Han i really wanna know maths but i don't know how to study .i do listen to the teacher and i have all the things to learn maths but i do not know how to learn it by myself please help me i want to have good grades and stop being the dumb kid 🥴 in class and if i do not get good grades i will not go to STRAY KIDZ concert
In my case it is different i learn the concept and theory well then apply it or just reading will help me to find new ways to solve a problem. I have even found new formula etc....
i learned three things in this whole 15minutes, 1. don't try to solve a problem if you can't think of an approach before starting. 2. Keep yourself familiar with the problem like keep practicing until you automatically solve the problem before thinking of any approach(1st one), as you do basic calculations. 3. if you want to believe and stay confident and motivated you need to first start from the basics. -----correct me if i missed anything. Thank You!
@@Torocattt I don't know how you're relating yourself to me since you seem to be saying that math is easy for you and that you love it but alright 😭 7th grade is about 13yo I think right? What're you learning rn? :))
@Abcdghii I'm learning about angles, transversal, alternative interior and exterior, co interior and exterior angles etc etc, pretty easy but just a bit confusing, I got my half yearly marks and I got a 75/80 !! :) (dumb mistakes lol)
@@Torocattt I didn't understand any of this (I'm not learning in English and also don't go to school haha) but you seem to know what you're talking about!! I'm also doing angles n stuff, trigonometry 😮💨 How are you doing in other subjects? :D
as someone who is considered good at math, I agree. I literally do not understand how I know what to do or why, I just know what to do next. the more I focus on why I know what comes next, the more I confuse myself. it’s actually really difficult for me to explain math to someone because i start confusing myself when they ask questions like “how” or “why”
Same. After 10th class when I was in 11th and 12th I struggled a lot with advanced problems of any topic.(In India jee entrance exam has crazy difficult math)I tried the methods in various youtube videos about learning how to approach a particular problem but then I would remember that for my entirety of time till 10th I would just somehow know what to do and not think about the approach as much. For now I am in college and it seems like I have gotten back my talent of knowing what to do in every problem subconsciously.
I'd argue that it's important to understand the hows and whys if you want to go far in math, but there is some merit in taking things at face value just to get through certain parts until you do understand things more deeply. On some level, the more basic the concept is then yes there's not but so much to explain as to why even if you tried...but the more advanced concepts are built upon a collection of those fundamental basic concepts.
I believe if you want to become really high level, it is necessary to know all the underlying proofs and details of the maths you practice. For succeeding in school, which doesn’t have creative or ingenuitive test problems like the olympiads, just applying what you learn at a face value will be enough.
I wish I could just let go of the need to understand every step, and just learn what comes after. As such, I almost understand every step, and the why and how behind it, but I don’t recommend it😂
It was David Hilbert who famously said nobody ever understands math you just get used to it. He was a top mathematician/ professor in the early twentieth century.
@@Grassmpl except for the fact that he's just plain wrong on that note you can understand it. its true, which means there is something there that can be understood this is different from just being able to do the math by resorting to using true facts (e.g. pythagorean theorem), and building up on those but if you truly understand math then you can create everything from scratch, on your own, if you were alone on a desert island and no internet
Yes of course you can, but trying to understand math us wayy harder than just doing it, which sounds wrong, but you would see that people that are good at math dont understand it, if you go to a school and ask the prom what does an X elevated to the power of two means, maybe 1 or two students will answers you, but if you give them a cyadratic equation they know how to solve it
The point is to understand the concept and theory the questions want you to know, it doesn't matter whether you can solve the problem by looking at the answer or not!
there's kind of two sides to this. Sometimes it can be really helpful to reverse-engineer the solution after looking at the answer, but you also want to build your critical thinking skills. Becoming overly reliant on having the answers in my experience makes you check out when you don't know what to do on a hard problem, but an important part of being good at maths is having the ability to persevere through being stuck and trying different things.
If you want to learn maths as a set of tools you can use in everyday life then you probably just need to know how to apply existing theory, but if you want to have a deeper understanding and be able to solve new problems you need to practice finding a way through not knowing what to do.
This is crazy.. I stayed up all night doing math problems, just got done and decided to hop on yt before I go to bed only to see this as my first recommended video. It is 7:41am right now for context lol
you're basically doing hours of work for nothing since staying up fucks with your hormones (dopamine levels cannot be regulated and testosterone dips badly) your vision and digestive system take seat back to compensate (you won't digest very well and your eye will tire and dry out faster) you lose muscle mass since there is no repairing or building only breaking down cramming has been proven to not work, it's way better to use spaced repetition and active recall Please don't do this again, it's not worth it as you're not even making $ doing it
@@crazytimesman it's rare to meet those who do math as a hobby. I wish you the best with it! just don't stay up too late, it must be fascinating though :)
The feyman technique actually works. I remember being in 8th grade and I wasn't rly a good student, always had low to medium grades. I was studying for a Cience test and I just happened to be so bored that I pretended to speak to an audience using the mirror in my room. I liked it so much i just kept doing it. Test day comes along I got a 98/100, highest grade I've ever gotten. Since then I just kept doing it without knowing that it was a technique.
This is so relatable. I'm bad at math. But I've managed to get a bachelor's in physics and the technique you're talking about of initially giving up on the hard problems and then walking through its solution really works like a charm! I did that significantly and my math improved quite a lot.
@@syedanaushabinzakirkhan20p50 Hey there! Would you mind giving some more tips how you studied and got good grades for math during ur physics degree? I'm thinking about studying physics but I'm scared of failing math. Your help would be very much appreciated :)
@@iiSxmz Hi! I can totally understand what you are feeling. From very early on I was interested in physics, I knew I had to make a career in it. The only problem was math. But gradually, in my highschool I tried making friends with math, what I mean by that is I practiced as much as possible and I focussed on the logical part, the memorisation part is a) not necessary, b) comes along for a ride if you practice enough. So, the moral is 1) Don't be scared of the problem, just in the back of your head remember that if there is a problem there surely will be a solution. 2) Practice makes perfect. 3) You can't necessarily solve all the problems, you can skim through the solution of a significantly hard problem and deal with it later. I hope this helps and good luck with your physics career!
My teacher had convinced me that nothing could improve my chronic mathophobia. But thank god youtube had faith in me and recommended this. Thanks Han ❤
@@brownie_09 Barbara Oakley, an engineering professor who also had a math phobia has a free class on coursera called ‘learning how to learn’. She has authored books as well on everything to do with math.
Here’s how my son got good at math: Practice, practice, practice. I bought him an older edition of his calculus textbook because I could also buy the complete teacher’s solution manual. He didn’t really use it during the first semester. Consequently when second semester began he didn’t have confidence about his first semester knowledge. So my son proceeded do Calc I all over again by doing every problem in the book. At first he would get most of them wrong. But by having the step-by-step solution to every problem he soon discovered that some of the concepts had had wrong and that he had a tendency to make the same “mental” errors such as not paying close attention to negative signs. But the bonus learning thing for him was by seeing the methods professional mathematicians used step-by-step, it taught him how to employ the same patterns of problem solving. In just one semester (although it required two hours every day for the entire semester) he taught himself how to be good at math. Now people think he’s a kind of math genius. Calc II and III and differential equations were easy for him.
