Oh wow, I've never actually talked with anyone who shared that experience. It certainly is really frustrating. Meds don't really help with it, either, even though they've made a huge difference for me in other areas.
I did get a book that improved my mental math a bit, since it taught me new methods that I wasn't aware of. It doesn't help with holding the numbers in my head, but I'm still glad I read the first quarter or so of it. Here's a link:
This is one of the methods suggested in this book: https://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Mental-Math-Mathemagicians-Calculation/dp/0307338401
It’s a really nice read for doing mental math. The author, Arthur Benjamin, has some really impressive videos on YouTube IIRC
Knowing the various tricks and just practice. I wanted to get good at mental math for fun and I saw huge improvements after reading this book and just practicing with apps on my phone or with pen and notebook when I was bored.
Sure there are some people who are naturally gifted but it really does come down to practice. If you have a chance to work on campus as a tutor at all you can then get paid to practice getting quicker.
I am in IT(network engineer), did electrical engineering in college which means I am nearly a math major. I do about 1% everyday and usually that's figuring out the tip at dinner/lunch. Now that doesn't mean you shouldn't be decent at it. this book might help with basic math and make you look like a genius
Read the book by Arthur Benjamin. He's one of my role models. :D The book has the most amazing mental math tricks ever, and I can square 2, 3, and even 4 digit numbers in my head. Getting to 5 digits soon. There are a lot of other cool tricks in there as well.
I would enumerate on the various techniques I've used over the years, which drove my early math teachers somewhat mad, but, well, those little tricks and more are readily available in the book The Secrets Of Mental Math. I never finished the book, but it's got quite a few very useful tips, just in the opening couple of chapters, and it builds on them to add other neat things.
I used to be a dealer too! I ended up dealing blackjack, roulette, craps, bacc, Pai Gow, and many poker variants. I recommend that you read the book Secrets of Mental Math or watch the dvd. To practice, look at getting an app called Anki and make flashcards for yourself. Good luck and have fun!
It seems that your comment contains 1 or more links that are hard to tap for mobile users. I will extend those so they're easier for our sausage fingers to click!
Here is link number 1 - Previous text "dvd"
^Please ^PM ^\/u\/eganwall ^with ^issues ^or ^feedback! ^| ^Code ^| ^Delete
You might like the following books: <em>Secrets of Mental Math</em>, <em>Street-Fighting Mathematics</em>, and <em>The Art of Insight in Science and Engineering</em>. The latter two links are pdfs btw.
my anti-virus doesn't like that link so here's another just in case
Every Arthur Benjamin book, video, and course https://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Mental-Math-Mathemagicians-Calculation/dp/0307338401 and https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=arthur+benjamin
Little mental trick you can do to show off to some people:
any number * 11 is easy. Even in the 2 digits.
Let's do 32 again.
32 * 11
Separate 32 into two digits, add them, and then put that number between those two digits. For example:
3 + 2 = 5
place between the two original digits:
352
This works with three digits as well (but I have to go figure out how to do that one again). There is a book on the Apple Store that is an awesome read if you're into it. All of the things I am showing you are possible to do mentally. I can currently square 4 digit numbers in my head sorta reliably, and can square 3 and 2 digit numbers without fail. It is really fun and I enjoy doing it.
EDIT:
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE support this guy and do not download a pdf of the book. He is absolutely incredible with what he can do and is sharing it with people so they can do it too. Give him credit!
Asked myself the same question this morning. I found this book is supposed to be a good start.
http://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Mental-Math-Mathemagicians-Calculation/dp/0307338401
Don't know if you're interested but this book is amazing for getting better at mental math http://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Mental-Math-Mathemagicians-Calculation/dp/0307338401
Here's a great online game to practice your mental arithmetic that I recently found. It's simple to use, and you can set various parameters to practice different types of computations.
As you probably know, the point isn't to do tons of memorization (apart from some basics, such as the multiplication table up to about 12) or to practice performing pencil-and-paper algorithms in your head.
The point is to practice techniques that are better suited to mental operations, often by reducing a computation to several simpler problems. There are general techniques for doing this, such as separating numbers into their place values, and there are more creative shortcuts that can be based on special features of particular problems.
If it helps, I recently drafted a summary of useful mental arithmetic techniques to help some of the college students I tutor (this usually becomes an issue when a student takes their first course that disallows the use of calculators). I wrote it to be used in conjunction with the game linked to above. When I get a chance, I could make a webpage out of it and publish it to my site. Would you find that helpful?
You can improve a lot with just a few basic ideas, but if you really want to go all out, there's a nice book by mathematician Arthur Benjamin on mental arithmetic techniques (his fascination with math grew out of a childhood fascination with arithmetic, so he wrote a book summarizing many of the techniques he discovered).
Happy learning!
Greg at Higher Math Help
I'll articulate my view, in case others find a different perspective to be helpful.
To begin with, I recognize that math is much, much, much more than arithmetic. However, this game (which is not my game, by the way) is a great tool for helping people to develop their mental arithmetic skills. While these skills do not require the same facility with abstraction that higher-level math requires, they are nonetheless valuable, and they are a part of mathematics. That makes this post appropriate for r/math, according to the FAQ.
I won't try too hard to persuade you here, but you can take a look at Arthur Benjamin's book on mental arithmetic for some discussion on the merit of mental arithmetic skills. (Professor Benjamin holds a Ph.D. in math from Johns Hopkins, and his interest in math began as a fascination with arithmetic.)
