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.
Perhaps, obviously I can't speak to your experience. But not knowing what your mathematical background is, I will say that I believe the 'conventional approach' to pre-university level (and even then..sometimes..) mathematics is poor at best. I've made these points in previous threads but I really don't like the approach taken for basically the reasons you're citing. The fact is (as a basic example) 'soh cah toa' is a great way to remember a set of words associated together, but tells you an incredibly small amount about what trigonometry is really all about. And I've encountered A-Level mathematics students who have been told little to nothing more than that, with the shape of each function graph being taught as an entirely separate issue. Crazy! That's an extreme example of what I'm talking about in terms of how fundamental understanding influences how one is able to adequately deal with problems in the real 'real world'. The number of profound 'OH!' moments I've had when students actually understand something simple in a deep fundamental way and suddenly are masters of that knowledge, makes me wonder if there isnt a much better approach we should be taking to school mathematics.
/rant.
Anyway OP, in all fairness to Perma's point, whatever you do i would say try to enjoy what you're doing. Better to learn on the fly with programming and enjoy it than sit reading and working on abstract problems if you hate them, since you'll likely not get much out of it!