I concur. I did not have advanced maths at undergrad (example differential equations). I found an engineering maths book because they are practical and come with solutions. By looking at the steps, I found patterns that often appeared (and I like finding patterns to solutions) and things began to click; in fact I thought of taking an advance class in math but for the way lecturers teach it: it put me off.
Everything can be achieved with tons of practice. But that's the thing. PRACTICE is hard to achieve and do lol. It takes an incredible amount of motivation and mental stability just to focus on practicing and practicing. Practice is hard
This video is so funny to me because I used every tip(+ a lil bit more) in this video to study when I was in my senior year of high school, but somehow I disregarded or forgot about them once I got to university. Now, as I'm self-learning code and math for computer science, I'm looking for ways to study efficiently and stumbled upon this video and as I am listening i realized, wait a minute, this sounds familiar. Damn. Thank you for this-I don't think I would have remembered these tips without your video.
The only way to come to this conclusion is to never take a proof-based course, not even geometry at school. Mathematics is born when intuition and rigor are reconciled. If you don't have a good intuition, you won't even know where to begin proving non-trivial results, nor will you be able to come up with plausible conjectures, but if you aren't rigorous with it you will inevitably overlook some edge case eventually.
@@pavlosurzhenko4048 The problem is HOW math is taught. Math, in and of itself can be approached from myriad directions. But the pressures and constraints of the average public school prioritizes fast completion of problems over in-depth understanding of the relationships. That is why many teachers fall back on shortcuts and tricks that leave gaps in students understanding of procedures.
Currently taking calculus 3 at my school after having taken Calculus 1&2 back in 2020 - yes it’s taking more time trying to catch up but the intuition I built in Linear Algebra & general math tutoring is somehow helping. It’s super frustrating when I have to start intuition from scratch.
I spend HOURS studying math, and a week later I can't remember anything I understood just a moment ago. I have developed my technique for learning by looking up the answer to an equation, writing it down, and then thinking HOW to get to that number. I am not sure, however, that this is an effective technique. Math is super frustrating for me, to this point when I'm literally crying over simple things. I always have to write down every number, while my friends just calculate them in their heads, which is really depressing. Thank you for help! I'm for sure gonna try everything you said in your video.
That’s a terrible and inefficient technique. Go to simpler problems, learn how they are solved and the reasoning. Practice them a lot and then build up from there
To be brutally honest with you might just be the most useful video i have watched in a while i just knew math was this way but did not accept the reality of it. However when someone else feels the same about it, it just shows that its you who has been limiting yourself. So thank you 🙏🏻
In this case the phrase brutally honest is out of place. It's used to prepare the reader for hard or even offensive truth/ observation. But you just said something very tame and normal, far from offensive. Hence the opening phrase being odd and out of place.
Honestly, thank you for this! I'm a middle school math teacher getting ready for my middle school kids to come in and learn math! I will show them this video during our orientation next week. Mostly because you clearly are really good at math if you graduated from Columbia with a math degree. But you actually had the SAME STRUGGLES that my gen ed and SpEd kids have. So seeing YOU, of all people, having the same problems they encounter with math will be gold. Thank you for this marvelous content!!!! Also they'll relate to the fork/mic thing you have going on there. It humanizes you! ;)
05:14 Better than checking the answer key: Compare the final result to the original problem. Plugging variables back into the original equation works well in Algebra especially. Doing this by habit makes exam scores go up, because there will be no answer key. In real world uses of mathematics there won't be an answer key, so checking the work should be part of the process and the last step of the process. Done with habit, this gets to be as automatic as following the algorithm is.
People who used to be bad at math are the best teachers, if good mathematicians knew how off the deep end most of us are they wouldn’t use math terminology or even say “ I knew the solution but tried to solve the problem “ most bad at math have no basic understanding what what that means or why it matters historically
If you can’t explain it to a 4th grader you don’t understand it well enough. Not always the case though for more advanced topics but a good rule to stand by.
the thing is, as a teacher, most children want to know the HOW of EVERYTHING and Math is like a story upside down :) so its difficult. I just approche it as a game! this are the rules, and then you have to play the game :) the end is getting a answer.
I’d say that I’ve always been decent in school. English is my strongest point while my weak point is maths. Well I’m in second set maths as I JUST passed over expected at 111 out of 120 in SATS but I feel like I lose brain cells or get a headache whenever I’m in those classes. I appreciate you making this vid to help others including me because I have serious math anxiety I feel like so nervous whenever we have a test because sometimes I feel behind compared to the rest of my class.
Von Neumann, who was famous for having incredible abilities in mental math. The seminars he was in would just rely on him to crunch numbers like a modern scientific calculator.
That is one of the silliest things von Neumann ever said. It's terrible advice in general, it's particularly bad in mathematics, and it's not how von Neumann did things compared with other people. He definitely understood things other people didn't. Yes, he also calculated rapidly, but we don't remember a million other people who also calculated rapidly without understanding (computer used to be a profession), we remember von Neumann for contributing his understanding of the fundamental structure of many things from game theory to set theory. It does make good clickbait, I guess, and a lot of people who don't understand mathematics will applaud, but it's not a step forward at all.
@@douglaszare1215 I'm majoring in math at Duke and I can try to explain what I got from the quote. Learning math is a constant and perhaps frustrating struggle but the satisfaction from a concept "clicking" is unparalleled. In some sense I might be addicted to math due to that. But, you never know when a concept will click, and you just carry on, sometimes with your understanding still at a rudimentary level, and sometimes in understanding a more involved theorem you realize the importance of a prior lemma. A professor of mine once said in math you can't wait to explore every possible nook and cranny of a foundational chapter/intro to a topic before you move on. You can't wait until your intuition is fully built before progressing, otherwise you will never make it too far. I've known linear algebra for more than 6 years now, and yet if I'm helping someone learn some concept, or looking through an old book, sometimes I'm still hit with a "wow, cool" feeling if I see things through a different perspective. I first learned analysis in 2022. It's been 2 years now, but I am still getting new insight from time to time. I'm currently taking algebraic geometry. It is CHALLENGING and my understanding is as patchy as the schemes we're learning about. Some people say it took them 4 passes through the subject to understand it truly well. So, all in all, in math you're never in a state of understanding. I guess this is the idea of mathematical maturity. Insight might come eventually, but until then you're just applying definitions and hoping (I STILL have a hard time with the Lie bracket and it's been 3.5 years now...).
Great advice! Im going to highschool and im so bad at maths and your words made me feel confident I hope anyone going through a rough time in school will overcome it and pass , praying for all 🙏
Thank you for this insightful video! Your tips on how to study math effectively are game-changing. I've already started applying some of your methods and can see a difference in my understanding and retention. Keep up the great work!
I might probably be a child when comparing with Han ( and more in comments ) at Mathematics, but Im studying Combined Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry for the 2026 GCE AL Examination. Your videos helped me to start learning Mathematics and work according to proper manner ( Definitely not a time table) . Im in love with Science and Mathematics and I spend nearly all the day studying these 2 beautiful subjects.
