As a math retard, I spent the last few months learning everything from algebra to calculus (differential/integral) on khan academy. I feel like I only learned to solve the questions on khan academy, I don't know how to actually apply what I learned to anything.
Should I go through a textbook or something? (which one for calc 1/2?)
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You need to go to an actual school. Self-teaching is a meme and only a real genius could just "learn" math from Khan academy and reading textbooks. Nothing is a replacement for a good teacher who you can talk to and ask questions.
If you're learning this to prepare for a university program you want to take, you're already ahead of the curve if you know how to solve the problems by rote. You'll learn the application in school.
As someone who had a bad teacher in math for 10 years out of 12 but still got the best scores in my school on final tests (top 15% in country) I can give you a few tips but truth be told it's still better to attend classes. Sorry for blabbering and bad english.
1) Don't just watch the videos. Make actual notes.
2) When you obtain new information don't spend too much time on memorizing it but instead think of applications to it
3) After you're done studying try to explain it (write it down for example) in a simple way
4) You should always ask yourself "Why does this work?" when dealing with math. We all know a^2 + b^2 = c^2 but WHY is it that? It's not that because a teacher told you so.
>Should I go through a textbook or something? (which one for calc 1/2?)
A calc text might help if it's a good one that has a lot of applications. I learned from "The Calculus with Analytic Geometry with Applications" or something (sorry I took calculus in 1994 I don't remember the exact name) and it had a lot of EE and physics word problems. But there's a lot of "calculus with applications" books. Alternatively a physics textbook might help you understand since calculus was basically invented for the purpose of doing physics.
>You need to go to an actual school. Self-teaching is a meme and only a real genius could just "learn" math from Khan academy and reading textbooks.
Absolutely false. Learning to learn on your own is probably the single most important thing. Anyone who thinks otherwise is still in school. You have at least 40 years of work ahead of you and there are no more instructors. You will have to learn on your own if you want to keep pace in any industry, and yes that includes academia itself.
If you don't know how to self-teach by the time you graduated high school you'd better figure it out real fucking quick otherwise your future is going to suck.
>wahh why do people write papers so obscurely
>wahhh why won't my employer spend four years teaching me how to do everything
>wahhhhhh why didn't university teach me this
>wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
suck it up buttercup
lmao fucking slave mentality
>top 15% in country
congratz retard, it's the equivalent of having 120 IQ
+1 sigma is better than -1 sigma
t. 128 brainlet
bump
>everything from algebra to calculus
What the fuck does that even mean
eat another hamburger
thinking isn't your thing
Sets a really dark precedent. You do realize that any given subject exists in the world without being tied to X institution. Imagine how sad it would be if we could not learn without going to one.
Solve some exercises from Simmons
If you're solving the calculus problems on khan academy then you're at least primed for the real thing. Are you getting ready to go to school? Because you're ready. Attend class. You got this.
>Should I go through a textbook or something? (which one for calc 1/2?)
Yes. If you purchase a random textbook on calculus, it will most likely cover all of calculus (1-3).
The only thing uni is good for is lighting a fire under your ass and giving motivation for studying and giving access to equipment for science and engineering degrees
You can ask questions online and get the answers for free, hell Wolfram Alpha only charges ~$50/year for step by step solutions to most entry level Calc problems so needing to pay a professor hundreds of dollars seems like a waste
Neither is it yours
>I spent the last few months learning everything from algebra to calculus (differential/integral) on khan academy
I find it hard to believe that you could go from 6th grade level math to college level in only "a few months."
It only took me 2 weeks to learn calc 2, and 4 to learn calc 3
The thing is that when you self-teach, you subconsciously tend to skip over some things that you might find tedious, but could be crucial to your understanding of the subject. At the end of the day your understanding is like a house of cards.
>I don't know how to actually apply what I learned to anything.
You apply that in College Level Physics, Astronomy, Physical Chem, Electrical Eng, Chemical Eng. & Mechanical Eng.
& in PhD Level Economics, Computer Science, Geophysics, Biophysics, BioMedical Engineering & Computational Linguistics.
But before the application you need to know well the theory 1st
It's not that absurd
It's called reading books and using math stack exchange for questions. If you want to learn it you can do it
Wanna see the Applications?
Just look at Khan academy Physics, Engineering & Math's Lectures.
ocw.mit.edu
Not satisfied? Go to MIT Online Courses Webpage and look for the courses that lists Linear Algebra as per-requisite.
It's so simple! isn't?
I learned Calc in like a month for my AP Test despite never taking the class
There's not really much to cover in high school math, most of class time is spent on review
I spent a long time on it some days (>5 hours)
It wasn't from 6th grade math exactly (I think), the first day I started it looks like I was learning things like two-variable linear equations and point-slope form.
The last few days big drop-off was when I was (struggling) to do optimization problems.
>I learned Calc in like a month for my AP Test
Hope remains
Optimization is one of the more difficult things to use calc for I find. I just have trouble setting up the equations
>nothing is a replacement for a good teacher who you can talk to and ask questions
I kek'd pretty hard dude. Honestly, just pick up/download a used copy of Stewart Calculus and do the basic problems at the end of each chapter that have a solution. This is basically how I studied for my exams at a top 5 engineering school and I got A's in Calc 1-3. Nothing trumps practice. I didn't even go to half my lectures because the professors were Chinese/Indian with bad accents.
I think op was quite clear on this point, everything from algebra to calculus re mathematics up to a grade 12 level in ostensibly america
Arbitrarily defining "few" as 3 means he had 8-900 at around 12 hours a day with time concessions, if you cant learn the math taught from 6-12 in nearly 1 thousand hours you are beyond hope and I would question your ability to feed yourself let alone conduct independent higher learning.
>professors were Chinese/Indian with bad accents.
To this day I dont know how to address this without having everyone think im a bigot, what I dont understand is how they either dont realize their accent is nearly unintelligible or they just dont care. Either way why the fuck are you teaching my class.
Why are you disrespecting algebra
How is saying people learn algebra by the time they graduate high school disrespect for algebra? There is no 3 way mutual link between complexity, difficulty, and prestige.
>Either way why the fuck are you teaching my class.
In America it's called "Affirmative Action". Which, ironically, was put in place to prevent businesses and organizations from being too preferential towards hiring members of one race, by forcing them to hire individuals based on race.
>I don't know how to actually apply what I learned to anything.
Read a freshman physics textbook and do the exercises:
Veeky Forums-science.wikia.com/wiki/Physics_Textbook_Recommendations#High_School
Hell at my uni econ majors have to use all of that stuff for bachelor's level econ classes
This.
For many classes you're going to have to do a lot of self learning because the teacher may suck dick at teaching/is an autist. I've gotten lucky and have had pretty good professors for the most part, but there is still a bunch of self teaching involved.
don't feel too bad, real calculus classes are notoriously bad at teaching you applications too, it's part of a general curricular philosophy in math of focusing on abstraction. with calc it's particularly bad because they avoid intuitive treatment
if you want to understand what you're doing study physics
give sauce, google gives nothing.