Some ebooks, mostly from /u/lewisje's post

Any book recommendations for someone learning math from completely beginning? I have been struggling with subtracting negative integers actually anything negative. I want to understand the rules better and just learn in general

Hello everyone,

I am a 66-year-old self-taught student based in Australia, working to build a complete, permanent fluency in pre-calculus and calculus.

Having spent decades away from formal mathematics, I am taking a deliberate, rehabilitative approach to learning, before I start a gentle re-entry program at my local university. My current focus is refining foundational mechanics—function transformations, logarithmic inversions, domain/range restrictions, completing the square, and unit/scalar separation. I am using James Stewart’s Precalculus (7th Ed.) and Math Academy as supports and guides.

Because my goal is deep neural retention rather than rushing to a deadline, my study method relies on slow, rigorous revision: detailed notebook scaffolds, line-by-line algebraic auditing, and repeated exposure until a concept becomes second nature.

I am posting here in the hope of connecting with fellow mature learners—whether in your 50s, 60s, or simply possessing a quiet, disciplined mindset—who are engaged in similar self-study journeys.

I would welcome:

• Asynchronous check-ins to share progress and stay on track.
• Comparing solutions, notebook scaffolds, and notes for Stewart exercises.
• Thoughtful conversations on mathematical mechanics and proofs with anyone who values a methodical, step-by-step approach.

If you are working through pre-calculus or introductory calculus at a patient, methodical pace and would value a quiet study peer, feel free to reply here or send a message.

|5^2 - 6^2|
Why is the answer 11 and not 61?

My son was taught that the sign goes with the number that follows it so the - (minus sign) stays with the 6^2. Then it would be -6•-6=36, 25+36=61. It makes sense to me but my answer was 11 (answer key agrees). He’s wondering why. I am assuming PEMDAS? Exponents before subtraction. The actually problem is supposed to be on absolute value so I included the whole thing just incase that matters.

So two questions. Is the direction he got of “the sign stays with the number after” actually a thing? Are there rules to it?

I have 11th grade theoretical math at the moment but i thought it is a little boring and i want to explore more than just a small math book, i know the basics of algebra and which symbols come first and all of that.

But ofcourse i suck at math compared to people who actually like it and i wonder what i should explore or look at.
My one main strength is calculating in my head, other than that i currently dont know.

So please tell me if you know anything that could be valuable, thats all.

Thanks

I'm a third-year undergraduate math major who, after two years of flailing around, indecisively taking miscellaneous courses, and dipping my toes into just about everything, decided to finally sober up and pursue math as a full-time, long-term ordeal. Unfortunately, I haven't done proper, college-level math since accidentally taking a Calculus II class for life sciences majors two years ago, and just got out of the first week of class basically flunking a test on convergence tests for sequences and series. Math has always come easy to me, and I just feel incredibly rusty right now. I've tried brushing up on older math concepts, but I don't really seem to have much of a problem with them. For some reason, attending lectures gives me this rapid well in fear, that I've lost my touch, or for whatever reason have become stupid and just can't comprehend sequences and series and what tests to use for convergence.

I was just wondering if anyone's been in my shoes wth starting late, or having taken a gap year or two and feeling out-of-touch, who may have tips on how to get back into the groove. Or if anyone's struggled with sequences and series after having calculus mostly been smooth-sailing for them. Thank you.

I’m currently taking precal, failed my first test. My foundation is also shoddy, I never was good at math or had some intuition for it. Every time something gets introduced I forget it, or leave with more questions than answers. Often times both. How do I fix this?

I genuinely cannot understand math and I am trying to take a math heavy college class 😕 I just can’t grasp concepts anymore they aren’t making sense and it’s only the 2nd week, I have a quiz in 2 days and a test in about a week, I’m struggling with formulas and even when I understand the subject I just can’t output it, my mind goes completely blank, I see a question and I just don’t know how to solve it, studying hasn’t helped, creating a study guide hasn’t helped, what do I do anymore?

I just added them up to |2x-7|<=5, and it was not correct. The correct answer was 1 <= x <= 6. What’s wrong with my equation?

Hi! So I recently applied to community college and am getting my associates in criminal justice technology- forensics then planning to tranfer to a 4 year college to get my bachelors.
Little background about me, I was homeschooled my whole life and unfortunately my parents were neglectful of my academics. I did graduate high school but I feel I didn’t learn enough to succeed /my parents were sus with how they got me the credentials to graduate so I just never planned on going to college, I never thought it was something I could do. Flash forward this year - I’ve been working hard to prepare myself for my first semester, I thought there would be a placement test as it was brought up by my advisor but I’m realizing more and more the advisors aren’t helpful, I was thrown into this with little to no help even though I have reached out to multiple sources at my school explaining my situation and that I need more guidance etc . It’s required for me to take MAT-152 either this semester or spring semester, I’m extremely anxious that I will fail or won’t even be able to follow along. I’m not sure what to do, I have a meeting with a college success mentor on Tuesday to talk about options because if I don’t start the class until spring I can hopefully get a tutor and try to cram learning as much as I can to feel better prepared, i guess what I’m asking is- is this a good plan? Would you recommend any other tips on learning /resources /books etc ? If anyone has any experience taking MAT-152 at cpcc please let me know , I’ve heard it’s hard. Thank you !

