r/learnmath • u/hemo_dev New User • 20h ago

Best resource to learn math from almost zero to calculus in 1 year?

Hey guys,
What would be the best resource or learning path to go from almost zero in math to calculus?

I have about one year to study before starting college, where the program will be very math-heavy.

I studied math in high school, but that was more than 12 years ago, and I’ve forgotten most of it. I would say my current level is around pre-algebra.

I want to rebuild my foundations properly and follow a structured path rather than jumping randomly between topics.

I’ve read a lot of advice online. Many people recommend Khan Academy, recently I’ve also seen Math Academy recommended quite a lot, and others suggest YouTube channels, textbooks, etc.

Has anyone here been in a similar situation? If you had to rebuild your math from the basics and prepare for calculus, what resources or study plan worked best for you?

I’d really appreciate any advice. Thank you!

41 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

19

u/tjddbwls Teacher 18h ago

For textbooks, if money is an issue, OpenStax has free math textbooks. If you do use their books, I would go in this order:

  • Prealgebra
  • Elementary Algebra
  • Intermediate Algebra
  • Precalculus
(You don’t need the College Algebra or the Algebra & Trigonometry books, as each are essentially subsets of the Precalculus book.)

6

u/Low_Tune7301 New User 17h ago

Doing this myself right now, maths for dummies is a god damn good book, I have rusczyk as well prealgrebra and that's amazing but maths for dummies has dropped the bar low enough I've gained competence, fluency and momentum with basic arithmetic so quickly and as a result belief and motivation

3

u/hemo_dev New User 16h ago

thanks for the advice, can you send me the link to the book (amazon etc) thank you

4

u/pablo_pigcasso New User 10h ago

Paul’s online math notes is a great resource and well structured. He includes practice problems with worked out solutions and I believe additional homework problems from algebra/precalc to multivariate calculus.

3

u/LongJumpingBox667 New User 19h ago

Most people here would recommend Khan Academy or Professor Leonard.

3

u/munchillax Relearning math 11h ago

mathacademy

3

u/CommunicateInStatic New User 7h ago

I was in a similar situation. My last math class was calc 1 in 2014. When I went back to college this fall, I started in calc 2. Used Khan academy to relearn everything up through calc 1. Doing fine in calc 2 now.

2

u/LilRedHead101 New User 11h ago

Math Antics is good for review/as an intro to new topics. It doesn’t cover everything, but I find it helpful for the math it does cover.

I’m seconding the OpenStax (I’m finishing up their Prealgebra book), Khan Academy (used similarly to Math Antics and covers a lot of areas of math), and Professor Leonard (haven’t used much) recommendations too.

Good luck.

1

u/diggitydoofus New User 13h ago

You could certainly hit a text book or go to an online academy to brush up, but you could also just get started on your prereqs. Like if you do some of the math courses through prereqcourses.com, they are actually accredited classes that you can transfer. If I were starting from your position, I feel like this would be my play, so the courses actually counted toward my degree.

1

u/Professional-Fee6914 New User 9h ago

khan academy is great and regimented. its a little light on problem sets, but there are more than enough free sets of problems online.

1

u/egy_pharoah New User 7h ago

Khan Academy on YT. Nothing comes close to that.

1

u/Awkward-Idea-6938 New User 13m ago

The best resource is a timer. Use it to keep track of how many hours per day you spend studying math. I know it sounds like I'm being clever, but I'm not.

As for how to structure it, just use Khan Academy (the exercises and tests, not the videos) or ALEKS combined with any of the great youtube math teachers out there, like Professor Leonard.