My passion I pursue in the academic world involves a lot of math. Unfortunately...

My passion I pursue in the academic world involves a lot of math. Unfortunately, a lot of the time it just doesn't click with me. Has anyone ever overcame this struggle?

Everyone on Veeky Forums seems to be good at math and say so in ways where it seems like it just came inherently.

I will admit I have been one of those people who have came on here and asked for homework help. I'm ashamed about this as I read the textbook and all that good stuff. Oddly enough, the person who is actually willing to help presents in a way that doesn't follow my textbook's way and the answer is a lot easier when the person suggests their way of approaching the problem.

What is going on in this situation? I understand math can be like a puzzle that can be figured out in numerous ways with the same result. Why do textbooks suggest one way of answering the problem, often in the most time-consuming way? Am I simply missing something? Are there any suggestions for looking at math in a different light than just plugging in what your textbook tells you to? I actually want to appreciate math...

Not to be a downer, but in my experience, math proficiency is dependant upon an intuition that you either have or do not. Maybe you can get better. I don't know.

Everyone who has ever been good at math has dedicated a large portion of their time to studying/practicing/working with math.

No one inherently just understands everything.

The only way you're going to understand math is to just practice, again and again. Only then will you appreciate math.

Every single person on this board with a lick of mathematical knowledge worked hard to obtain and understand that knowledge. Math is hard. But the more you read, think about, and practice math, the easier it will become.

I have a Engineering Physics background among others. In my experience I often didn't understand the more advanced topics we were talking about at the time of learning them (think picking up Quantum and PDEs at the same time). After a few years of feeling that I was flying by the seat of my pants, I realized I suddenly understood what at first was baffling. Good ideas take time to ferment in your head.

Famous story:
"There is no royal road to geometry" (μή εἶναι βασιλιkήν ἀτραπόν ἐπί γεωμετρίαν)
Reply given when the ruler Ptolemy I Soter asked Euclid if there was a shorter road to learning geometry than through Euclid's Elements.

Oh yeah, another tip, use the subject your learning to build intuition about the math you are learning, but do not mistake the two; the subject is an application while the math is the general pattern. When you start talking about derivatives as velocities you know you have gone too far.

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First of all not everyone on /sci is a math prodigy. They ACT like it. Don't confuse the two. Second, you can continue to improve by being very persistent, working hard problems and challenging yourself. Most people "suck" at math because they fail to be persistent. It takes patience and passion to "git gud" at math. Once concepts start to feel intuitive and second nature things get somewhat easier. BUT, it's always work. People on /sci who pretend otherwise are just arrogant douchebags. Don't let people on /sci intimidate you.

The more problems you do, the more examples you have of what to do in every scenario.

The more scenarios you encounter, the more you can make them look like something you know how to do.

You can't just do the homework and study a practice test. You need to do every fucking problem in the book if you're not good at it.

The unseen examples you work through and get stuck on - THAT is where the learning takes place. I had no life studying math, because it's something you do or do not; never something to half ass.

I don't know. I agree with this to a point but...

If someone can pass a calculus class, I believe they can get as far as they need to in math. People that don't have the "intuition" normally just pass in college algebra.

I think understanding why is very key to people like engineers.

You'll never have to memorize how to do something if you understand why you're doing it. Once you understand why you do something, you can apply it to other situations.

For me, things started falling into place with newton's law of cooling.

>Why do textbooks suggest one way of answering the problem, often in the most time-consuming way?

Don't get me wrong, I am a huge fan of using the shortest and most efficient solution to solve a problem, but there are cases where the "easiest" solution is not the most enlightening or uses properties that a more generally posed problem does not have and sometimes you are better off going through with the hard way, which will make things easier in the long run. Not every problem is of this kind and sometimes the author's tips are just retarded, but the point stands.

This is very true.

In broad daylight everyone will tell you to get good at math you just have to practice. Of course, what they leave out/are ignorant of is that the majority of people who practice really hard never get good at it while those who were "born with it" like to believe that it was all due to their hard work, but the truth is that was only one of the requirements.

A lot of this

There's a point here desu

Not to blow my own trumpet as I'm not a prodigy by any means and I know a lot of people smarter than me but I also know a lot of people on my physics course who work much harder than I do but never end up doing as well. A guy a lived near in first year came to uni because he really wanted to get into astronomy but he wasn't so great at maths. He worked extremely hard, harder than anyone else I knew and still only ended up getting like a 2:2, kind of an average, mediocre grade.

