I'm a 3rd year pure Maths major

>I'm a 3rd year pure Maths major
>I tutor on the side
>Helping a kid who can't do long division and doesn't know his times tables
>I realize forgot some of my times tables

Is this normal?

No. Why the fuck would you have any issue with multiplication tables when they're just repeated addition?

Yeah, of course.
I don't even remember the last time I had to multiply 8*9, I'm not going to remember that off the top of my head anymore, especially when we have calculators now.

I'm a chem eng. and I forgot how to do long division.
Forgetting things is normal.

Not being able to do your times tables off the top of your head is normal. Not being able to do it after thinking for a moment is not.

yeah, it's weird. the deeper you get into complex stuff the basics seem to slip little by little.
you'll be fine, though.

If you just realized you don't have a times table in your head, no problem.

If you had to break out a calculator to multiply 1 digit integers, you have failed everyone who has ever tried to instruct you in mathematics.

I can't do it off the top of my head I mean, I can do it after thinking for a moment.

No. Sorry OP, you are a brainlet.

if you don't remember what 8*9 is by heart, that's fine, but you should be able to compute it in your head quickly. (

Forgetting things is sadly a reality. I've studied physics for a total of 11 years, I'm in Earth/Atmospheric Sciences now. I couldn't to a proper transformation using Clebsch-Gordon coefficients in 5 minutes if my life depended on it.

There's just things you tend to forget if not exercised regularly.

No big drama, in my opinion. Forgetting some fundamental concept is more of a problem, I'd say.

Wait until you get to working on your PhD, you'll start forgetting Calculus, it happens to almost everyone.

if we can delve into this a little bit more, do you think the speed at which people can work is representative of their intelligence? just because you have to think about what 17*6 is for a second it doesnt necessarily mean youre worse at maths than someone faster than you

>never learned arithmetic
>PhD in number theory

>In Calculus II
>Already forgot Calc I

Uh oh

is calc 2 that different?
why didnt i just pussy out and study IT

>memorizing times tables
>doing long division

Calc 2 will recall concepts from calculus 1 just to be able to finish certain problems. You're going to see a lot of limits again. You'll see differentiation. You'll use derivatives to find out where functions are increasing and decreasing as you evaluate sequences and series. It is a very tough class because you learn a lot of different things very quickly, and each section gives tons of cases(look at the work section and the hydrostatic force section) so many examples to learn.

>if we can delve into this a little bit more, do you think the speed at which people can work is representative of their intelligence? just because you have to think about what 17*6 is for a second it doesnt necessarily mean youre worse at maths than someone faster than you
It seems IQ measures not intelligence but processing speed and the ability to keep lots of stuff in working memory (or retrieval speed).

god damn it
im really not smart

I have a similar problem. I'm pure math major as well, but mental math has always been difficult for me. If I to try compute something in my head, it takes a long time for me to formulate the answer.
Any tips for keeping mental computations organized in the mind in order to calculate mental math quickly?

...

now that I'm done with calc 2 it seems really fucking simple

looking for more math majors to join our team and to answer your question yes that's normal not times tables that much, but it's easy to forget old math that you haven't used in years.

practice doing them in your head. there isn't a shortcut or "easy method". you just have to practice doing it a lot. the more you do it, the easier it gets.

>study x
>memorizing stuff
>not learning things by thoroughly understanding the subject
kill yourself

>Is this normal?
Strictly yes it is.

This. But there's a bigger issue here if you honestly don't remember 8*9 off the top of your head.

It means you're not doing computation in your daily life. Which means you're not thinking critically about any of several HUNDRED things every second. Which actually does make you a fucking brainlet.

Dammit OP, you're making us look bad. Fucking switch majors to computer science or something.

This. When I was a child, for some reason I was obsessed with numbers.
Even when I'd watch TV, I'd actually just use that as an excuse to play mental number-games with the clock.

Fast forward 20 years of doing this non-stop (along with the numerical OCD intensifying a fuckload during college) and I'm by far the fastest calculator at my job. I teach math to high school kids, and can often compute an answer three different ways before my co-workers have even typed shit into their calculators.

Just do 80,000 problems a day. You'll be fucking fine.

Aced calc 1,2,3

But I just realized I forgot how to integrate a^x=y and some trigonometric identities as well as series shit but its been 4 years since then so I dont feel too bad, Im sure I can real learn these things again but probably I will not understand them as clearly as I did when I mastered them for the first time

Also

>helping young cousin with arithmetic problem
>use calculator to check answer
>i thought you were good at math user

Lol meant to write relearn not real learn

Come to think of it there is tons of calc problems I probably couldnt do anymore without a quick glance at an example or a definition