My biggest advice for anything is low amounts of challenging practice everyday. Your brain learns and adapts over a long period of time not by cram stduying huge loads in a singular day. Attitude and motivation are important and unhealthy practice creates animosity. Learning doesn't need to be terrible, but most people nake it terrible with their approach.
Looking up the answer and step by step-by-step approach to a problem that I have no idea how to solve, then using what I've learned there to walk me through subsequent problems, has been my approach to doing calculus lately. Since then, my progress went up rapidly and now I should be done with it in a week or two. As for understanding, I agree with that also; the explanations of how to do a problem help me understand the logical steps to solve other problems on the same topic. I also stopped obsessing on getting an A+: If I study and practice effectively, I'll get a good grade.Moreover, I realized there will be plenty of opportunities to further solidify my understanding of calculus when I take other courses in the future such as differential equations, mathematical modeling, and real analysis. Learning does not stop after finishing school. Thanks for the video 🙂
What a heartwarming video! This is so similar to my own story, and this is the advice I give other people. I changed my major to Math in college when it finally "clicked" for me too.
This video was exactly what I needed to understand this topic better. The way you broke everything down into simple steps made it so much easier to follow along. I’ve been struggling with this concept for a while, but your explanation made everything clear. I appreciate the effort you put into making learning accessible and enjoyable. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and helping students like me succeed! 🙌📚😊
This video has my full endorsement: Personally and professionally (learning expert of 40 years). Math is usually taught as: understand the concept first then learn the steps to solve it. Some people learn math better the other way around - as such, those people get frustrated, stuck, and discouraged at the comprehension effort. Those people should try memorizing the steps to solve the problem FIRST then little by little try to understand each step and its relationship to the next step. Additionally; the Feynman technique is powerful. Personally it transformed me from a C- HS student to a college graduate with a perfect GPA.
I can’t thank you enough for sharing your story, and your advices. What you lived with maths in high school is word for word what I went through. As an adult, I’ve decided one year ago to learn maths from the ground up, I found a very good private teacher, yet I am still often scared of practicing and judging myself to hard.. My dream is to successfully study Computer science in college… I’ll come back here in a year or two to give an update on my journey:) To all the people out there struggling: You’re not alone, do not give up !! You’re worthy of studying maths, give yourself time, and allow yourself all the questions which come to you !
I believe in you! You’ve worked so hard to improve at maths and it sounds like you have exactly the type of help you need. Working from the basics onwards helps so much! Maths builds on itself so making sure you have the foundations will take you a long way 💕
@@EmL-kg5gn I am so grateful that you took the time to write back, your words of support mean a lot !! I'll keep them close for the rest of my journey !! All the best to you !!
I appreciate this video. Currently I am on my first year of college and even though I did great on my first math exam I am currently struggling trying to figure out how I will be able to learn all the new concepts for my upcoming math exam. I feel much better after watching this video, thank you!
This method works so well!!! went from a D to A in maths cause all it really takes is repetition. After understanding all the basic maths pull up them practice exam papers and TRY. Obviously on the first try you'll be awful so you go through the answers and try to recreate the methodology. Then you store away all of the questions you got wrong for them rainy days and try them again. Keep doing this with practice questions recycling and reusing them. Most people do understand the basics of maths but once it comes to nasty 8 markers that combine a bunch of basics we suddenly get unmotivated.
Hello, i'm so glad I found your video. I had a similar experience in high school and had this "math anxiety" because every time I was confused about a topic, my teachers made me understand that I was "too slow" or they didn't had the time to help me, and it's so comforting to see people with similar experience. Also I believe that they teach math mostly to train our logic and what you said about practicing also applies to other scientific fields like biology, chemistry or physics. Your video is really helpful because i'm about to study biology in uni and was "scared" to do maths or maths like subjects, and now with this new methods, it seems less complicated, so thanks you for the advises. Also for all people struggling with scientific topics, your not dumb, most people don't even try because they think they can't do it and you are trying so it's already a victory somehow. And you are not alone, so keep working hard and improving and it will be worth it in the end ! Thank you for reading, here is a potato : 🥔
The logic and pattern matching part is so on point. Never underestimate your brains power in this area! I had this strategy when doing electrical engineering problems that I wasn't much interested in of just learning the basic relations between things and rapidly pattern matching through formulae (given a, b, c, what can I calculate that might help to get to d). It's incredible how fast and accurate your brain can get through this stuff even if you don't understand most of the actual topic! - This is obviously not a good way to study in the long term but it showed me the power of quickly recognizing patterns by learning from given solutions/relations, which can absolutely be applied when studying subjects "properly".
This video just casually popped up on my recommended I think I should give it a shot again and in all seriousness because I was interested in the subject and want to learn it deeply together with physics but because I let myself become discouraged and afraid, I got stuck in a loop where I learn and if I get frustrated I'd just leave it for months and then come back again. I want to do it, I want to pursue it seriously thanks for this video.
I completely agree with the idea that math is for everyone, not just geniuses. As a math major, I've found that truly learning math happens when it flows through your hands onto real paper. Writing on paper, rather than an iPad, solidifies concepts in a way that digital just can't replicate.
I love you.. im still in high school and I’ve been struggling with my math and my math lessons aren’t helping too so I just gave up but I came across this video and you just gave me so much motivation! I’ve talked to my teachers and they’re moving me to a higher class for better understanding! I def use your your tips when doing math ! I never really studied math before but your passion and knowledge makes me rlly inspired!! Thank you I’ll keep you updated if I did it ! My exams r in 2 weeks wish me luck !
I love you ❤❤❤❤❤❤…. Thank you so much for your hard work making this video. I’m crying watching this. Because i’m at my lowest point in my study, i felt so left out and lost to anybody else….thank youuu…you don’t know how much your video saves and encourages me ❤
The most effective way to learn math is sit 1 hour a day isolated, don't ask any one just keep on doing more and more problems. You suck one day, two day but eventually you learn math. Most people find math hard because they don't know basic rules (like when to add subtract multiply, laws of indices etc.) Remember, patience in the key just follow the rules of math and move on with the problem.
hi han thanks, for boosting my confidence i am from india currently in my last year btech, in asia one of the oldest engineering college,after entering college suddenly i had lost confidence on maths, but since i started following you, i am improving myself, thanks
My algebra 2 teacher told me I needed to take algebra 1 this year so i could “relearn” the basics😭 theres no way im gonna be a junior taking a math class for freshmen
Han, you are a true genius. Big respect to you for being able to analyze your experiences and feelings into gaining the control and achieve success. I wish all young people see this video. Chapeau
Best approach in order to self study. What i do is that i use a pdf math textbook, i use their exercises, and if i cant do it, i use a math app in order to get the steps, and slowly i learn the process and i stop using it! Thanks for your approach, i really think that this ways of learning is more than enough for learning, and always work smarter, not harder!! thank you :)
1st THANK YOU FOR THE CAPTIONS! 🙌🏾🙌🏾 it makes it muchhh easier to watch & understand | 2nd 2:45 such a great point about active learning. I’ve noticed a huge difference in my students grades when they switch from passive learning to active learning 📈
YES!! I’m glad someone is sharing the key to learning. Just look at the answer and then try on your own. I aced chemistry by going through all the exams I could find with solutions. I got really good
1. active learning - do discussions or practice math problems>>>passive learning - reading notes/listening to lectures. 2. walk through how ur gonna solve a problem, give up. 3. look at the answer and try to solve it. 4. keep doing 3 till you get the answer. 5. don't move on to another question or try to understand math by reading it. do the goddamn question and finish it. 6. see if u can explain the math to a kid to see if u understand it. 7 (optional). believe you can be good at math to get rid of anxiety.