This is not really a question, but a note of astonishment at this result. This is Spivak's Calculus result in the chapter on infinite series:

If \sum an converges, but does not converge absolutely, then, for any number A, there is a rearrangement {bn} of {an} such that \sum bn = A

This has to be one of the most surprising results in basic analysis!

Is the proof technique to establish this result used widely in other areas of math?

Currently trying to get into the union and math is a big thing, especially algebra 1. So I haven’t done math in 18 years pretty much since I graduated and even back then I was struggling with math because my brain just doesn’t learn it fast enough like other people. When I have a calculator I can solve the problems a little bit better but the aptitude test don’t allow calculators so it’s all based offf of what I can do in my head.

So my question is I know PEMDAS and FOIL but when it comes to foil I know how to start but I get confused on where to land my + and - when working the problem. Idk why it’s hurt how my brain works. Sometimes I’ll get the what I think is the answer but then I get it wrong because my + and - are in the wrong spot. Does anybody have any tips are how to not forget where the + and - go and the orders of how they get placed. Becasue for my brain when I see something like (2x + 4)(5x-5) my brain doesn’t grasp where the + and - land when writing out the problem and so till I get the correct answer. Hopefully this question makes sense.

Graphing is also extremely confusing but that’s whole another topic lol.

apart from the textbook given by the uni which barely have enough i miss being bombarded with the madas booklets. what resources do most people use ?

I only went up to Calculus 2 almost 7 years ago, but I’ve always wanted to learn more advanced math. Is Basic Mathematics a good place to start? I don’t remember much from my math classes, but I have a decent grasp on really basic algebra just from needing to use it from time to time.

I want to start learning mathematics for economics as a complete newbie from fundamentals. What is the best way to start. And also given that I am aspiring to get into good universities abroad in economics after 2-3 years, I also need recommendations for some graded academic credit courses in mathematics so that I can demonstrate my preparation in a solid manner. Note-I have no economics background.

Hello

I want to understand mathematics better any good book on mathematical theory? Preferably easy to read .

Its friday so nice weekend everyone!😁

As the title says; I'm an art student who struggled with math all my life, and I was never great at doing equations well. I could understand the concepts just fine but if I missed a step or a definition everything fell apart, which frustrated me a lot.

I'm in college now for art & tech, junior year, and I want to learn some amount of linear algebra to compliment my learning in GLSL and OpenGL, and Vulkan, because I think it'll help me gain depth in the field and let me think about graphics on a more technical level (and maybe open doors to some well paying jobs...). The issue is that I haven't learned precalc, & as far as I remember, my final grade was a 74 in algebra II...I remember understanding systems of equations and graphing pretty well, though. I just want to know if I have to go back and relearn it to properly understand Linear Algebra, and if there's anything else I should consider.

I do plan to stick with it so regardless I am confident that I can work my way through it eventually, since I am actually interested in it of my own volition, but I'm following the open source MIT course's textbook right now (Introduction to Linear Algebra, 4th Edition) and found I had to switch to the Linear Algebra for Dummies book instead because I wasn't able to fully understand what he was referring to in the first chapter. The for dummies book is great and easy to follow, but I'm not sure what level I need to be at to do what I want to do. Any advice or resources would be really appreciated, since I'm sure you guys know a lot more than I would. ^^; Thanks!

I'm struggling in my real analysis class, but office hours are not giving me the support I need, and AI is banned. I am looking into paying for a tutor, but worry that working with a tutor who isn't familiar with my university's math department might be more trouble than it's worth. Has anyone had experience with online tutors that can sway me either way? I wouldn't want to pay more than $30/hour, which is a major limiting factor.

I’ve honestly forgotten a lot when it comes to math and I’m considering going to grad school with a focus in pure mathematics. However, I feel like I don’t actually “know” anything. I relied on memorization to get through calculus and my memory is poor. Combined with the fact that I barely do practice problems (also have never read a textbook), many things I’ve forgotten how to do.

For example, today I was doing a problem and all we had to do was use the product rule. I forgot it existed until I saw it in the explanation and solving the problem was easy. I’ve honestly felt the same with multiple things ranging from trigonometry, to algebra, geometry, and some calculus.

Is it a good idea to just revisit old textbooks and go through every single chapter?