Self Teaching, and entering University.

[twofish-quant]

Because I believe staring at a screen is no substitute for human interaction in a classroom.

The thing about a lot of university courses is that you really don't get that much human interaction. One thing that's good about online education is that you can get human interaction that you otherwise would not get.

It's also just my experience from taking two online classes before that were both garbage compared to normal classes.

I've taking face to face classes that were garbage compared to online classes.

 

[twofish-quant]

Ok this is so stupid. No offense but people who actually try to teach themselves mathematics by themselves are idiots.

Well then I'm an idiot. I've been struggling to teach myself co-homology theory and algebraic topology for the last few months, and I *finally* understood the musical isomorphism and what a co-chain is.

POINT IS, DON'T DO MATH BY YOURSELF. YOU'RE SHOOTING YOURSELF IN THE FOOT.

You do run into a problem. What happens when there is no one to teach you because there isn't a human being alive that understands what you are trying to learn?

 

[Mathnomalous]

Personally, I find learning to be a very individual activity. For some odd reason the classes I seem to enjoy and do better in are the ones where the professors simply suck; the professor "explains" something, I get confused, and at the end of the day I'm forced to head to the library/internet to figure out exactly what the professor was talking about. After trial and error, I generally end up with a decent understanding of what the topic was.

Regarding online classes, I find them inferior not because there's anything wrong with them but because I would get easily distracted knowing I still have access to facebook or the WoW forums.

 

[Sankaku]

I just relate everyything to bjj.

Math is not anything like BJJ, dude. I have trained for over 25 years in the martial arts and agree that you cannot train alone. However, math is not a system of skills designed to be used on another human. No comparison.

 

[Scribner]

Thank you everyone for your honest opinions, and advice. I did try, perhaps not my best.

The challenge of learning this subject for me, is the reward. If I can succeed, even better. I'm looking into getting some formal education (Tutor, Community Learning Centre's, etc.) on some of your advice, which I am very grateful for.

@Mathnomalous - I agree 100% with your statement on the 'mystical' aspect of the tougher Maths. I for one, fell to the understanding that very few, very intelligent people could do physics, or calculus.I fell under a curse of de-motivation to learn the maths, also hearing in the classroom quite frequently "What the heck do I need Calculus for?" among other comments never helped. That is perhaps why it seems only a 'select few' can ever succeed.

There is no reason why people shouldn't understand this subject more. In Ontario Canada (my current home), a senior math is not required to graduate (You do NOT need Grade 12 Math in any form). I think this causes a lot of people to dismiss the subject. For someone like me this was great, it kept my average up, and let me focus on things I knew I would do very well in. But looking back now I regret not taking senior math. Looking back on High School the Math classes were always filled with the same few people.

To me, math is another language. It offers a deeper understanding to the functioning of life, and the universe as a whole. And the reasoning behind me doing this. Or perhaps I'm a masochist (I kid, I kid).

Sorry for the rant.

Thank you all for responding and reading, all the best!

 

[Scribner]

@Kramer#'s

I respect your honesty, but disagree. I think self-teaching is an integral part of education. Perhaps not subjects that give you as much as trouble as math gives me. My experience doing this is testing the length of my understanding. I'm beginning, albeit extremely slowly to understand something that at one point seemed nigh impossible.

It's been a refreshing, enjoyable, challenging experience but otherwise extremely satisfactory.

edit- I do not mean to making a sweeping statement that everyone should study and attempt to learn subject outside educational institutions, but that it's a very rewarding experience for those that are motivated to commit to it.

By integral to education, I mean that home-studying is very important. Studying, and educating yourself alone I find is very useful to better understand what you are capable of in certain subjects. I can see where this is bad for some, especially if the subject is a rather hard one for the individual to grasp.

