaBanned]

I'm absolutely fine with picking things apart and dealing with them logically, I'm just completely unable to fulfil the requirements when it comes to doing something remotely more than fundamental maths wise. If someone gives me a large database and asks me to do some sort of analysis on it beyond the basics then I'm stuffed. I can't even remember how to begin with long-term trending, for example. I would probably take a median of x periods and work out an average difference over the period from the start and the increment between start and end, which is most likely completely wrong.

I know, i was trying to say that learning maths through programming may be better in the long run than just trying to plough through pure maths.

 

[Emphacy]

http://www.mathcentre.ac.uk/ is a handy resource

Use the Khan Academy for the basics and then use the resource stated above.
Mathcentre really has some good tutorials and helps me tremendously but the maths can look extremely scary and confusing to people who have forgotten most of what they've learned.

 

[Monkeynut]

Then again I've never had to even look at it and still got top scores so what do I know

Quite a lot then, it would seem.

 

[DazQ87]

I found that when I did A-level maths I couldn't take much of it in, mainly because it was completely without context.

Once I started Uni (I did a BSc in engineering) I found that the maths I originally was not so fond of, became a lot easier, especially when you can relate it to real world situations.

 

[Chaos]

http://mathtutordvd.com/

 

[Alex74]

I know, i was trying to say that learning maths through programming may be better in the long run than just trying to plough through pure maths.

I would disagree, as peripheral treatments tend to be incomplete and in my observations generally lead to mistakes whenever one gets pushed anywhere outside of one's comfort zone. Although if you're just doing simple geometric transformations there isnt really much scope for serious error . Learning through programming acts as a short term solution simply because it'll have its limitations. There's no reason you -have- to have the entire mathematical frameworks under your belt, but in the long run when you encounter wider varieties of problems there's always the scope for simply being unable to cope without further learning.

But if you're doing, for example, some more interesting statistical analyses then having a ground up fundamental understanding just makes life a breeze. You know exactly what you want/need to do for the situation at hand, then the programming becomes near-trivial with full confidence.

 

[PermaBanned]

You know exactly what you want/need to do for the situation at hand, then the programming becomes near-trivial with full confidence.

Well that may well be easy to say for someone who has the ability to easily grasp maths

I'm not saying figure it out as you go along, i'm saying that if you use programming as a learning tool then you may find it much easier to actually remember the concepts. Well, i'm not saying that really - i'm saying that i think that would probably help me. At the very least i think different approaches should be tried, the conventional approach to maths is very hit and miss.