Hey /sci/ How do I get better at math? I mean really better.

>>8082509
Practice then practice some more then practice even more once you've got it down

This is how you get good at anything in life

WORK MORE PROBLEMS

>>8082509
what the fuck is on that blackboard?

>>8082651
Literally nothing. It's basically just doodles structured in a way to look like there is something complex or deep or technical going on, but there's not.

>>8082509
When people tell them that they have not been doing math (highschool math, not real math) for a long time and then out of nowhere get the brilliant idea of majoring in math I can't help but feel insulted.

I'd like to help you, and I would if you were in Statistics, Engineering, CS, and other degrees that require more effort and less intuition.

You won't pass your freshman year, I can tell you that.

In my freshman class, I remember, there were 2 guys who were previous math students who dropped out because of bad grades and family issues. After some years and having fixed said family issues they both came back just at the time I was entering my first year as a recent HS graduate.

At first they knew everything, but then like a month in, one of the guys was already making dumb mistakes when asked to solve problems in the board, and he was getting Cs in the exams, instead of the As he was getting before.

At this time they both stopped attending class, some months later one of the guys dropped out, the other guy did not oficially drop out, but he obviously did not pass.

Follow my humble advice, switch majors to anything else math related, engy, stats, CS, etc.

All those degrees offer a much heavier workload
but you certainly do not need to be a 'natural' to learn engineering, but you'll probably not be the greatest at that either.

Practice and study lots and lots of examples.

One of the things I learned after doing math as an undergrad was that you need to have enough experience with many examples in order to build up a base of things to which you can apply interpret new definitions / concepts. I think this is what people mean when they talk about "mathematical maturity". I think a mistake that many math students do is to study the definitions and theorems without working problems and studying examples. How can you develop an intuition for the subject if you haven't seen the same concept many times in different situations?

For example when you first study basic calculus you don't really appreciate why the definition of the a limit or the (Cauchy) completeness of the real numbers is useful. But if you study examples (say a Cauchy sequence of rational numbers that does not converge to any rational number -- excercise: come up with such a sequence) you will better understand the concept. Later on in a functional analysis class when you start studying more general Banach spaces you will have that example in your bag to refer back to and it's a lot easier to understand some ideas from Banach spaces (for example why completeness is so useful for doing analysis).

>>8082669
douchey advice. troll/10, bait/10, whatever, ...,etc.

>>8082518
This is more like it. You develop the feel and deep knowledge by doing problems upon problems.

>>8082509
It is almost all about genetics don't force it it will only hurt you will to live even more

>>8082669
nice post

too much competetion nowadays so even if the amount of people who won't go and study math is minimal because of this post is still satisfying.

>>8082509
I'm going to wander off topic. Why go back to uni? I'm a few years out of uni and wondering if it's worth going back to do another masters

>>8082669
Stop being a cunt

>>8083034

I got tired of working in a bar, dealing with drunk idiots and literally making the world worse by enabling alcoholics.

And I was never a "good at math" kid. Last time I took a math class (not counting Precalculus which I took last semester) was when I was 16, about 8 years ago.

Part of it is enrichment and identity and the other part of it is drive to actually have a decent, not shitty job that at the very least has a zero net change in the evil on earth

>>8082518
OP, this is what wisdom looks like. You make not like it, but in time you will learn it to be true.

Diligence is key.

>>8082509
Do many practice problems, and try to make sure that they are varied. If you plug and chug the same simple problems, you will only learn to solve those problems. Try to do difficult problems that will help you understand exactly how, when, and where you can use a tool or method.
Over time, you will find it easier to understand where or why something works by its formal definition. However, even the greatest mathematicians need practice to fully understand and utilize a concept.