What is Reddit's opinion of Basic Mathematics?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

Hey OP, I was in a really similar position. I found that this book, basic mathematics by serge lange was exactly what I was looking for. It starts from the very beginning, but has you prove everything along the way and did wonders in teaching me how to think about math. It's not easy, but it's also not a bunch of rote memorization and gets you good as fast as you're willing to work at it, up to a place where you're ready to hop into calculus and other things.

There's also pdf versions put there. If I had to learn from one place, that book would be it.

Okay. So..

You speak of this book I assume. Which is intended to be used by students in H.S. Yet you are familiar with abstract algebra? I understand abstract algebra has many levels to it. But how far did you go? Was it so close that you were touching on topographies or statements?

I'm very confused here. You're concerned about your math. But yet you're reading a calculus prep book?

What is an IT college exactly? Are you a freshman or sophomore at a Uni? And it happens that you are referring to your department? Or are you referring to a technical college / school?

These questions are to satisfy my assumptions. Optional at best.

As a math major with a CS minor in my uni, which is something I'm in the process of. I am required pre-algebra, algebra, pre-calc, calc, calc 1, calc 2, calc 3, abstract algebra, linear algebra, discreet math, some general programming classes involving these prerequisite math courses, and some other math classes I cannot remember.

Abstract algebra, in my opinion is something of a higher level language. So this should explain my confusion here.

Besides what has been said here, why don't you ask your parents to purchase you a fun math textbook? You'll have to do some research but why not just have some initiative and pick up your own algebra textbook and learn at your own pace? Maybe you might in interested in the Art of Problem Solving Series. You have an entire school of math teachers to ask for help if you get stuck somewhere. You have the internet (here being one of the places you can ask about anything math related; StackExchange is another good place). If I recall correctly, you can even "enroll" in online courses using edX that you can do on your own time. I often recommend to people Basic Mathematics because it covers everything that you should know math-wise before college. Some of the material might be advanced to you now but you can work through the book easily if what you claim about knowing all the material for your class is true.

The two books already mentioned sound awesome, but if you ever wanted a textbook with a formal approach to mathematics (written by a well-known and respected mathematician), check out Basic Mathematics by Serge Lang.

This is more for anyone reading who would like to continue on to a math or perhaps a physics major. The book takes you from elementary algebra and geometry all through pre-calculus; basically the only book you should need to prepare you for calculus and elementary linear algebra.

You can start with Lang's Basic Mathematics. The material is elementary, but the presentation with proofs and all is reminiscent of books on higher math. It should definitely help you understand basic math.

If she's interested in doing serious mathematics, Serge Lang's Basic Mathematics is very good introductory material, from what I've read of it anyway. Its approach with proofs and all should be illuminating.

http://www.amazon.com/Basic-Mathematics-Serge-Lang/dp/0387967877

I like Lang's books, but some people don't. I've personally never read this one, but it covers everything a very strong math student would know coming from a good high school and it comes well reviewed. He starts with 50 pages explaining and proving the rules of basic grade school math. You actually might be at an advantage here in that you'll learn basic math from the point of view of a great mathematician who loves the subject rather than from a BA in Educ. who most likely hated math growing up. Also if you were a student who wanted to know from where all these math formulas came, you will not be disappointed as Lang proves everything and doesn't ask you take results "on faith."

Serge Lang's Basic Mathematics. It covers all of mathematics in a comprehensive manner until calculus.

https://www.amazon.ca/Basic-Mathematics-Serge-Lang/dp/0387967877

There's already a lot of good suggestions though I'd recommend that you check out these in order.

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https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZHQObOWTQDMsr9K-rj53DwVRMYO3t5Yr

Check out 3Blue1Brown's calculus playlist. This covers all of the major ideas you'll learn about. I really like his videos because they're focused on the ideas being represented rather than the technicalities and notation. There's about ten videos, they are about ten minutes each.

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https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/33283

This is a free e-book that goes really well with those videos. You'll see the same concepts from a similar perspective. Again focusing on the concepts being used. There's some more notation but it's gentle and it focuses on the ideas still.

