Study Mathematics Like a Champ

Study Mathematics Like a Champ

Get interested in Mathematics

It is a proven fact that if you are interested in learning a eld, you will be eective in actually learning it. Youd nd the process not just easy, but also fullling and fun. This leads us to our rst strategy: get interested in Maths. Dont look at it as something you have to do (for whatever reason), but genuinely want and choose to do. Teachers and parents often patronisingly speak of students as horses. You can take a horse to the water, but you cant make it drink it, they say. And they dont mean horse in a good way either - thus you are not a stud, stallion, Pegasus or anything nearly as cool. You are a beast that must be somehow tricked into doing things that are good for you. But youre quite demonstrably not a horse. Youre a human. Just walk up to the water, realise that its one of the nicest things on Earth, and drink it. Dont wait for some uber-Guru to materialise and magically inspire you to learn your subject. Boldly assume role as your own teacher, and inspire yourself. I assure you that this is a ne habit to get into. This is all well and good. But why would anyone want to study Maths? Here are some points for you to ponder: 1. As a eld of study, Mathematics is in a class of its own. Its the most abstract of sciences, and its concepts and ideas are often said to be the touchstones simultaneously of rigour, truth, elegance and beauty. Mathematics is one of mankinds greatest achievements, and Mathematical knowledge forms an important part of your literacy - your education is incomplete without it. This alone is justication enough for you to pursue its study in earnest. Its one of the few things truly worth doing in life. 2. Learning Mathematics improves your ability to work with abstract ideas. Basically, over the period of a few years youre being exposed to abstractions and techniques that took some really smart humans over 4000 years to discover and perfect. These range from your decimals, fractions, arithmetic, geometry, algebra to calculus, complex numbers, set theory, and probability. Lap it all up while you can. Itll do you good! 3. Learning Mathematics hones your problem solving skills. Humans are (admittedly among other things) thinkers and problem solvers. Mathematics is an ecient way to build up your thinking and problem solving skills, because doing Maths means applying concepts and solving problems. The vigorous mental work required in certain problems will come in handy later. The key is to seek to learn problem solving skills directly, rather than indirectly. 4. Mathematics is unreasonably eective in a wild array of elds. No matter which career path you opt for, chances are that a solid background in Mathematics will stand you in good stead. Most of the natural and social sciences and engineering elds are impossible without Mathematics, so its a hard requirement for those elds. Business and nance too require varying degrees of Maths. It is dicult to think of any course/career where it would not be welcomed in combination with other subjects. www.arunteachesmaths.com 1

Study Mathematics Like a Champ

If you want to tame Reality and make her do your bidding, you had better learn her language and acquire yourself some serious Maths chops. Oh, but you protest. Youre one of the artsier members of our species. Clearly Maths isnt really relevant in elds such as the humanities. Then why bother? Leave it to the eggheads to toil over such joyless things as number crunching. To this, I only oer an anecdotal rebuttal based on my experience with your tribe. Youre presumably sensitive to themes such as beauty and imagination. If you give up on your study of Mathematics now, a few decades down the road you will nd yourself looking wistfully at the subject, and wish you had taken some time to gain a basic grounding in it so that you could have some appreciation of its elegance and beauty. Ask yourself whether you want to risk such a deprivation.

