Reflections on math
Okay, I lied. One more post before bedtime.
I've just spent the last 40 minutes or so doing math. It was quite simple math, all things considered, probably the equivalent of grade 9 stuff: linear (1-variable) equations and inequalities, stuff like that.
To put things in perspective, I have not done any serious math since I graduated cepep about 6 years ago. At the time, however, it was my best subject. I did 3 math courses in cegep, all with science students (once with first-choice science students), and didn't get below a 99% in any of them.
So you'll understand that it comes as something of a shock to me how much I've forgotten. I used to do differential and integral calculus with ease. Now I found I've forgotten formulae from 9th-grade linear equations. Don't I feel foolish.
It is a humbling experience to realize how much I don't remember in only 6 years. It shouldn't shock me, I suppose: I remember almost nothing of my high school Hebrew and Yiddish, and I'm rapidly losing the Latin I'd gotten to such a high level less than a year ago. Math is a kind of language, in a way, and the knowledge degrades if you don't use it, just like any other languages.
The good news is that, given my natural aptitude and my former training, it should come back relatively quickly. The book I've got is quite useful, and it goes all the way up to Cal 2. If I do an hour or so a day, I should be back up to speed within 6 months, possibly sooner. I went at the rate of about 2 minutes per problem tonight, but it was easy stuff that didn't require much thinking once I remembered the equations. There are 1000 questions in the book. The goal is to be back at the top of my game by the start of the fall semester. Fingers crossed!
I've just spent the last 40 minutes or so doing math. It was quite simple math, all things considered, probably the equivalent of grade 9 stuff: linear (1-variable) equations and inequalities, stuff like that.
To put things in perspective, I have not done any serious math since I graduated cepep about 6 years ago. At the time, however, it was my best subject. I did 3 math courses in cegep, all with science students (once with first-choice science students), and didn't get below a 99% in any of them.
So you'll understand that it comes as something of a shock to me how much I've forgotten. I used to do differential and integral calculus with ease. Now I found I've forgotten formulae from 9th-grade linear equations. Don't I feel foolish.
It is a humbling experience to realize how much I don't remember in only 6 years. It shouldn't shock me, I suppose: I remember almost nothing of my high school Hebrew and Yiddish, and I'm rapidly losing the Latin I'd gotten to such a high level less than a year ago. Math is a kind of language, in a way, and the knowledge degrades if you don't use it, just like any other languages.
The good news is that, given my natural aptitude and my former training, it should come back relatively quickly. The book I've got is quite useful, and it goes all the way up to Cal 2. If I do an hour or so a day, I should be back up to speed within 6 months, possibly sooner. I went at the rate of about 2 minutes per problem tonight, but it was easy stuff that didn't require much thinking once I remembered the equations. There are 1000 questions in the book. The goal is to be back at the top of my game by the start of the fall semester. Fingers crossed!