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https://www.amazon.ca/Basic-Mathematics-Serge-Lang/dp/0387967877

Lastly, this is a good comprehensive review of basic math as the title goes. It's more like a textbook, fairly dry but it will give you a good review of all the math you need to get into the university level math and a bit more. You can find a copy for free online somewhere. Anything past chapter 13 isn't needed for calc I, a lot of the geometry stuff can be skipped too.

The secondary thing this book is good at is that it gives you a sense of doing more abstract mathematics. For instance, prove that (a + b) + c = (b + c) + a. These questions can be a bit tricky but they aren't hard and there usually is something intuitive about them that makes it a bit easier to follow along. Give these about 15 minutes or so and check that answers after. The goal is to get a sense of how to approach abstract mathematics with these.

Study https://www.amazon.com/Basic-Mathematics-Serge-Lang/dp/0387967877 first.

A super harsh guide to learning computer science basics and ultimately programming ...

Hey all, Here is probably my final take on this. I have been like many of us here, trying, failing, switching resources, starting over, giving up and so on... But after so many tries, these are, in my opinions the best the internet has to offer if you are ready to take the learning serious and not just wanting to be a code monkey. All of this is free, yes free, no need to buy a course from a random dude on the internet. For the books, well I'm sure you know, anything can be found on the internet if you dig enough. Just focus one these, no need for more projects, these have more than enough and they are really really challenging. If you manage to finish, you'll be in top 10% of the self-taught people. The textbook part is optional, but you should do it anyway, it will for sure improve your problem solving skills. Don't cheat, trying to find solutions online or such, take your time, it's doable, albeit harder cause you are alone. Finally good luck, well no it's not about luck, more about discipline ...

Start here:

CS61A - Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (introductory cs course at berkeley, hard af but you will learn a lot if you keep at it)

CS61B - Data Structures (data structure course at bekeley. Programs interact with data, you will learn how with this course. The MOST MOST MOST important course on this guide)

CS61C - Great Ideas in Computer Architecture (Teaches the inner working of a computer so that you can write optimized programs)

Then specialize for whatever you like, I suggest these:

Full Stack Open (web development)

15-388 A - Practical Data Science (Lectures) (data science)

CS193p - Developing Applications for iOS using SwiftUI (mobile dev)

Textbooks:

Basic Mathematics - Serge Lang (teaches basic mathematics as the title says, but is proof based)

Discrete Mathematics with Applications - Susanna Epp (basically the math of computer science)

Edit 1: There is a lot of questions/suggestions about CS50 so let me adress that. It's not a bad course, and if you have one and only course to take to learn basic cs and programming, it's the best at that. But if you have time the 3 Berkeley introduction course is CS50 on steroids, and every course on the spe part is more in depth. What you want when learning is to build good foundations so that you can learn more adavanced stuff later on.

Edit 2: CS61C now has a valid link thanks to

A super harsh guide to learning computer science basics and ultimately programming ...

Hey all, Here is probably my final take on this. I have been like many of us here, trying, failing, switching resources, starting over, giving up and so on... But after so many tries, these are, in my opinions the best the internet has to offer if you are ready to take the learning serious and not just wanting to be a code monkey. All of this is free, yes free, no need to buy a course from a random dude on the internet. For the books, well I'm sure you know, anything can be found on the internet if you dig enough. Just focus one these, no need for more projects, these have more than enough and they are really really challenging. If you manage to finish, you'll be in top 10% of the self-taught people. The textbook part is optional, but you should do it anyway, it will for sure improve your problem solving skills. Don't cheat, trying to find solutions online or such, take your time, it's doable, albeit harder cause you are alone. Finally good luck, well no it's not about luck, more about discipline ...

