<p>^^ Actually my main goal is econ but I need to get much better at math if i'm going to do it. Right now my math sucks. I actually quite like solving problems but I'm slow, careless and fail to see the right steps to the solutions at times. Any suggestions as to what I can do pre-college?</p>
<p>Pay attention and do all the practice problems that you can. Once you learn all the rules, math becomes extremely simple.</p>
<p>Never skip math class’s either, in both high school and college.</p>
<p>Get better.</p>
<p>Read the “Calculus” articles on Study Hacks</p>
<p>Do as many problems as you possibly can (I’m talking like 100+) while using this and this to help clear up topics you don’t understand.</p>
<p>Math is just a lot of patterns, so do practice problems and figure out the patterns.</p>
<p>…but, if you want to do it the easy way…</p>
<p>Suspend yourself by a rope above a pool of water in your living room. Rig the rope that is holding you up to a Tivo so that when the Tivo is full both of you fall into the pool of water. Set the Tivo to record anything it can about Math, Calculus, and the “founders” of math. Then, when you both drop into the pool, your knowledge and Tivos will become one and you will be ready to ace all of your math.</p>
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<p>Interesting technique. I’ve also had great success with melting down my notes and textbook and injecting them directly into my brain. I guess its just personal preference.</p>
<p>The types of issues you’re having has a simple solution, but it is not easy to actually do: practice, practice, practice.</p>
<p>The idea is to very carefully do several similar math problems a day, double-checking at each step, until you no longer make silly mistakes. It’s just like with sports – you’re looking at ~2hr/day if you want to perfect it.</p>
<p>go to [Art</a> of Problem Solving](<a href=“http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/]Art”>http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/)</p>
<p>it has many books and resources for math.</p>
<p>If you’re in the first 2 years or so of undergraduate mathematics (or even earlier than that), watching a khanacademy video ( <a href=“http://www.khanacademy.org/[/url]”>http://www.khanacademy.org/</a> ) will usually be enough to help you get a rudimentary understanding of the concept.</p>
<p>With that rudimentary understanding, apply your knowledge on the simplest problem possible. The REA problem solvers series are excellent for test preparation, they are really cheap and no BS. They’re just huge collections of worked out problems with gradual increase in difficulty. You can very often read the portion relevant to whatever it is you’re studying for free (and legally, I am not advocating piracy) on books.google.com. Large portions of them are available in the preview. In the off-chance it isn’t and your library doesn’t have them, they are really, really cheap to purchase used. Usually somewhere around $10 shipped.</p>
<p>[The</a> Economics problem solver - Google Books](<a href=“Economics Problem Solver - Google Books”>Economics Problem Solver - Google Books)</p>
<p>Time management: Even things out. Suppose the professor assigns 9 problems and my last class for the week is around thursday afternoon and is due monday. That leaves around 3.5 days to do nine problems or (9/3.5) ~= 2.6 problems a day, round up. 3 problems a day is what you should strive for.</p>
<p>After earnestly studying whatever it is you’re studying for an hour or two, you most likely have hit a point of diminishing returns and should take a break and do something else completely unrelated to whatever it was you were doing and come back later. You need to get your mind off of it.</p>
<p>There are a lot of books on general problem solving and heuristics which are mostly inspired by a guy named George Polya’s “How to Solve It” which was published decades ago. This post obviously is no substitute for the actual book but I can summarize it as:</p>
<ol>
<li>Look at the problem statement and carefully note what values are known.</li>
<li>Consciously think of what ISN’T known (yet)</li>
<li>Think of what you’re supposed to be finding out.</li>
<li>Relate what is unknown to what is known. Unknown = (known1 + known2) / (known3)</li>
<li>Sometimes you can work backwards from the unknown. Think “To know Y, I must first need to figure out A, B, and C, and to know those I…”</li>
</ol>
<p>Or electricute yourself with a Tivo</p>
<p>Honestly, you need to be competent in the basics before handling college math</p>
<p>im guessing your already in a math course? but if you havent i’d research all the teachers in the school who teach math (ratemyprofessor) and pick the easiest teacher thats what i did and i “owned” at it</p>
<p>Re: picking the easiest teacher… That doesn’t work if you’re going to be taking a long chain of math courses. You need solid basics to excel in higher-level math courses.</p>
<p>That said:</p>
<p>[Pauls</a> Online Math Notes](<a href=“http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/]Pauls”>http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/) is an awesome resource. It’s kind of like an online textbook, but the ones for calculus at least are straightforward and explain things really well.</p>
<p>Check out MIT’s OpenCourseWare for lectures and crud like that.</p>
<p>Never, ever, ever skip a math class, unless you’re running a 100+ degree F fever or vomiting.</p>
<p>Practice, practice, and practice.</p>
<ol>
<li>Read the textbook</li>
<li>Go to lecture</li>
<li>Review lecture notes the day of</li>
<li>Memorize formulas/equations/steps to solve certain types of problems (important to solve this: “fail to see the right steps to the solutions at times” - I have this issue too)</li>
<li>Do HW and check answers</li>
<li>Memorize the errors you made and try the problems again to see if you remembered how to do them correctly</li>
<li>Repeat</li>
</ol>
<p>This is obviously a very extensive plan, but it works for me. Sometimes, I have a hard time keeping up with the HW (in college calculus), but I at least try to read the textbook before I go to lecture. For me, that’s an essential step towards understanding the material. Good luck!</p>
<p>A few additional ideas (you guys had some good suggestions):
MIT OCW
Paul’s Online Math notes
Just Math Tutoring
Do lots and lots of problems
read textbk
do old exams!</p>
<p>A few additional ideas (you guys had some good suggestions):
MIT OCW
Paul’s Online Math notes
Just Math Tutoring
Do lots and lots of problems
read textbk
do old exams!</p>
<p>Study, do your homework… get tutored if necessary.</p>