 

[tauKlav]

I am in a similar situation, so maybe my experiences may help you somehow. In the past two years I've developed an intense appreciation/interest in the sciences. During high school I was afflicted with an apathy for all my classes, so obviously my maths/sciences suffered (I did the bare minimum to graduate).
I've been attempting to catch up on lost time by taking the high school courses through distance learning. I also immerse myself in scientific material (I find memorization to be frustrating/boring, so I hope when when I start classes my brain will be better at matching names to definitions if it's used to hearing them). I try to save the "juicy" lectures/books/interviews for when my willpower begins to wane. At that point I give myself a break and go play in the sandbox with sagan, degrasse, feynman, etc.
You should also try and find some people with who you can discuss the things you're learning. I'm not a very social person, but I can still appreciate the effects that conversations can have. It's, at the very least, a great reinforcing tool.
I probably share any and all doubt you've felt. I'm very persuasive when it comes to convincing myself that I'll fail. I've managed to come to a truce with myself, though. If I'm persuasive enough to make myself fail, I'm persuasive enough to make myself succeed. I'll reevaluate my goals if I still fail, but until then there is no point to thinking these things.

ps: I'd like to give a shoutout to these boards. When the doubts set in, it's comforting to know that there's people who share the same passion.

 

[dmatador]

You do run into a problem. What happens when there is no one to teach you because there isn't a human being alive that understands what you are trying to learn?

I agree, but I think one stipulation needs to be made: you shouldn't try to teach yourself math if you are incompetent (or in the OP's case just inexperienced). You are clearly able to learn given enough time and effort put forth, but if one's attempts at self-teaching lead only to confusion and bad habits, then help from others is needed. But to call someone an idiot for trying to learn math on their own is a little ignorant. Also, I shred on the guitar.

 

[theJorge551]

Ok this is so stupid. No offense but people who actually try to teach themselves mathematics by themselves are idiots. Yes it's a respectable "accomplishment" (i use accomplishment for a word i can't think of right now) but i have a question for you.

GO TO A COMMUNITY COLLEGE AND GET HELP FROM THEIR TEACHERS. I could never have taught mathematics by myself. The difference between somebody who gets properly schooled and teaching themselves is huge.


POINT IS, DON'T DO MATH BY YOURSELF. YOU'RE SHOOTING YOURSELF IN THE FOOT.

I'm sorry, but quite frankly I'm offended by this. I am 16, going into my junior year of high school (after both parents losing their jobs, I managed to impress a private school in Manhattan to the point where they gave me a $36,000 scholarship for tuition) and in order to catch up with my peers I need to have already known 2 years more worth of math than I already had. At the beginning of the summer, there were no review classes for Precalculus and Calculus I so the math department head at the school basically handed me a book and told me to learn everything in it by the end of the summer, to take a placement test. I began, with absolutely no guidance from anyone else, and now know precalculus as well as the first 2 years of calculus (going beyond what she told me). My test is in over a month and I'm already more than prepared. I am now even able to follow most undergraduate level physics classes with respect to the math that is introduced (my true passion) because of this. You tell me, am I an idiot for teaching myself this?

And, simply because you couldn't teach yourself mathematics does not mean in the slightest that nobody else should be able to. I love math, and it feels like quite the opposite of shooting myself in the foot, thank you very much.

 

[jf22901]

Ok this is so stupid. No offense but people who actually try to teach themselves mathematics by themselves are idiots.

<snip>

GO TO A COMMUNITY COLLEGE AND GET HELP FROM THEIR TEACHERS. I could never have taught mathematics by myself. The difference between somebody who gets properly schooled and teaching themselves is huge...

<snip>

POINT IS, DON'T DO MATH BY YOURSELF. YOU'RE SHOOTING YOURSELF IN THE FOOT.

I don’t know if this counts as learning by yourself, but I did my physics degree part time, and never attended a lecture or had any face-to-face meetings with a tutor; it was all book work.

I was assigned a tutor for each course (who I could phone or email if I got stuck), and I had to complete assignments for each course which were marked by the tutor, but I was pretty much on my own. It was frustrating at times when I got stuck, and having something explained via email didn't always make things any clearer, but I managed, and am now about to start a PhD.

I went to a 'research school' last year (a week of talks/lectures/seminars for people considering PhDs) and I didn't get on with the lectures at all. I find it much easier to understand something if I'm sitting in a nice peaceful room with a book, learning at my own pace, than sitting in a room listening to someone talk about it.

That's just me though, and everyone is different. However, if you've got the interest and determination, there is no reason why you can't learn anything on your own. (Although, if you want to put this knowledge to use, a bit of paper from a university saying what you've studied is a big help!)