Collegiate math is about pattern recognition. Exams don't test your ability to figure out problems, they test your ability to quickly recall the approach to different types of solutions. At the end of the day, it's about knowing which obscure trig identity gets you to the solution. She's right, it's about rote learning and pattern recognition. I suck at math. I have always sucked at math. But I kept from failing out of my undergraduate education by coming to the same realization that she did. Great video
The real issue lies in society and the education system, which doesn't allow you enough time to explore all the things she mentioned. In India, entrance exams have an overwhelming syllabus that needs to be covered in such a short time, mostly focusing on memorizing different types of math problems. Looking back at my school days, my fear of math began during my JEE preparation. I actually gave up on the math portion of the exam because I felt that if I concentrated more on physics and chemistry, I could score better. I couldn't grasp math as quickly as the other subjects, and time was critical during those two years of preparation. As a result, I did well and got into engineering. But now, here I am again, struggling with higher-level math. I can't wait to leave math behind since there won't be any math subjects in the upcoming semesters. I feel like I've failed to live up to my potential from middle school. If there's another Indian or Asian student watching this video, remember that the education system is flawed. Unfortunately, there's not much you can do about it. If you're preparing for the JEE, focus on what will get you marks, even if it means giving up on math. At least you can score better in other subjects to make up for it. But after the exams, before you enter college, revisit those math topics. If you don't understand math once you're in college, you might completely give up on it. At that point, going back to revise school math is tough, and as a result, we end up abandoning math altogether. This is the experience of someone who struggled with math-proceed at your own risk.
Bro, I totally relate to what you’re saying. I’m also weak in math and currently in engineering. I remember some topics, but I find math really hard. I’m in my first year, and sometimes I struggle to grasp the concepts. Can you share what you did to tackle engineering mathematics? Any tips would be super helpful!
@@brute6230 Hey, I’m in my second year, and here’s my advice: just follow your teacher, do the class problems, and stick to the book they recommend. Trust me, most of the exam questions come straight from there. The syllabus isn’t too crazy, but you should definitely give more time to math than physics or chemistry. Now, full disclosure, I was that idiot who only started studying a day before exams... and, surprise, my grades showed it. Since you’re still in your first year, you’ve got time to explore and enjoy other stuff, just try not to procrastinate like me. You’ve got this - manage your time well and you’ll be fine! As I mentioned before, maths is only for a few semesters.
Something I learned in the first year of the Math Degree is that maths are hard almost by definition. No matter how good you get, there will always be a problem that will far exceed your capabilities (even if you are Terence Tao). But if you ask me, this is good, since it means there's no limit to how much one can improve in mathematics. ✨️🔥
I have such a genuine love for learning. As someone who graduated from high school with a super low gpa, and had no confidence in math. I can now say I am pursuing a degree in engineering and gaining confidence I have never had before. If you're reading this, DO NOT DOUBT YOURSELF. You are capable of everything you dedicate yourself to. NOTHING is difficult, you are just not used to it.
Great advise! This is exactly how I became proficient at math (and physics). Actually, I became really good at physics when I was a physics tutor during my university.
Oh yes, of course. Now you go say you finally are "good at math" to everyone. Except every time you cross paths with a problem slightly different to everything you saw before you're back to being a "dumb idiot". Well you never stopped being one, you just masked it very well and memorized a lot of bullshit. Even if you say (and you did) it's not quite like that, the best practice will always be to understand everything to the most fundamental level, that's when you'll achieve true confidence, won't have to study for even half an our to tests, will be able to create, discover, and to solve any logical problem ever. Turns out memorizing less has me creating my own math to solve problems, and it works. No memorizing tons of formulas, no memorizing what to do in certain types of exercises. I understood the base of it all, and I force myself to hardly ever use a concept before fully understanding it. Every time the teacher or any other source doesn't explain where something comes from, I start playing around with it UNTIL I FIND OUT. That's how to truly get good at math, so stop it already. What a disservice. edit: also apparently I'm nobody cause I really like to get stuck in a hard intriguing problem. I fell as like I'm fighting the final boss in a videogame, soundtrack playing in my head and all.
Watching this video made me feel like I can do math. Thank you for this logical motivation, which gives me faith that everyone can become good at math with the right techniques.
What I do that helps me. Is focus on summarizing steps 1. How to identify particular problem 2. Formulas used and all that in between. Writing in steps can help me understand exactly how professor got the answer and also how to solve similar problems in the future 😊
True. Having a really good grasp on adding and deducting helps with multiplication. It’s essentially adding over and over after all. Having a really good grasp on multiplication helps with division since it’s the same in reverse. And once you are comfortable with these, exponents become easier learn; exponents are basically multiplying or dividing over and over. The area of your foundation expands with tools like these. It becomes strong with practice. You can then build anything on it.
As a former math tutor for “challenged” kids, this woman is 100% right. This was my exact approach. I would demonstrate steps and then instantly have the kid practice the same problem over and over. They’d come back later in that week with an A on their recent math test. Kids would go from staring at a problem for an hour to effortlessly solving complex questions. Even after their teachers, parents, and everyone else gave up on getting them good at math. Starting to practice almost instantly turned them into the best solvers.
Oh my gosh, the calculus example you gave is the exact situation I am currently in down to a T. I just started university and I have to take Calculus this semester and omg it's the absolute worst. Everyone else seems to immediately understand what's going on but me. I'm an international student too and I don't think I learnt precalculus back in hs and I'm assuming everyone else did. I literally broke down in tears this morning over Calculus, I really want to pass this course so badly but so far it feels like that's not within my gasp. Your study tip on looking at the answers first for a question made something click in me and I'll apply that to my studies so hopefully that'll help
I guess she meant by "understand" that you do not have to go into it and take the logic behind it like if I take trigonometry, When I did it I thought I have to understand it then only I'll do it turns out I just have to give myself an exposure of as many questions to have many ideas ti solve it.. so while doing any question I look at it think of some ideas on how it can be done and if not correct I look at the answer...
Yes!!! I love this video so much. I've experienced this so much so far in college where I do well in my hard math classes and people assume it is because I am just a genius/smart/naturally good at math. The truth is that I was like you and I was terrified of all my math classes in high school. I remember the first time I learned about adding a negative number in elementary school and I cried at the dinner table while my parents yelled at me to just understand because they couldn't explain it. It took me a long time to realize that I started at such a low place in math because I was riddled with fear and not able to consciously process for fear of being yelled at or called stupid. Once I realized this, I started to like math again because I found out it's a field where analytical-type people flourish, and I love the satisfaction that comes with successfully computing a problem. I study the same way as you; I try first to do a problem, but if I don't know the answer I will immediately search up how to do it and learn the correct solving algorithm. I mean, you don't know what you don't know! Everyone starts somewhere, and I'm really grateful you made this video. I relate so much to your story, and I hope that more people come to understand this concept that math is more about practice and patience than natural ability.
