How do you become good at math?

greenmachine88

If you're not in school any more and want to improve your overall math skills!

locked_out

greenmachine88 wrote: »

If you're not in school any more and want to improve your overall math skills!

Practice?

Captain Darling

Sesame Street.

phill106

greenmachine88 wrote: »

If you're not in school any more and want to improve your overall math skills!

Try counting sheep?

locked_out

2x^2 + 2x + my_balls = 0 ?

jester77

calculator ftw

Jimmy Bottlehead

I didn't get good at maths. I'm still ****e.

But thanks for the reminder, OP.

kirving

Best start with English first.

x_Ellie_x

Buy a maths quiz book in Easons and practice

fedor.2.

Kevin Irving wrote: »

Best start with English first.

Harsh

locked_out

Seriously OP, get a good book. The school books leave out steps, give a couple of wanky examples, and let you go on from there. The problem isn't the fact you aren't bad at maths, it's that you were probably just taught poorly and didn't listen enough in school.

This can be generally rectified...

Cuddlesworth

http://www.khanacademy.org/

I find the reason I never got any good at maths was because I couldn't justify learning it.

Even today, I have a hard time trying to sit down and learn algebra or such because I know that the only time I will ever need to know, use or have any knowldedge of it, is during the learning of it. After I feel I've learned it sufficiently, I no longer need it. Strange one.


Now don't get me wrong, fair enough if you're some scientist, enginner, etc. were numbers play a direct and important role in what you're doing, then learn away, but for the majority of people, I don't think we'll ever be in a situation where we really need to find out what X is equal to.

biko

http://www.xamuel.com/five-ways-to-be-better-at-math/
http://www.videojug.com/film/basic-math-lesson-1-numbers

raah!

If by maths you mean arithmetic, then there is nothing more to it than to force yourself to do whatever arithmetic calculations that most people normally find too unpleasant and unnecessary to do. Things Like adding up your shopping items while you are picking them from the shelf, calculating percentages and fractions of things. After a while you will just get used to the different digits and be much quicker at doing those sorts of calculations.

token56

locked_out wrote: »

2x^2 + 2x + my_balls = 0 ?

assuming my_balls is a constant

x = (-2 +/- sqrt(2^2-4*2*my_balls))/2*2

Frank Black

It's as easy as 1,2,3.

bleg

There is no such thing as talent. Practice practice practice.

Sky King

Find an area of mathematics or even applied mathematics or physics that interests you and take it from there.

Stats was always my favourite.

J K

bleg wrote: »

There is no such thing as talent. Practice practice practice.

There is no such thing as practice. Talent talent talent. comma.

zenno

this link will help you out.... http://www.khanacademy.org/#developmental-math these are all video tutorials for learning and they give people the solution so it makes it a lot simpler.

Chuck Stone

Bleh maths.

I think I have pseudodyscalculia. At first I thought I had dyscalculia but then I thought 'meh probably just psuedodyscalculia'.

Too many numbers on a page and I get all confused but I could sit down with a sociology dictionary and leaf thru it for hours me so I could.

Turtwig

Maths is our tool for approximating reality. I know that probably sounds lame for some, but really there is no better motivation for understanding maths than seeing how it applies to our understanding of the reality in which we reside. Focusing on the pragmatic values of maths for a job or something won't keep you motivated once you get to the tough stuff and everyone has different things that they find 'tough'. There is also an internal beauty to the world of mathematics; a world that, thus far, our exploration of has only began to scratch its surface. Oh and, while I have absolutely no data to back this up other than anecdotes, most maths teachers at primary and secondary level are incompetent and barely understand their own subject themselves. (At third level the problem usually is that they understand their subject matter too well and they are out of touch with the average student. )

tl;dr Khan Academy, youtube, internet forums : try to learn at your own pace. Everyone has their own clock for learning various topics.

Conor108

Yeah I'm gonna be serious. Khan Academy. Free videos, there on youtube as well. Thousands from basic addition to linear algrebra/physics. I use them a good bit in college, they're such a help its unreal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6l8-1kHUsA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HycjWQcAymQ

They're usually 10-15 mins in length. Here's a video from the algebra section!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAerID24QJ0

ScumLord

Your computer also does maths, there's also more than likely an app for any calculations you want to do.

Unless it's your job there's no need to be good at maths, it's what we built computers to do.

If you want to get good at adding and subtracting start playing darts.

bnt

Khan Academy is excellent if you have plenty of time. I also find it helps to find something relevant to your life and play with the numbers. Example:
- your new LCD TV has a 42" screen - that means it is 42 inches across the diagonal between the opposite corners.
- the aspect ratio is 16:9 i.e. 16 "units" along and 9 "units" up
- how wide is the screen along the bottom and along the side?
- hint: there are at least two ways to do this: trigonometry, or the Pythagoras theorem.

bottom: 36.6"
side: 20.6"

cml387

bnt wrote: »

Khan Academy is excellent if you have plenty of time. I also find it helps to find something relevant to your life and play with the numbers. Example:
- your new LCD TV has a 42" screen - that means it is 42 inches across the diagonal between the opposite corners.
- the aspect ratio is 16:9 i.e. 16 "units" along and 9 "units" up
- how wide is the screen along the bottom and along the side?
- hint: there are at least two ways to do this: trigonometry, or the Pythagoras theorem.

bottom: 36.6"
side: 20.6"

Er, I think Pythagoras' theorem actually is trigonometry.

bnt

cml387 wrote: »

Er, I think Pythagoras' theorem actually is trigonometry.

Replace the word "trigonometry" with "trigonometric functions" in my post, then. You can say that the Pythagorean Theorem is a special case of the law of cosines if you like, but Pythagoras didn't know that, and you don't need to know any trigonometric functions (sin, cos, tan etc.) to use the Theorem.

Ficheall

Deleted User wrote: »

I find the reason I never got any good at maths was because I couldn't justify learning it.

Even today, I have a hard time trying to sit down and learn algebra or such because I know that the only time I will ever need to know, use or have any knowldedge of it, is during the learning of it. After I feel I've learned it sufficiently, I no longer need it. Strange one.

Being pedantic, if you go into a chipper and work out that you can afford two bags of chips at a euro each, a can of fanta for a euro and a burger at a 2 euro for a grand total of a fiver, then that's algebra...
You're a natural.

Capt'n Midnight

How do you become good at math?

Start with the basics. Don't worry about counting. Start off by learning the difference between one and more than one.

Here is a clue, it's called maths.

SouthTippBass

Kevin Irving wrote: »

Best start with English first.

Well, that's almost a complete sentence.