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Ask HN: Any tips on how to get back into maths?

9 points by twfarland ↗ HN
Hi there, My maths career never lasted beyond my high school years, but after becoming interested in functional programming and algorithms, it seems worthwhile to improve my general maths literacy. I'm not really sure where to start but I guess it would be beginner undergraduate level. Since I'm not currently in a position to go back to university, I'm looking for self-teaching resources and thought I'd get some good tips from you guys. Many thanks!

8 comments

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rick_2047
You have a 104 days old HN account, and you still don't know about any open courseware site? Names like MIT, Stanford, Berkeley get thrown around here almost daily. And if you know about them, whey not check them out. Even a routine check of these websites would yield many great videos.

A simple search of "math self learn" at searchyc gives tremendous amount of answers. Then where is the need to post this?

sink
I think my strategy for both maths and computer science would be to look at the course pages for universities. I would pick a course that I would want to take, then visit the course homepage. Usually teachers post a syllabus and additional course resources. I would get a cheap secondhand copy of the book(s) (even if it is an edition or two behind) and try to follow the general path the teach has outlined for learning the material. It's really hard to duplicate a classroom setting and extra study sessions with TAs, but open courseware, web forums, and various other Internet-available resources go a long way!
twfarland
Thank you for the thoughtful response, it was much more helpful than wading through search results. I will do this.
twfarland
I haven't spent that much time here and never heard of opencourseware. Looks perfect. Thank you.
[dead] Scott_MacGregor
Think about something that the math represents that is useful and interesting to you. (i.e. speaker impedance calculations). Then research the math behind it on the internet. Research the formulas and use a spreadsheet to build/test your formulas.

To me, that's a lot more interesting way to learn math than going through a course.

silentbicycle
This question comes up periodically, check the archives.

Mainly, I'd suggest working through the puzzles at http://projecteuler.net/ . Once you solve them, especially if you don't feel like your solution is good enough, read through the forums and translate interesting approaches to your language.

steve19
I am relearning/refreshing math with khanacademy.org. Highly recommended!