Condence
The greater the condence with which you approach your eld, the easier it will be for you to master it. Here are a few points to help you along. 1. Dont be unnecessarily intimidated by Mathematics. Honestly, what is there to be afraid of? Your syllabus itself is as benign and inert as a punching bag, and has pretty much the same intent. It has been carefully designed with students of your age and ability in mind. There is an entire educational ecosystem to prepare you in the subject. You have plenty of time to master the topics. You are a intelligent human trying to study a subject that your own kind has created. The odds in this entire business are heavily in your favour. Get your gloves on, warm up a little, and start punching. Thats is all theres to it. 2. Do not use negative language with yourself. Do not dub yourself as a non-mathematical type or anything like that. This makes exactly as much sense as calling yourself a non-walker type. Stay positive even when you are unable to solve problems. Never say, I am not smart enough to solve problems like this. But try, What do I need to know in order to solve this?, or The concepts are a bit unwieldy right now, but once I am uent with the topic, Ill breeze through similar problems. Its only a matter of time. You will every now and then come across problems that you are unable to solve. But these are opportunities for you to grow as a problem solver. Understand the solutions and techniques used, and make them your own. More on this in the section on problem solving. 3. Popular prejudices about Mathematics requiring superhuman levels of intelligence are pure horse-manure. To be world-class, above average caliber is required in any eld, not just Mathematics. But were not exactly aiming to be Arnold Schwarzeneggers here, only to build healthy physiques that will last us a lifetime. This is perfectly achieveable. At the school level, I guarantee you that you have what it takes to gain a thorough mastery of your syllabus. 4. Do not mistake your unfamiliarity with the subject for its inherent diculty. Just because you are unfamiliar with something doesnt mean that its dicult. Alphabets and writing were new to you once, but they are second nature to you now. Similarly, much of what you learn in Maths are building blocks for further skills. With practice, they will start to feel natural.

Focus and concentration

Be aware of when and how you lose your concentration. 1. External stimulii. TV, Computers, Music, Mobile Phones, Parents, Hunger pangs. www.arunteachesmaths.com 2

Study Mathematics Like a Champ

2. Diculty level of the subject causes uneasiness. This topic is dicult. Youd rather not tackle it now - but without tackling this, you cannot proceed. Try to see if theres something about the topic that can be learnt. You neednt understand it 100% - 30% will do just as ne. Let the concepts mellow in your mind, and come back later. 3. You keep asking yourself, why am I doing this? 4. Thoughts arise that seek to pull you in. Fantasies where you play a central character. 5. Worries and TTDs. Things that you should do.

Procrastination
1. Be aware of your behavuior when you procrastinate. 2. Dont plan for marathon study sessions, but focus on getting started. Just get to the starting ritual. 3. If you must procrastinate, procrastinate creatively. 1. Strive to make what you learn meaningful. Your teachers and tutors will be able to help you with this. The internet is also a terric resource. Specically, (a) Understand the intutions behind the Mathematical concepts you learn. Its a historical fact that ALL Mathematical concepts began as intuitions. Over a long period of time, these intuitions were formalised into their present day forms. In the classroom, however, we are presented with the formalisms rst. This may be a concise way to present the subject, but it has the unfortunate tendency to cloud the intuition behind the formalism. The remedy is to think about the historical development of the ideas and why intelligent humans bothered to pursure them in the rst place. (b) Keep rote learning to the minimum. Ask yourself why things are the way they are. For e.g., why does the derivative of a function give the slope of the tangent to the functions curve? Why is the tangent to a circle perpendicular to the radius at the point of contact? Where does the binomial theorem come from? Can you derive the Eulers formula, eix = cos x + i sin x? Why does f (ax) shrink the graph of f (x) along the x-axis for a > 1? And so on. (c) Relate new knowledge to knowledge you already have. Seek out interrelations between the topics you learn. 2. Make the most out of your study sessions. (a) When you study, approach the task with the intention to remember. The dierence is similar to that between simply brushing your teeth, and brushing your teeth with the intention to clean them. You will do a much better job in the latter case. (b) You can greatly enhance your ability to remember facts by understanding the following. i. Concepts that are meaningful and logical are easier to remember than concepts that are seemingly arbitrary. This is why its important for you to get an intuitive sense of the ideas. ii. Your memory trace of any subject slowly decays over time. Studies have shown that spaced repetition of the concepts you learn stems this decay. Use study planners for this. A corollary to the above is to learn to revise eciently. Concise guides with a liberal use of highlighters and custom notes help you cut down your revision times. (c) Mathematical concepts are TOOLs, not FACTS or INFORMATION. Cognitive tools, but tools nonetheless. Learn them in the same way as you would learn to use any other tools - by using them. www.arunteachesmaths.com 3

Study Mathematics Like a Champ

(d) Mathematics is cumulative. Ensure that basics are sound or they will continue to irritate you throughout your study. (e) Study actively. i. When you learn Maths, always have a paper and pen at hand. Reviewing what you learn midway by writing out the concepts and drawing gures is a terric way to get ideas to stick in your mind. ii. Recite the concepts as you read them. Lets say you read a new concept in the book. Try to cover the page and recall what you have just read. Ask yourself whether you have understood the meaning of what you just read. Try to state the content in your own words. iii. Once you have a good idea of the main points in a lesson, prepare concise notes summarising the topic. These notes will function as triggers for you to recall the contents later when you review them.