You see my problem is I am good at everything you say and I am so good at understanding it in class but when I do the homework it is similar to this In class: a^2 + b^2 = c^2 Homework: Tanisha is filling a sphere 87% filled with water while traveling 77 miles per hour on the highway. Calculate the wind resistance thats slowing down her car and find what % of the suns gravitational pull effects her speed Like wtf 💀 this is literally nothing we done in class. What does this have to do with pythagorean theorem and where the hell did we go over calculating wind resistance and the suns gravitational pull. And this isnt an exaggeration, yes I made it up but my homework is as ridiculous as this example
Definitely a lot of good advice here. My masters degree is in applied mathematics and operations research from the technical university of Denmark, and its interesting to see how many of your experiences mirrors my own. Doing, while reading was a major breakthrough for me, because until you actually do it, and see how much easier you absorb and understand by doing it, it will likes a lot of wasted effort. For example when I did my introductory courses on optimization algorithms, actually programming and animating the the algorithms, made a lot theorems that seem like archaic magic, become instantly intuitive. Really good video.
honestly can relate to you in your first explanation about failing math and looking dumb whenever I ask others, I'm in the 10th grade and I honestly feel hopeless anyways thank u so much for this video ♥ it helps ♥
i used to be you! i'm in the 11th right now and i was struggling for a while to keep my grades up, but i realized that the time that you spend doing nothing, like scrolling or just laying down can be used to solve math problems. even if you only solve one problem a day, that's still 365 problems in a year. you can do this!
I’m in 10th grade, I’m not bad at math but I do overthink and skip a few steps in math equations, I’ve realized my weakness was 6th grade and up math equations so I’m deciding to relearn math, your not alone
@@_98310 u too! thank you so much😊 also I feel like I've improved so much ever since I took Gad more seriously anyways u got this 😁 sorry for late reply
Yes, that is. She confuses struggle with talent. She has more ambition than talent, so she has been struggling all her life. Most certainly she got her ambition from her parents. Now she thinks she can coach people with much less ambition. What a mistake... See my comment
@@tarhelytarhely5662 why are you so salty??? this isnt supposed to make anyone a master at math, it supposed to help you understand enough to pass 😭😭 struggling doesnt make you stupid and calling people stupid for not being a expert is EXACTLY why no one wants to try in the first place 😐
@@lemonsteas I am salty, because the video suggests exactly what you have said. Good at math=understand enough to pass And I am salty, because I am a salty person. So I look out for subjects to be salty about :) Struggling is a sign that you are not up for a task. Feeling stupid means the same for me. The best and brightest persons in the world feel stupid all the time, and they openly admit it. I think it is morally compelling for everybody to reach the limits of individual personal capabilities. So struggling is natural, if you are on a right path. But if you reach the level of struggling where your personality changes from "I want to understand this, and be good at it", to "I just want to know enough to pass", then to " I just want to pass, I do whatever it takes", then you have overextended your capabilities. If that happens, you find yourself surrounded with people much more capable then you. You fought for it, and you got it. So "feeling stupid" which is a relative term, becomes "being stupid", because of your reference system. Better face stupidity before that happens.
I dont agree. Sinceath isore like a language. The answers will make you practice the language till something clilcs and it becomes logical in your brain. Therefore having a positive experience practising really helps. I have a similar experience. I am not at all a math expert, but as a financial analyst I got really good at it only after my studies, by indeed reverse engineering the answers and learning methodologies and simply remember the rules not always understand the rules, which only will be helpful if you will become someone that does math research, yet still you will start understanding anyway by doing
@@PatriceMeijboom You give the example of languages; let's go with that. I'd say that being fluent in Turkish is not the same as passing Turkish courses. If someone makes a video called "being fluent in Turkish is easy", but spends all the time on how to practise answering exam questions, then I think it's fair to say "This is not about being fluent in Turkish . It's about being good at passing Turkish courses. These are different things." And if they tell you you can be fluent in Turkish while not understanding it, then they are clearly not being honest with themselves.
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Han i really wanna know maths but i don't know how to study .i do listen to the teacher and i have all the things to learn maths but i do not know how to learn it by myself please help me i want to have good grades and stop being the dumb kid 🥴 in class and if i do not get good grades i will not go to STRAY KIDZ concert
Lot of love sister from India😊
Where are you from?? Your accent is so pretty!!!
@@JLSXMK8 she from china
In my case it is different i learn the concept and theory well then apply it or just reading will help me to find new ways to solve a problem. I have even found new formula etc....
What I hear, I forget. What I see, I remember. What I do, I understand.
This is me to a T!
thats why I dont understand sex
And my maths teacher is like "do these questions, and if u can't, idc ."
@@JikoAmonus💀
@@JikoAmonus drake will make you understand in a few moments
I LIKE HOLDING MIC WITH FORK 👍👍👍
I like using ALL CAPS.
@@qbtc XD
I realize that just at the end of the video, that explain why my brain is slow for maths :v
@@pedrolopezchavarria8515 th-cam.com/video/oFcQcmZJQ_k/w-d-xo.htmlsi=JGwivH0fjSa0sMlP
to prevent stabbing herself?
i learned three things in this whole 15minutes,
1. don't try to solve a problem if you can't think of an approach before starting.
2. Keep yourself familiar with the problem like keep practicing until you automatically solve the problem before thinking of any approach(1st one), as you do basic calculations.
3. if you want to believe and stay confident and motivated you need to first start from the basics.
-----correct me if i missed anything. Thank You!
Thanks , hopefully ill be able to pass my calculus class this semester 😭🤍
and the most important thing - PRACTICE
I learned that you can use a fork as a microphone.
@@jeread5193 true 😂
@@Tearfulmelodiesplease pass for me brother and exit the building with Joy and tell me when it happens
Godspeed brother 🙏
Honestly didn't need the advice but just the reassurance and comfort of knowing I'm not stupid 😭
@@Torocattt I don't know how you're relating yourself to me since you seem to be saying that math is easy for you and that you love it but alright 😭 7th grade is about 13yo I think right? What're you learning rn? :))
Sameee 🫂
@@Torocatttgirl, u might good at math, but not a good listener nor reader.
@Abcdghii I'm learning about angles, transversal, alternative interior and exterior, co interior and exterior angles etc etc, pretty easy but just a bit confusing, I got my half yearly marks and I got a 75/80 !! :) (dumb mistakes lol)
@@Torocattt I didn't understand any of this (I'm not learning in English and also don't go to school haha) but you seem to know what you're talking about!! I'm also doing angles n stuff, trigonometry 😮💨 How are you doing in other subjects? :D
as someone who is considered good at math, I agree. I literally do not understand how I know what to do or why, I just know what to do next. the more I focus on why I know what comes next, the more I confuse myself. it’s actually really difficult for me to explain math to someone because i start confusing myself when they ask questions like “how” or “why”
Same. After 10th class when I was in 11th and 12th I struggled a lot with advanced problems of any topic.(In India jee entrance exam has crazy difficult math)I tried the methods in various youtube videos about learning how to approach a particular problem but then I would remember that for my entirety of time till 10th I would just somehow know what to do and not think about the approach as much.
