Bored with Leaving Cert Maths

Celtron

Hey all, I'm pretty bored with the current leaving cert syllabus for mathematics and I love maths. Was wondering if anyone had any advice on things I should look into and or any workbooks/ online resources to learn from and get problems to solve? Interested in A.I. after uni

KeithTS

Seem like you're pretty lucky.
Being bored is never good but it's a good place to be at this point.

I'm a big fan of Engineering Mathematics: A Foundation for Electronic, Electrical, Communications and Systems Engineers by Croft, Davison and Hargreaves. I'm sure there's a lot in there that you already know but it goes a lot deeper than the LC from what I can remember, a lot of good problems in there for you.

If you're interested in AI, use your maths foundations and get really good at stats and probability, graph theory and multivariate calculus.
If you're not writing software at the minute, learn a programming language and get to grips with data structures.

If you're already familiar with programming (even if you're not and you want to learn) check out project Euler: https://projecteuler.net/

Celtron

Cheers I'll take a look at that book, engineering is my second choice then theoretical physics. I've only recently discovered my love for A.I. and really want to work in the field as there is still a lot to discover and it is something that could go drastically wrong for humanity so I want to do the best I can to make it work for us, I've started learning basic python and been started a few machine learning courses online one from coursera and two on youtube. I'm teaching myself vectors, matrices and tensors and more calculus (its a shame they aren't on the leaving cert course anymore). It's weird like I have a study timetable but in my free time I'm either learning more on A.I. or in cryptography or watching youtube videos from numberphile. The most annoying thing for me is I was basically a loser pothead in junior cert and I regret it now because if I studied in junior cert I could've gone to some olympiads but that's all in the past now and I'm going to make up for it in the leaving cert

KeithTS

Calc and Matrices aren't on the LC course???
What is left if that's the case?

That book I suggested has a lot of good material on those topics so is definitely worth a look.
Stick with the coding and learn that stuff and you'll be set on a good direction. Don't worry about saving the world just yet, that'll come in time.

Also, you seem bright, just don't burn yourself out!

srsly78

Learn the difference between AI and machine-learning, one of these is meaningless waffle - the other is practical application of maths and software. Focus on statistics + python.

Best just to never mention AI at all - leave that to journalists.

ectoraige

Don't know what year you're in but if you're that interested have you looked at the Applied Maths syllabus? I did it back in the day along with a few other students, it was mostly self-taught although we did have a teacher tutor us a few times as well, the school allowed up to sit it in the LC as an extra subject.

Celtron

To KeithTS we only do basic differentials and integration and thanks ahahaha hope to get around 600 points
To srsly78 yes I am aware sorry , doing a machine learning course, I just mentioned A.I. incase someone reading the form wasn't sure what machine learning related to , i dont know I just overthink things sorry :')
To ectoraige I'm in 6th year, doing Applied and I love it, by far the best decision I made was to do it, my maths teacher does a class once a week with about 10 of us but I do most of it at home because I don't understand his methods sometimes but I still go to him to make sure I'm on the right track

Rosalind151

Have you looked into the Olympiads - could be a good use of your academic talents

Khan academy and coursera are always good for learning new stuff.

Finally, you could actually make something - code something useful, like a little app or website

Celtron

To Rosalind151 I might leave olympiads till college, currently on coursera and khan academy, great resources, found patrickjmt on youtube to be a good resource too! I'm still in the process of brainstorming apps, aim to make a decent app in python by Feb and a decentralised app on the ethereum network by June

prosaic

Here's a possibly interesting website: https://brilliant.org/.

I would think it good to explore for the joy of exploring rather than getting totally goal oriented. It seems that it's people who play and explore that find new and interesting avenues.

I wish that when I was in school, I was more adventurous and had the resources that are available today. I recall my mother bringing a book home from the library for me one day. It was on Game Theory. I couldn't understand a word of it as it was way beyond my level or used language I didn't understand.

University maths can go to abstract levels way beyond the fundamentals we learn about in school. I assume that a solid basis in advanced maths would give one a great advantage in areas of machine learning etc.

Even in physics, there are areas like quantum mechanics that rely on advanced maths.

As for programming, here again, there is the basics which you can learn quickly. Then there are more abstract things to learn about. It's always worth exploring deeply since it can lead to new and better ways of doing things.

Talisman

Celtron wrote: »

To Rosalind151 I might leave olympiads till college, currently on coursera and khan academy, great resources, found patrickjmt on youtube to be a good resource too! I'm still in the process of brainstorming apps, aim to make a decent app in python by Feb and a decentralised app on the ethereum network by June

Ethereum is just a hype machine - don't waste your time with it. If you are interested in blockchain technology and want to play around with it then take a look at Multichain - it has addressed some of the blockchain issues without the hype. Inside Multichain: A Build-Your-Own Blockchain Service for Banks will give you an insight into its origin.