Mathematics Stack Exchange
Mathematics Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [advice]

Questions asking for advice on various mathematical matters. Be careful that your question is answerable, and also that it is not a polling question (e.g. "What is the best / your favorite way to...").

Questions asking for advice on various mathematical matters. Be careful that your question is answerable, and also that it is not a polling question (e.g. "What is the best / your favorite way to...").

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What are some good math specific study habits?

What are/ were some of your good mathematician's study habits that you found really worked for you? I'm a CS major at a respected school and have a solid GPA... However, I definitely lack when it comes to getting great grades in relatively higher…
Matt
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When working proof exercises from a textbook with no solutions manual, how do you know when your proof is sound/acceptable?

When working proof exercises from a textbook with no solutions manual, how do you know when your proof is sound/acceptable? Often times I "feel" as if I can write a proof to an exercise but most of those times I do not feel confident that the…
user46372819
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What are some of the Websites/web-tools which must be a part of every mathematician's arsenal?

What are some of the web-tools which must be a part of every mathematician's arsenal? Tools which help mathematicians research, solve problems or even collaborate together! Here is a list I gathered. Many among you may already know these, But still,…
Aatmaj
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How to be a successful math undergraduate student?

I am an undergratuate student in my first year of combined bachelor of electrical engineering and bachelor of mathematics. For my mathematics degree, this year I am supposed to take two math courses and for both the required textbook is Stewart…
user127151
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Understanding mathematics imprecisely

For a long time, it has been a complete mystery to me how any of my peers understood any math at all with anything short of filling in every detail, being careful about every set theoretic detail down to the axioms. That's a slight exaggeration,…
Jeff
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Spotting crankery

Underwood Dudley published a book called mathematical cranks that talks about faux proofs throughout history. While it seems to be mostly for entertainment than anything else, I feel it has become more relevant in modern mathematics. Especially with…
Eugene
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Perspectives on Riemann Surfaces

So, I have come to a somewhat impasse concerning my class selection for next term, and I have exhausted all the 'biased' sources. So, I was wondering if anyone in this fantastic mathematical community has any input on the matter. Next term I would…
Alex Youcis
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How much time is too much (to put into a single problem)?

As a self-studier, I have no due dates and no time pressure. This is partly a good thing since I do have a life outside of my pursuit of mathematics. However, the lack of pressure is also a bad thing, as I often do not progress as quickly as I…
Alex Petzke
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How long to do math each day?

I have seen some posts math.SE (mkko's answer) indicating that it is the norm for (undergrad?) math majors to study 70-80 hours per week. I'm a little bit shocked by that. For some background on me, I'm not very advanced (only finished calculus 1-3…
Ovi
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How to develop patience in mathematics?

How to develop the patience in mathematics? When you read the books like Rudin, Conway, etc., it takes a lot of time for one problem; sometimes $10$ hours each. I usually devote one problem for $30$ minutes. If I can't solve the problem within…
jasmine
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Becoming Better at Math

How can I become excellent at math? It really interests me but when I fail I become demotivated and begin to give up. EDIT: Could anyone suggest books for someone with a math education that just barely touches on high-school Algebra (got into…
user145271
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Cool mathematics I can show to calculus students.

I am a TA for theoretical linear algebra and calculus course this semester. This is an advanced course for strong freshmen. Every discussion section I am trying to show my students (give them as a series of exercises that we do on the blackboard)…
Sasha Patotski
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Why should "graph theory be part of the education of every student of mathematics"?

Until recently, I thought that graph theory is a topic which is well-suited for math olympiads, but which is a very small field of current mathematical research with not so many connections to "deeper" areas of mathematics. But then I stumbled over…
Dominik
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How to use math textbooks

I'm a higher schooler who was recently gifted a book by my teacher (Schaum's outline of advanced calculus) which is really awesome and I've started working my way through it. I have run into a problem though. It is so incredibly different from high…
AdamAdams
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Efficient ways to read and learn a new topic

I started reading the book "Topology without tears" by Sidney A Morris and lecture notes on "Elementary Number Theory" by WWL.Chen. To get the maximum out of the book and understand the material completely and thoroughly, I started to write the…
Adhvaitha
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