For now I am in college and it seems like I have gotten back my talent of knowing what to do in every problem subconsciously.
Bro math has sucint proofs that you are meant to know to exercise math. they are in the textbook explained most likely
I'd argue that it's important to understand the hows and whys if you want to go far in math, but there is some merit in taking things at face value just to get through certain parts until you do understand things more deeply.
On some level, the more basic the concept is then yes there's not but so much to explain as to why even if you tried...but the more advanced concepts are built upon a collection of those fundamental basic concepts.
I believe if you want to become really high level, it is necessary to know all the underlying proofs and details of the maths you practice. For succeeding in school, which doesn’t have creative or ingenuitive test problems like the olympiads, just applying what you learn at a face value will be enough.
I wish I could just let go of the need to understand every step, and just learn what comes after. As such, I almost understand every step, and the why and how behind it, but I don’t recommend it😂
It was David Hilbert who famously said nobody ever understands math you just get used to it. He was a top mathematician/ professor in the early twentieth century.
can't argue with guy that has his own class of spaces, polynomials, series, and schemes.
Same with Quantum Mechanics
@@Grassmpl except for the fact that he's just plain wrong on that note
you can understand it. its true, which means there is something there that can be understood
this is different from just being able to do the math by resorting to using true facts (e.g. pythagorean theorem), and building up on those
but if you truly understand math then you can create everything from scratch, on your own, if you were alone on a desert island and no internet
This sentence is from von Newmann.
Yes of course you can, but trying to understand math us wayy harder than just doing it, which sounds wrong, but you would see that people that are good at math dont understand it, if you go to a school and ask the prom what does an X elevated to the power of two means, maybe 1 or two students will answers you, but if you give them a cyadratic equation they know how to solve it
the worst part is that i would constantly be tempted to look at the answer key which obviously didn't help 💀 good luck in maths, everyone!
The point is to understand the concept and theory the questions want you to know, it doesn't matter whether you can solve the problem by looking at the answer or not!
Looking at the answer is actually rlly helpful in understanding how you do it
@@thegunner7887 This is actually solid advice
there's kind of two sides to this. Sometimes it can be really helpful to reverse-engineer the solution after looking at the answer, but you also want to build your critical thinking skills. Becoming overly reliant on having the answers in my experience makes you check out when you don't know what to do on a hard problem, but an important part of being good at maths is having the ability to persevere through being stuck and trying different things.
If you want to learn maths as a set of tools you can use in everyday life then you probably just need to know how to apply existing theory, but if you want to have a deeper understanding and be able to solve new problems you need to practice finding a way through not knowing what to do.
This is crazy.. I stayed up all night doing math problems, just got done and decided to hop on yt before I go to bed only to see this as my first recommended video. It is 7:41am right now for context lol
gawd damn, the grind is real
you're basically doing hours of work for nothing since staying up fucks with your hormones (dopamine levels cannot be regulated and testosterone dips badly)
your vision and digestive system take seat back to compensate (you won't digest very well and your eye will tire and dry out faster)
you lose muscle mass since there is no repairing or building only breaking down
cramming has been proven to not work, it's way better to use spaced repetition and active recall
Please don't do this again, it's not worth it as you're not even making $ doing it
@@francisco444 for clarity I am not studying or in school and do math as a hobby. Your advice is still valid though.
lmao,same
that's crazy XD
@@crazytimesman it's rare to meet those who do math as a hobby. I wish you the best with it! just don't stay up too late, it must be fascinating though :)
YES!!!! This is what I tell everyone. Just practice and you’ll be okay
But they want to rap, not do math. Pretty much kills them to lift an academic finger.
all bout da reps
man i wish this worked for me
@@burntbagels27 break down problems till they feel managable.
Usually issues with understanding are tied to complexity
The feyman technique actually works. I remember being in 8th grade and I wasn't rly a good student, always had low to medium grades. I was studying for a Cience test and I just happened to be so bored that I pretended to speak to an audience using the mirror in my room. I liked it so much i just kept doing it. Test day comes along I got a 98/100, highest grade I've ever gotten. Since then I just kept doing it without knowing that it was a technique.
This is so relatable. I'm bad at math. But I've managed to get a bachelor's in physics and the technique you're talking about of initially giving up on the hard problems and then walking through its solution really works like a charm! I did that significantly and my math improved quite a lot.
Also giveaway one ipad to me as well, thanks!
@@syedanaushabinzakirkhan20p50 Hey there! Would you mind giving some more tips how you studied and got good grades for math during ur physics degree? I'm thinking about studying physics but I'm scared of failing math. Your help would be very much appreciated :)
@@iiSxmz Hi! I can totally understand what you are feeling.
From very early on I was interested in physics, I knew I had to make a career in it. The only problem was math. But gradually, in my highschool I tried making friends with math, what I mean by that is I practiced as much as possible and I focussed on the logical part, the memorisation part is a) not necessary, b) comes along for a ride if you practice enough.
So, the moral is 1) Don't be scared of the problem, just in the back of your head remember that if there is a problem there surely will be a solution.
2) Practice makes perfect.
3) You can't necessarily solve all the problems, you can skim through the solution of a significantly hard problem and deal with it later.
I hope this helps and good luck with your physics career!
@@syedanaushabinzakirkhan20p50 Thank you so much for this! You're giving me lots of hope👐
You obviously aren't bad at math
My teacher had convinced me that nothing could improve my chronic mathophobia. But thank god youtube had faith in me and recommended this. Thanks Han ❤
Nothing will keep you from understanding like your own fear of not understanding.
tbh same with music really…
Your teacher sounds like an a hole
@@brownie_09 Barbara Oakley, an engineering professor who also had a math phobia has a free class on coursera called ‘learning how to learn’. She has authored books as well on everything to do with math.
@@Kate1427 Thanks for the tip! Def will use :)
Ok, but that mike though...
Who's Mike??
Mic*
Where's mike?
@@argo8276probably in my basement...👀
Jugaad..😂😂
You have no idea how valuable this presentation was for me. This perspective changed everything!
Came for the math, stayed for the microphone on the fork
i was searching for this comment😂😂
Here’s how my son got good at math: Practice, practice, practice.
I bought him an older edition of his calculus textbook because I could also buy the complete teacher’s solution manual. He didn’t really use it during the first semester. Consequently when second semester began he didn’t have confidence about his first semester knowledge.
So my son proceeded do Calc I all over again by doing every problem in the book.
At first he would get most of them wrong. But by having the step-by-step solution to every problem he soon discovered that some of the concepts had had wrong and that he had a tendency to make the same “mental” errors such as not paying close attention to negative signs.
But the bonus learning thing for him was by seeing the methods professional mathematicians used step-by-step, it taught him how to employ the same patterns of problem solving. In just one semester (although it required two hours every day for the entire semester) he taught himself how to be good at math.