Remembering Math formulas

Memory (it turns out) is not a thing that resides in our brain, but is closer to a process in nature - remembering is an activity that we do. We take steps to recall the facts that were trying to recall. When trying to recall formulae (or theorems or identities), very often you will nd that you can recall some aspect of the the formula but certain details are missing or ambiguous. For example, you might remember that the derivative of cos has a sin appearing in it, but you cannot recall whether cos (x) = sin(x) or cos (x) = sin(x). Or you might remember that tan(A + B ) is a fraction that has tan(A) tan(B ) and tan(A) tan(B ) appearing 1 tan(A) tan(B ) tan(A) tan(B ) or tan(A + B ) = , in it, but you cannot pin-point whether tan(A + B ) = tan(A) tan(B ) tan(A) + tan(B ) or something else altogether. 1. Know the derivation. Formula for distance between two points. Division formula. 2. Understand the implication. What does the formula say? E.g., the gamma function is the factorial function. The normal distribution is the bell curve. It is symmetrical about the Y-axis. The Chi-square distribution is a special case of the gamma distribution. 3. Study the general case. Cylinder is a special prism, cone is a special pyramid. 4. Consider the special cases. Distance of a point from the line. When the point is on the line, the distance is zero. When the line is parallel to the X or Y axis, the distance must make sense. d u dx v 5. Dimensional analysis. Formulae for standard deviation must have the same dimensions as that of the random variable. Herons formula for area. 6. Consider symmetry. Intuitively, we say that an object is symmetrical if it is proportional and balanced in some sense.

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Study Mathematics Like a Champ

For example, triangle ABC is isoceles, with AB = AC . It is symmetrical with respect to the altitude from A to BC , AD: the triangle would be indistinguishable from the image formed by reecting it about AD. Similarly, a circle is symmetric under reection about any of its diameters. A

a d b D c = 90 C

Taking this further, we say that something is symmetric under an operation when it has some property that doesnt change due to the operation. In particular, algebraic expressions exhibit symmetry if certain terms in them can be interchanged without aecting the numerical value of the expression. A few examples: (a) Consider two walls, one of height a and width b, and the other of height b and width a. The area of the walls are given by S = a b. If you switch the a and b, you get the same result: S = b a. This is as expected: the area of a wall doesnt change if you lift it up place it on its side - i.e, you switch its height and width. You should therefore expect that the formula that gives the area of the wall will be symmetrical with respect to its height and width. (b) Consider two cylinders, C 1 and C 2. C 1 has a radius of a cm and height of b cm, while C 2 has a radius of b cm and height of a cm. C 1s lateral surface area is given by, S = 2ab, and C 2s lateral surface area is given by S = 2ba i.e., the expression is symmetrical with respect to a and b, or the two cylinders have the same lateral surface area. You can intuitively see why this is the case if you consider that you can get the lateral surface of C 1 by curling a rectangular sheet of length 2a cm and height b cm, and that of C 2 by curling a rectangular sheet of length 2b cm and height a cm. Both sheets have the same area. Now take the volume of the cylinders, V 1 = a2 b, and V 2 = b2 a. If you switch a and b, you end up with a dierent expression. That is, the expression is not symmetrical with respect to the radius and height - the two cylinders have dierent volumes. (c) The expression a + b and a b are symmetrical with respect to a and b because multiplication and addition are commutative. However, a b and a b are not symmetrical with respect to a and b, since division and subtraction are not commutative. 7. Get used to them. 8. Rhythm and mnemonics. Often I nd that the initial start of the formula, and the rest follows.

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