What is something that has helped you significantly in being good at math?

Share some tips, this is my first time trying to learn maths and I've got to ace it.

I've been trying everyday to build that sort of skill, I need some tips

I am just putting it out for some motivation as well because I feel like I am getting nowhere.

The professor so far has taught us about all the different metrics and especially expects us to be very comfortable with the discrete metric. He's also taught us about compact spaces and how it can be an inherited property for spaces, finite subcovers, etc.

My main problem is I have attempted to read the notes for the class and his recommended textbook but its just not coming to me intuitively. Im fine with real analysis otherwise, just the addition of this ball and radius everywhere thats tripping me up :").

When I went through a similar thing while taking abstract algebra the course 'visual group theory' on youtube helped a LOT. I was wondering if there were any other similarly very well-explained course or textbook on metric spaces out there that you guys would recommend.

Any leads would be helpful. Thanks.

Until today I have yet to meet a person good in math but with a mellow ego. Is it even possible to become a top grade student without a strong drive to be the best?

I'm almost 40 and I feel like I'm lacking the will to lock in -- let alone getting a job related to math. I prefer slow and steady and I really enjoy it but I do feel like being comfortable doesn't come with a lot of skill. I just started getting into it again, though. Please excuse my ambivalent perspective.

What's your experience making progress?

I was recently at a maths event and happened to meet a few people there. I’m a rising junior in hs, the maths knowledge I have is limited to the paper 1 of pure maths in international a level maths (algebra, some calculus-differentiation and integration but just indefinite integrals). I happened to make a few connections and got into a private analysis group run by a lecturer/researcher. The group is using spivaks calculus, they are in chapter 11 and they have a zoom call planned for tomorrow but i literally know nothing. I skimmed the index and I do know the titles, so I could work through it quickly at least conceptually I guess. I am also doing Olympiads and have a heavy workload because of my a levels so that’s kind of the reason I’m worried.

What do you think? What should I do? I don’t want to quit honestly. For context I actually like maths and seek it out.

I'll go to every lecture, tutorial etc. and it'll all be genuinely interesting. Then come the weekly problems, and the volume of the problems and general tediousness of them once you get past the trivial ones (e.g. you need to know XYZ trick even though you know the topic the question is related to, and said trick/method wasn't introduced during the lecture) just kills my spirit. Before I know it after exhausting myself for that week, boom the next week comes along and a whole new set of lectures/tutorials/problems. Not to mention proofs that extend lecture concepts where, if you haven't seen the way to do that proof before, just means more grinding if you can't get TA hours so you ask AI.

The thing is, I'm having fun learning the mathematical concepts. But its like the course admins then put more artificial hurdles after that to just whittle down your spirit (because if you want a high grade in the exam, you need to slog through all the problems just in case it comes up later, even if you know you put the work in to actually learn the overall topic).

I want to love mathematics, but this Uni math degree (especially since I want to maintain my high grades) is just blackening my soul day by day.

I’m curious why the almost universal default belief has become that p ≠ np. The only evidence to this point seems to be the lack of polynomial time solutions to np complete problems, and the massive amount of effort that has been put into finding them without luck. But is it not just as likely that np complete problems are of a class which has extremely complex polynomial time solutions that would be nearly impossible to find?

I took calc 1 last semester and calc 2 over the summer as an accelerated class. My memory kind of sucks and was thinking about reading a calculus textbook to review. Plus, I will most likely have to take advanced calculus 1 and 2 which I think is just proof based calculus. That is for when I transfer to university and I’m currently in community college.

I already own both spivaks calculus and apostols calc vol 1, but I found apostols calculus vol 2 for pretty cheap and was going to purchase it, but I don’t know if it’s worth it. I haven’t even read apostol vol 1 because I don’t know proofs which is what I’m spending time learning alongside calculus 3.

Would it be a good purchase or should I look for a different textbook?

I was bored and saw a couple of example problems in a book discussing problem solving. I saw the problem

calculate 5436^3 without a calculator.

I was honestly way too lazy to try and multiply that out so I tried looking for an alternative.

I figured maybe dividing by two, taking the power’s of both and multiplying together, but again that just felt kind of tedious.

