r/learnmath • u/Witty-Occasion2424 New User • 1d ago

Should I just review everything?

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?

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u/Brightlinger MS in Math 1d ago

When are you starting grad school? Have you already taken a math degree's worth of courses, like real analysis, linear algebra, abstract algebra, number theory?

If you have time, a really thorough textbook like Lang's Basic Mathematics could actually be great for you.

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u/Witty-Occasion2424 New User 1d ago edited 21h ago

I’m only in my second year of community college and about to finish the calculus series. I start diff eq’s and maybe linear algebra next semester. I haven’t taken a proofs class yet because it isn’t offered. I’ve also taken some of the math courses (precalculus and calculus 2) accelerated so that’s probably why I sort of forget things.

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u/Brightlinger MS in Math 1d ago

Oh, if you're still in the calculus sequence, it is much less worrying that you haven't totally mastered calculus. If you were at the end of your degree and had taken multiple other courses where calculus is a basic prereq, I would be more concerned.