I'll just say that determining quick ways to perform mental arithmetic does require an understanding of more general properties and is more interesting than applying the algorithms that grade-school students learn by rote. Professor Benjamin explains mental arithmetic in the following way.
> "Too often, math is taught as a rigid set of rules, leaving little room for creative thinking. But as you will learn ... there are often several ways to solve the same problem. Large problems can be broken into smaller, more manageable components. We look for special features to make our problems easier to solve. These strike me as being valuable life lessons that we can use in approaching all kinds of problems, mathematical and otherwise."
The game to which I linked can be a helpful way to practice and to discover new patterns and techniques. I tutor university students who sometimes need such practice, as their courses often don't allow calculators but do require arithmetic skills. At the very least, when a student needs to put forth extra effort to perform arithmetic in an intermediate step, the student has less working memory available to keep track of the overall structure of a logical argument or a computation.
I was actually prompted to make this post when I saw a post in this subreddit by someone with a math degree who has arithmetic difficulties. Yes, this person was able to earn a math degree without solid arithmetic skills, and that indicates that some higher-level math can be done without a mastery of arithmetic. At the same time, the OP writes "numerical calculations are the bane of my existence." Perhaps he or she would find the game helpful.
And here is his book for those who want to do this sort of thing on your own.
Keep it in the bathroom and you can become smarter every time you poop.
From the sound of it, a lot of the answers you're getting are tailored more towards proper jail/prison as opposed to an FPC. So I'll throw in a bunch of extra info...
The level of Fed you go to will be determined by a score. I'm going to assume you're otherwise a straight up kind of person. So you'll likely get points mostly for your age and the severity of your crime. I'm going to guess you'll be around 7-9 points which should put you in Minimum. Getting over 11 (assuming you're male), will put you in Low. Your crimes also used telecommunications, so it's also possible you will be put in Low, by default. Just to give a quick overview, expect cubicle housing and double fences. There are also work programs to keep you busy. Key tip, surrender directly to the prison camp. Otherwise, your transport is through the prison system so you'll be shackled and spend way more time with hostile people than you'd ever want to. Your lawyer should have that all worked out for you. Do not surrender to the Marshals.
You will then be classified as either: Community, In, Out, or Maximum. You will be reviewed and put into any of those groups. Also of note, try to get any nagging medical conditions you may have out in the open as soon as possible. They may upgrade your medical level and you can get it worked on.
And if you also have a case by your State, you'll probably just serve in the state institution. Anyway, you'll probably have a facility support job and that will take up time.
Your typical day will involve waking up early, then doing your job. You'll be on your own from about 2:30, then there will be a census count probably by 4. Then around 5, you'll be released for meals, purchases, etc. If you wanted, you could fill your evenings with a class, or even teaching a class. And depending on your work schedule, you may even find yourself sleeping by 9.
If anything, I'd generally stay away from working with actual cards and sleights. For the most part, they're too precious of a resource. And odds are no one will be able to send you any. The biggest source of boredom in a prison setting is the lack of mental stimulation. I would suggest pursuing any of the normal mental aspects of magic.
Any books you receive will probably have to be paperback. And there may be a limit on how many you can receive each month. Hardback books, if allowed, usually need to come directly from the company (amazon, half.com, etc). In fact, to have as few problems as possible, just have amazon send any books directly to you via US Post Office. And make sure it is AMAZON sending, not a third-party seller.
It would be a perfect time to learn a memorized deck, or even two. If you have your one deck to practice with on your own time, you'll be set by the time you're out. Get a copy of this book and you can be a human calculator by the time you get out. Get Harry Lorayne's Memory Book. Work out your killer presentation of Sam the Bellhop. Work out a cups and balls routine using foam cups and paper. Practice the Epitome Location (From Harry Lorayne's Personal Collection vol 1).
Best part of the memorized deck is many of the effects using one cause little wear and tear on your cards. So you'll get more mileage out of cards, if you have access to them at all.
Wow thanks. Also read Secrets of Mental Math. It provides lots of helpful tricks.
Aside from Khan, The Secrets of Mental Math was extremely helpful in this endeavor.
I used to be just like you, then really became fascinated by physics, which was very difficult given my deficiencies in math. I figured I would start with flash cards and what not, so I started browsing amazon and came across this. This guy is a genius, and teaches you a lot of tricks to do math quickly in your head. The next thing I did was checked out Khan Academy. I can not over-exaggerate how utterly fucking awesome this site is. Not only does he have like 2300+ videos on every topic, but he has something like 125 math modules that allow you to practice. It's completely free and all you need is a facebook or gmail account to log in...
Benjamin Arthur is <strong><em>great</em></strong> at this. He wrote a book that may interest you.
Get this. Greatly improved my calculation time.
If you need to get better at math in general, check out this book: http://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Mental-Math-Mathemagicians-Calculation/dp/0307338401
It even has a foreword by Bill Nye (the Science Guy) so that proves it's good.
Here's another one that's pretty good
Get http://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Mental-Math-Mathemagicians-Calculation/dp/0307338401
Don't go teaching your students outdated techniques when they go against the advice of this guy: http://www.ted.com/talks/arthur_benjamin_does_mathemagic.html
The guy is a walking calculator.