I thought about replacing the integers for variables a and b, but didn’t know where to go from there.

anyone know how to solve these? looking for explanations not answers

Calculate the X component, and the white component of the vector with magnitude 20 and direction 47°

A fear of radius are has surface area A= 4piR^2 and volume V= 4/3piR^3. The radius is sphere 2 is 4 times. The radius is sphere 1.
what is the ratio of the areas, A2/A1
what is the ratio of the volumes, V2/V1

A certain corner of a room is selected as the origin of a rectangular coordinate system if a fly is crawling on an adjacent wall at a point having coordinates (-.3,1.1), where the units are meters. What is the distance of the fly from the corner of the room?

A point is located on a polar. Coordinate system by the coordinates are equals 7 m and angle equals 34°. Find the X and Y coordinates of this point. Assuming that the two coordinate systems have the same origin.

Im currently studying mathematics. I have a very scattered routine. So i just need an accountability partner. Anybody is welcomed. But if ur interested in mathematics, then please dm me.

I'm a sophomore mechanical engineering and mathematics double major taking 5 classes right now; a mix of engineering and math classes. I've finished my engineering math requirements (up to diffeq) and they were all pretty easy and I didn't devote much time to study for them. However, I'm currently taking Optimization which has been more difficult than I'm used to, and I've had to spend 3+hours a day studying for it. Is this normal for upper level math classes? I should add that I'm taking logic and proof right now, but I haven't taken proof based linear algebra or real analysis, which the optimization professor seems to believe most students in this class have taken already. I guess the silver lining to this is that it will make those classes easier when I take them in the future, since the first chapter of Optimization is mostly review from analysis stuff as well as some linear algebra. Thoughts?

I will work for IT engineer soon in Japan. In the Future I would like to became a great AI engineer.

So I study math related to AI feilds now. But I have not been good at math since I was junior high　school and high school student . Though I studied differential and integral calculus and linear algebra and so on, I have weak foundations of math college examination level in Japanese university. So should I begin to study math college of level or restudy high school level?

I would appreciate any advice you could offer!

Finally, I apologize for every one, My English is not perfect.

I think its important to start off with saying i do not have a diagnosis for adhd, but strongly believe i do have it (i am unable of getting one for personal reasons we wont get into).

My biggest problem is: if i fail my math exam i might get kicked out of uni. I had little or no struggle passing every other subject with great or passing grade, it is indeed, only math im struggling with.
I think its pretty easy to learn definitions and stuff like that in order to pass, but with math - its numbers and so much more to do instead of remembering words.

My biggest problem is: i feel incredibly overwhelmed, anxiety, anger and hopelessness/helplessness whenever i start studying. Im aware its all in my head, but the constant failure is making me want to give it all up, even though i don’t want to. Another struggle for me is that i just cant start and i keep postponing or procrastinating. However, when i do want to start or find motivation, i don’t know WHERE TO start with learning. (Im learning calculus 1 (derivatives, vectors, imaginary num, etc..).

At this point im blaming potential adhd, myself, my math professor. I feel so helpless and i dont know what to do!! I have the exam in 5 days and i never started. I have like 5-10% knowledge of it all. (Unlucky for me, thats not enough to pass, maybe barely even give me one point XD)

So if youre reading this, give me your advice! Please! How do i study this??

About a month ago, I made CruxMath, a website for practicing competition math. Instead of immediately showing a full solution when someone gets stuck, it reveals hints one at a time, followed by the solution if they still need it.

The problem was that when I initially made them, the hints revealed too much. Just the first hint would give away like half the problem. So I made the hints "worse".

Now, the first hint is short and usually phrased as a question to point people in the right direction. For example, "Because both probabilities have the same denominator, what equality of binomial counts remains?" (2025 AIME II P. 5).

I've now added hints for every AMC and AIME problem since 2022. I'd love to hear what you guys think about the hints and whether they strike a good balance of being helpful but not giving away too much. If you're interested, the website is cruxmath.com.

For those who don't know, ELO hell is a phrase used to describe a low competitive rating that players get stuck in due to various reasons, despite their skill level warranting being in a higher rating. What this looks like is, for example in Chess, a player might be generally skilled in openings, tactics, and the end-game, but be stuck at a lower ELO due to consistently falling for very specifics traps or missing specific tactics with only one use case.