Start here:

CS61A - Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (introductory cs course at berkeley, hard af but you will learn a lot if you keep at it)

CS61B - Data Structures (data structure course at bekeley. Programs interact with data, you will learn how with this course. The MOST MOST MOST important course on this guide)

CS61C - Great Ideas in Computer Architecture (Teaches the inner working of a computer so that you can write optimized programs)

Then specialize for whatever you like, I suggest these:

Full Stack Open (web development)

15-388 A - Practical Data Science (Lectures) (data science)

CS193p - Developing Applications for iOS using SwiftUI (mobile dev)

Textbooks:

Basic Mathematics - Serge Lang (teaches basic mathematics as the title says, but is proof based)

Discrete Mathematics with Applications - Susanna Epp (basically the math of computer science)

Edit 1: There is a lot of questions/suggestions about CS50 so let me adress that. It's not a bad course, and if you have one and only course to take to learn basic cs and programming, it's the best at that. But if you have time the 3 Berkeley introduction course is CS50 on steroids, and every course on the spe part is more in depth. What you want when learning is to build good foundations so that you can learn more adavanced stuff later on.

Edit 2: CS61C now has a valid link thanks to

You could try Lang's Basic Mathematics. I have not personally read it (though I have read some of the author's other works), but it seems to cover a reasonable amount without being excessively long. It is divided into four parts: algebra, intuitive geometry, coordinate geometry (including a chapter on trigonometry), and miscellaneous (including chapters on functions, complex numbers, and matrices). This should give you a foundation to work with.

Khan Academy can also be a good resource, though it isn't a book. There are plenty of practice questions/tests you can do to figure out what you know and don't know, and there are plenty of videos showing you how to solve different types of problems.

Start with arithmetic. Make sure you are comfortable in adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing integers, negatives, fractions, and decimals. Old school books are great for this. This shouldn't take too long and for your sake DO NOT USE A CALCULATOR. You have no idea how the introduction of a calculator early on ruins kids, they become dependent on it. Train yourself to not need one.

Once you are comfortable with arithmetic, move on to algebra. I recommend reading both Lang's Basic Mathematics and the series of books by I.M. Gelfand for this. These are great books for their subjects and will introduce rigor into your math. The going will be a bit difficult at first but you will come out better than before. You want to focus on UNDERSTANDING math, not just doing it.

When you are done with algebra, you can move on to geometry and trigonometry. Both of the authors I mentioned cover these. for the most part, you want to understand basic things like area, volume, congruence theorems, and whatnot.

A bit of advice: practice is the secret to being successful. If you do enough practice problems, you will eventual reach a point where you will question how the hell you didn't know this stuff before. Also, feel free to find other books to supplement these, there is nothing wrong with getting multiple explanations so long as it all benefits you.

My two cents

1. Maths is difficult. There isn't one of us who at some point has not struggled with it
2. Maths should be difficult. The moment you find it easy you are not pushing yourself!

If you want to improve your skills you can do two things in the short term -- read and practice.

I would recommend Basic Mathematics by Lang (it gets mentioned a lot around here). Or if you are interested in higher math look at How to Prove It by Velleman

The great thing is that both include exercises.

Don't worry buddy, math is all about finding patterns and logical reasoning http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/03/5-year-olds-can-learn-calculus/284124/

I had to reteach myself math, I read this book which was awesome it's literally all of highschool and pre-calculus in one book, but written from the view of a high level mathematician so you aren't just counting like a calculator (you can torrent all these books) http://www.amazon.ca/Basic-Mathematics-Serge-Lang/dp/0387967877

There's also Khan Academy, little lessons to refresh your basic math skills https://www.khanacademy.org/math (free)

You can take university for free too

https://www.udacity.com/

https://www.edx.org/

https://coursera.org

You can also teach yourself Python http://learnpythonthehardway.org/book/ and start those coursera/edx MIT and Princeton courses. Read this guy's story, took him 1 year: https://www.reddit.com/r/learnprogramming/comments/34r807/im_32_years_old_and_just_started_my_first/

You can also get grants to go to real university if you want, but not needed. I used to do emergency landscaping work off craigslist when I was poor for cash and other small gigs. What do you want to do? Like if you could go to school.

When you want to learn basic algebra, try Serge Lang's Basic Mathematics.

It's similar in style to books on higher mathematics. I think you'll find it appealing.

An other book that focuses on the actual mathematics (the "why") is Serge Lang's Basic Mathematics.