Now people think he’s a kind of math genius. Calc II and III and differential equations were easy for him.
You don't realize how much you have improved his life!! Everyone should have such supportive parent like you
I concur. I did not have advanced maths at undergrad (example differential equations). I found an engineering maths book because they are practical and come with solutions. By looking at the steps, I found patterns that often appeared (and I like finding patterns to solutions) and things began to click; in fact I thought of taking an advance class in math but for the way lecturers teach it: it put me off.
Everything can be achieved with tons of practice. But that's the thing. PRACTICE is hard to achieve and do lol. It takes an incredible amount of motivation and mental stability just to focus on practicing and practicing. Practice is hard
Pattern recognition, thats how we learn.
Whats textbook called of the older edition you got for him? And the teachers solution manual
This video is so funny to me because I used every tip(+ a lil bit more) in this video to study when I was in my senior year of high school, but somehow I disregarded or forgot about them once I got to university. Now, as I'm self-learning code and math for computer science, I'm looking for ways to study efficiently and stumbled upon this video and as I am listening i realized, wait a minute, this sounds familiar. Damn. Thank you for this-I don't think I would have remembered these tips without your video.
I'm in the same situation
Math is the kind of field that literally rewards people for not understanding what they're doing but for knowing what the next rule is.
Not necessarily, having a deeperer understand and intuition can be extremely useful in math.
The only way to come to this conclusion is to never take a proof-based course, not even geometry at school. Mathematics is born when intuition and rigor are reconciled. If you don't have a good intuition, you won't even know where to begin proving non-trivial results, nor will you be able to come up with plausible conjectures, but if you aren't rigorous with it you will inevitably overlook some edge case eventually.
@@pavlosurzhenko4048 The problem is HOW math is taught. Math, in and of itself can be approached from myriad directions. But the pressures and constraints of the average public school prioritizes fast completion of problems over in-depth understanding of the relationships. That is why many teachers fall back on shortcuts and tricks that leave gaps in students understanding of procedures.
Currently taking calculus 3 at my school after having taken Calculus 1&2 back in 2020 - yes it’s taking more time trying to catch up but the intuition I built in Linear Algebra & general math tutoring is somehow helping. It’s super frustrating when I have to start intuition from scratch.
This isn’t true for high level math.
Thank you so much! You changed the way I view math and I feel like I am Einstein after practicing and using the Feyman technique.
I spend HOURS studying math, and a week later I can't remember anything I understood just a moment ago. I have developed my technique for learning by looking up the answer to an equation, writing it down, and then thinking HOW to get to that number. I am not sure, however, that this is an effective technique.
Math is super frustrating for me, to this point when I'm literally crying over simple things. I always have to write down every number, while my friends just calculate them in their heads, which is really depressing.
Thank you for help! I'm for sure gonna try everything you said in your video.
That’s a terrible and inefficient technique. Go to simpler problems, learn how they are solved and the reasoning. Practice them a lot and then build up from there
I can feel you....just few days ago I practised so damn hard only to get blank on exam it's so frustrating idk what to do..
Ahhhhh I feel you~ 😭
Same😭😭😭😭
Time on task. No Royal road to learning
To be brutally honest with you might just be the most useful video i have watched in a while i just knew math was this way but did not accept the reality of it. However when someone else feels the same about it, it just shows that its you who has been limiting yourself. So thank you 🙏🏻
" brutally "??
In this case the phrase brutally honest is out of place. It's used to prepare the reader for hard or even offensive truth/ observation. But you just said something very tame and normal, far from offensive. Hence the opening phrase being odd and out of place.
My brain said what you said but inside it
Honestly, thank you for this! I'm a middle school math teacher getting ready for my middle school kids to come in and learn math! I will show them this video during our orientation next week. Mostly because you clearly are really good at math if you graduated from Columbia with a math degree. But you actually had the SAME STRUGGLES that my gen ed and SpEd kids have. So seeing YOU, of all people, having the same problems they encounter with math will be gold. Thank you for this marvelous content!!!! Also they'll relate to the fork/mic thing you have going on there. It humanizes you! ;)
05:14 Better than checking the answer key: Compare the final result to the original problem. Plugging variables back into the original equation works well in Algebra especially. Doing this by habit makes exam scores go up, because there will be no answer key. In real world uses of mathematics there won't be an answer key, so checking the work should be part of the process and the last step of the process. Done with habit, this gets to be as automatic as following the algorithm is.
People who used to be bad at math are the best teachers, if good mathematicians knew how off the deep end most of us are they wouldn’t use math terminology or even say “ I knew the solution but tried to solve the problem “ most bad at math have no basic understanding what what that means or why it matters historically
If you can’t explain it to a 4th grader you don’t understand it well enough. Not always the case though for more advanced topics but a good rule to stand by.
the thing is, as a teacher, most children want to know the HOW of EVERYTHING and Math is like a story upside down :) so its difficult. I just approche it as a game! this are the rules, and then you have to play the game :) the end is getting a answer.
@@EeriicaaBaakaal wow holy hell! Gamification of math seems like an amazing idea
I’d say that I’ve always been decent in school. English is my strongest point while my weak point is maths. Well I’m in second set maths as I JUST passed over expected at 111 out of 120 in SATS but I feel like I lose brain cells or get a headache whenever I’m in those classes. I appreciate you making this vid to help others including me because I have serious math anxiety I feel like so nervous whenever we have a test because sometimes I feel behind compared to the rest of my class.
"Young man, in mathematics you don't understand things. You just get used to them." - Von Neumann.
Von Neumann, who was famous for having incredible abilities in mental math. The seminars he was in would just rely on him to crunch numbers like a modern scientific calculator.
That is one of the silliest things von Neumann ever said. It's terrible advice in general, it's particularly bad in mathematics, and it's not how von Neumann did things compared with other people. He definitely understood things other people didn't. Yes, he also calculated rapidly, but we don't remember a million other people who also calculated rapidly without understanding (computer used to be a profession), we remember von Neumann for contributing his understanding of the fundamental structure of many things from game theory to set theory. It does make good clickbait, I guess, and a lot of people who don't understand mathematics will applaud, but it's not a step forward at all.
@@douglaszare1215 You understood the sentence in the most wrong way possible.
@@lucasrinaldi9909 Please, elaborate then on the correct way to understand it.
@@douglaszare1215 I'm majoring in math at Duke and I can try to explain what I got from the quote. Learning math is a constant and perhaps frustrating struggle but the satisfaction from a concept "clicking" is unparalleled. In some sense I might be addicted to math due to that. But, you never know when a concept will click, and you just carry on, sometimes with your understanding still at a rudimentary level, and sometimes in understanding a more involved theorem you realize the importance of a prior lemma. A professor of mine once said in math you can't wait to explore every possible nook and cranny of a foundational chapter/intro to a topic before you move on. You can't wait until your intuition is fully built before progressing, otherwise you will never make it too far. I've known linear algebra for more than 6 years now, and yet if I'm helping someone learn some concept, or looking through an old book, sometimes I'm still hit with a "wow, cool" feeling if I see things through a different perspective. I first learned analysis in 2022. It's been 2 years now, but I am still getting new insight from time to time. I'm currently taking algebraic geometry. It is CHALLENGING and my understanding is as patchy as the schemes we're learning about. Some people say it took them 4 passes through the subject to understand it truly well.