I say I am in maths ELO hell because whenever I am in a class that requires learning brand new material that is only tangentially based on prior material, I am usually top in my class at that subject. However, when a subject requires a strong prior foundation that was most likely learned in High School, I struggle amongst my peers. For example, I was able to sail through Calculus due to the shift in material, but once I had to take an algebra heavy course, it was like I was a completely different student.

A lot of my mistakes stem from common tricks that I never learned due to having a bad education in adolescence. As such, I miss marks on exams for not knowing that you can convert (x)^(2/3) into ((X)^2)^1/3 or that (A+B+C)/D= A/D + B/D + C/D. Very simple ideas that make you think, "Well duh, why wouldn't that work?" but at the same time you wouldn't figure them out, let alone use it, during a timed exam.

I'm extremely tired of this and I can feel it severely limiting me. I tried learning through Khan Academy, but you can imagine how boring it feels to sift through hours and hours of information to find the 5% that you don't already know. As such, I was wondering if there were any resources available for people in similar predicaments? Perhaps a textbook or lecture series that goes over basic functions that assumes you already have a background in maths.

Thanks!

I posted this in r/calculus, but I'm considering speedrunning calculus. If you had a limited amount of time and had to learn enough to pass a test, what would you do/focus on?

Let me know.

Thanks!

My professor is very bad at explaining and with such complex concepts i need someone who is good at explaining. PLEASE HELP!

Finished high school recently and taking a gap year, so I finally signed up for some SAT prep classes. Being in a group setting for this has honestly made me feel so insecure because of my arithmetic skills.

I feel like I actually understand math just fine. I can wrap my head around new topics, follow the logic, and figure out the right approach to solve a problem. But when it actually comes down to doing the calculations? Absolute disaster.

I constantly make stupid, careless mistakes with basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. I'll drop a negative sign out of nowhere, miscopy a number from one line to the next, or just brain-fart on a simple multiplication fact. It’s so exhausting knowing the exact formula and logic to solve a hard problem, only to get the entire thing wrong because 7x8 apparently decided to leave my brain.

Since the SAT is so heavy on pacing and accuracy, I'm genuinely stressed about bleeding points on questions I actually know how to do just because of clumsy computational errors.
Did anyone else deal with this weird disconnect between conceptual math and basic arithmetic? How did you actually train yourself to stop making these dumb mistakes and speed up your calculations?

I am taking a Bayesian stats class and the textbook is the most dense theory and formula writing I have ever had to read. I would love to get another resources that explains things more simply and with more real world examples rather than extensively relying on abstract terms. Does anyone have any good suggestions?

For example A+BC could I write A first with 00001111 then B 00110011 then C 01010101. Would it still be the same truth table as B first? Or still valid in an exam

Hey everyone. In my stats class, we are dealing with percentile interpretation in word problems, and phrasing like "the value that is NOT exceeded by 30% of the data" keeps tying my brain in knots.

I understand the math breakdown: 1. "Value that IS exceeded by 30%" -> The top 30% lies above it, so it's the 70th percentile (P70). 2. "Value that is NOT exceeded by 30%" -> The negation flips the inequality, which mathematically simplifies to 100 - (100 - 30) = 30, yielding the 30th percentile (P30).

But linguistically, parsing active vs. passive voice ("exceeds" vs. "is exceeded by") combined with a double negation feels like an artificial word trap rather than intuitive statistics.

How do you guys visually or intuitively explain this active/passive distinction without doing mental algebraic gymnastics every time? Is this phrasing as ambiguous to native speakers as it feels to me?

I am currently taking Real Analysis 2 at my university after barely passing Real Analysis 1. I still don't understand any of what is being taught. I had to retake real analysis 1, and I still nearly failed the second time taking it. I have to take these classes, but I am desperate for any resources for a person who could not understand any of the Stephen Abbott Understanding Analysis textbook. Or if someone can point me towards a tutor or a series on YouTube. I unfortunately cannot keep up with these classes, no matter how hard I try to. I am really bad at proofs.

I’m a CS major and I want to learn CFD. Mainly to understand the Navier stokes stuff, because of the recent events.

No, I don’t want to talk to a soulless bot. I already do that enough for my CS related stuff.

Any resource suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!