I guess some people get unlucky in the way that what they're interested in and what they're good at don't quite line up.

Class rooms aren't the best way to learn the material because you are forced to move on whether you understand the concepts or not.

Do self-study and you'll avoid this: Practice, practice, practice. You don't have to be naturally talented. Just curious and willing to work.

You don't have to feel ashamed for stating the obvious, the more mature a year group becomes (aka the more you've been raped together when you start doing upper level course work that is actually difficult) the more honest and prominent these type of conversations become as well. It turns out a lot of people work orders harder to earn a weaker grade than their peers. These people sometimes become more efficient at studying or are brilliant at certain things that top performers lack, but in general...well life just isn't fair.

If you aren't good at math there are always stamp collecting niches you can fill if you want a career in science, but realistically if you don't have the talent you should consider how much you need to sacrifice just for a STEM dayjob and most often it will often not be worth it (the worst (and most common) case scenario being that all your effort is for naught when you don't even get to work in STEM at all).

Terry Tao disagrees

That is, unless your IQ is under 110

If you IQ is at least 120 you should be capable of doing all undergraduate mathematics, even if it doesn't come naturally at first.

>Good ideas take time to ferment in your head.

Yes this is important. Your brain will "munch" on it and digest it even when you're not actively putting effort on working on it. So putting small periods of reviewing or previewing material now and then can be really valuable as over time your brain will have more to munch on.

If your IQ is above 110 you should not blindly accept and digest whatever information is being fed to your senses.

The essence of math is problem-solving. This is my 2 cents. If you approach it this way, you will actually get something in return.

As someone who is decent at math, I've had the "intuition" that I needed, in the form of an interest in math since I was very young. I used to ask my parents about certain mathematical operations before I would learn about them in my elementary school. This isn't a genetic intuition that only certain people have, but I believe it is just that I have been practicing it all of my life. It is also very useful since I practiced it in my important developmental years.

So, in my opinion, there is no inherent intuition. It all is based on some form a consistent practice. Sadly, I believe this practice may become more difficult as you age.

>Reply given when the ruler Ptolemy I Soter asked Euclid if there was a shorter road to learning geometry than through Euclid's Elements.

Are we supposed to take Euclid seriously? He had a (not very) veiled interested in selling his book, so of course he'd say "no, there's no quicker way to learn geometry than reading my book! that'll be 9999 drachma by the way :)"

Well, I think any claimed "right" to profit off his book has been outdated by now. But would really not surprise me if they actually tried to push it for authors life +3000 years ;)

I'm a fucking moron at math, I spend a shitload of time not getting things and need help. Yet my competitive research group did the best because I worked really hard and came up with some good proofs, and improved another paper enough to get published, and I'm doing more research and taking graduate courses in math. I constantly strain with the material yet by all measures I'm the top student at my uni which is not a crappy school.

What it comes down to is how hard you work. When you're learning new math it rarely feels like you get it, but you keep trying and suddenly it works. It just always feels like an uphill battle.

So don't sweat it, people good at math don't have a special essence, they just spend an autistic amount of time thinking about math.

Nah this is bullshit. The only difference between people good at math and people who suck is people good at math care a lot more and think a lot more about math. There's no "math essence" that determines whether you can do math

It's possible to get better, I had dyscalculia as a child and now I don't have any problems with math.

I might be an exception though, and I still can't add or multiply for shit.

a huge boost for mathematical understanding is interest. Try to have fun with it, calculate stuff just for shit and giggles.
I often imagine that I'm a wizard, juggling with magical formulas.
lol

>The only difference between people good at math and people who suck is people good at math care a lot more and think a lot more about math.
I want to vouch for this, but I'm not 100% sure which way the causation points. Do people end up doing poorly in math because they didn't care about it at all, or do people end up not caring about math because they did poorly in it? I know more than a few people who were never really bright and hate having to do math and others who are generally pretty smart people who went on to pursue business or med school because they didn't want to get into anything past calculus even though they did great in it.

Getting good at math without intuition is like brute forcing at DE when others may find an elegant analytic solution. They can both provide similar results, but one is clearly better.
I'm probably the former, but I have my moments.

That feel when I brute force many a de in my diffeq class