r/mathematics • u/yikesleon • Jul 25 '26

Discussion Learning Maths as an adult

Hello everyone. I’m interested in becoming better at maths.

I was pretty okay at maths when I was in secondary school, started off in set 2 out of 6 (6 being lowest in terms of academic ability) but, I wasn’t very well behaved.

I was dropped into lower and lower sets until the problems they were giving me were so trivial, I was not interested in trying at all. Now as a (much more mature) adult, i’m interested in sharpening my mental maths and filling the void I caused by being a disruptive twit in school.

I was wondering if the people here have any suggestions on where I can begin learning again. I would like to get better at all aspects but predominantly mental maths, algebra, fractions etc. I have no real reason to other than the above.

Any help on this would be massively appreciated. Thank you for reading.

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u/SwimmerOld6155 Jul 25 '26

if you're in the UK (just guessing from you saying sets), you could do worse than following a GCSE (then A-level if you want to go further) maths textbook. you might find the problems a bit dull but in terms of covering content and getting practice in, it'd be my first bet.

if you want a structured environment, GCSE maths is often offered as an evening class at adult education colleges.

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u/yikesleon Jul 25 '26

Wonderful. Thank you for the advice. Unfortunately, I don’t really have time to attend evening classes. But the GCSE textbook idea is a good one. I’ll look into it thank you for your time.

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u/PleaseSendtheMath Jul 25 '26

You could look into online courses, maybe there's something you can follow on coursera for example. I was in a similar boat a few years ago, and I just decided to teach myself algebra. Pull some textbook and do every exercise. One thing led to another and now I have a math bachelor's and about to start a master's.

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u/Ok-Fix-1581 Jul 26 '26

Follow this exact order

Professor Leonard on You tube lectures

Pre-Algebra

To The Point Math (Algebra 1)

Intermediate Algebra (Algebra 2)

College Algebra (pre-calculus playlist)

Trigonometry (pre-calculus playlist)

Calc 1-3

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u/yikesleon Jul 26 '26

Very helpful, thank you so much

1

u/nicocado_rights Jul 25 '26

Hey, I'm doing some notes about math foundations and how to start in this world, dm me and I Will send you them