So, all in all, in math you're never in a state of understanding. I guess this is the idea of mathematical maturity. Insight might come eventually, but until then you're just applying definitions and hoping (I STILL have a hard time with the Lie bracket and it's been 3.5 years now...).
Great advice! Im going to highschool and im so bad at maths and your words made me feel confident I hope anyone going through a rough time in school will overcome it and pass , praying for all 🙏
Same bro
Thank you for this insightful video! Your tips on how to study math effectively are game-changing. I've already started applying some of your methods and can see a difference in my understanding and retention. Keep up the great work!
0:34 this exact frame is me anytime I’m learning new things 😂😂 great video
Hi, I am from hong kong student ,thank you for share how to correctly to learn math and I also usage your vedio to practice my English language ❤❤❤
I might probably be a child when comparing with Han ( and more in comments ) at Mathematics, but Im studying Combined Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry for the 2026 GCE AL Examination. Your videos helped me to start learning Mathematics and work according to proper manner ( Definitely not a time table) . Im in love with Science and Mathematics and I spend nearly all the day studying these 2 beautiful subjects.
How do you understand mathematics
@@KaitlynChihuahuaFan What? I don't get it.
@@okithdesilva129 pls help I need math tips I don’t wanna fail eighth grade algebra💀🙏
My biggest advice for anything is low amounts of challenging practice everyday. Your brain learns and adapts over a long period of time not by cram stduying huge loads in a singular day. Attitude and motivation are important and unhealthy practice creates animosity. Learning doesn't need to be terrible, but most people nake it terrible with their approach.
Looking up the answer and step by step-by-step approach to a problem that I have no idea how to solve, then using what I've learned there to walk me through subsequent problems, has been my approach to doing calculus lately. Since then, my progress went up rapidly and now I should be done with it in a week or two. As for understanding, I agree with that also; the explanations of how to do a problem help me understand the logical steps to solve other problems on the same topic. I also stopped obsessing on getting an A+: If I study and practice effectively, I'll get a good grade.Moreover, I realized there will be plenty of opportunities to further solidify my understanding of calculus when I take other courses in the future such as differential equations, mathematical modeling, and real analysis. Learning does not stop after finishing school. Thanks for the video 🙂
thank you so much han!❤
What a heartwarming video! This is so similar to my own story, and this is the advice I give other people. I changed my major to Math in college when it finally "clicked" for me too.
This video was exactly what I needed to understand this topic better. The way you broke everything down into simple steps made it so much easier to follow along. I’ve been struggling with this concept for a while, but your explanation made everything clear. I appreciate the effort you put into making learning accessible and enjoyable. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and helping students like me succeed! 🙌📚😊
This video has my full endorsement: Personally and professionally (learning expert of 40 years).
Math is usually taught as: understand the concept first then learn the steps to solve it. Some people learn math better the other way around - as such, those people get frustrated, stuck, and discouraged at the comprehension effort. Those people should try memorizing the steps to solve the problem FIRST then little by little try to understand each step and its relationship to the next step.
Additionally; the Feynman technique is powerful. Personally it transformed me from a C- HS student to a college graduate with a perfect GPA.
I can’t thank you enough for sharing your story, and your advices.
What you lived with maths in high school is word for word what I went through.
As an adult, I’ve decided one year ago to learn maths from the ground up, I found a very good private teacher, yet I am still often scared of practicing and judging myself to hard..
My dream is to successfully study Computer science in college… I’ll come back here in a year or two to give an update on my journey:)
To all the people out there struggling: You’re not alone, do not give up !!
You’re worthy of studying maths, give yourself time, and allow yourself all the questions which come to you !
I believe in you! You’ve worked so hard to improve at maths and it sounds like you have exactly the type of help you need. Working from the basics onwards helps so much! Maths builds on itself so making sure you have the foundations will take you a long way 💕
@@EmL-kg5gn I am so grateful that you took the time to write back, your words of support mean a lot !! I'll keep them close for the rest of my journey !!
All the best to you !!
@@NekoChonk All the best to you too!! I’m so excited you’re finally getting the chance to actually learn maths 😊
I appreciate this video. Currently I am on my first year of college and even though I did great on my first math exam I am currently struggling trying to figure out how I will be able to learn all the new concepts for my upcoming math exam. I feel much better after watching this video, thank you!
This method works so well!!! went from a D to A in maths cause all it really takes is repetition. After understanding all the basic maths pull up them practice exam papers and TRY. Obviously on the first try you'll be awful so you go through the answers and try to recreate the methodology. Then you store away all of the questions you got wrong for them rainy days and try them again. Keep doing this with practice questions recycling and reusing them. Most people do understand the basics of maths but once it comes to nasty 8 markers that combine a bunch of basics we suddenly get unmotivated.
Hello, i'm so glad I found your video. I had a similar experience in high school and had this "math anxiety" because every time I was confused about a topic, my teachers made me understand that I was "too slow" or they didn't had the time to help me, and it's so comforting to see people with similar experience. Also I believe that they teach math mostly to train our logic and what you said about practicing also applies to other scientific fields like biology, chemistry or physics.
Your video is really helpful because i'm about to study biology in uni and was "scared" to do maths or maths like subjects, and now with this new methods, it seems less complicated, so thanks you for the advises.
Also for all people struggling with scientific topics, your not dumb, most people don't even try because they think they can't do it and you are trying so it's already a victory somehow. And you are not alone, so keep working hard and improving and it will be worth it in the end !
Thank you for reading, here is a potato :
🥔
The logic and pattern matching part is so on point. Never underestimate your brains power in this area! I had this strategy when doing electrical engineering problems that I wasn't much interested in of just learning the basic relations between things and rapidly pattern matching through formulae (given a, b, c, what can I calculate that might help to get to d). It's incredible how fast and accurate your brain can get through this stuff even if you don't understand most of the actual topic! - This is obviously not a good way to study in the long term but it showed me the power of quickly recognizing patterns by learning from given solutions/relations, which can absolutely be applied when studying subjects "properly".
You care more about the outcome than understanding the topic. I know that's the way to get good grades but it feels so gross and fake to me.
@@aquarock-fq2lmI don't. That's precisely why I said it's an efficient but not a good method to study...
This video just casually popped up on my recommended I think I should give it a shot again and in all seriousness because I was interested in the subject and want to learn it deeply together with physics but because I let myself become discouraged and afraid, I got stuck in a loop where I learn and if I get frustrated I'd just leave it for months and then come back again. I want to do it, I want to pursue it seriously thanks for this video.
I completely agree with the idea that math is for everyone, not just geniuses. As a math major, I've found that truly learning math happens when it flows through your hands onto real paper. Writing on paper, rather than an iPad, solidifies concepts in a way that digital just can't replicate.
Practice so much it becomes your second nature excellent advice
Thank you han
thanks for keeping it post, Han Zhango. You are a light in this dark universe
Love the fork microphone. Quite entertaining.
I love you.. im still in high school and I’ve been struggling with my math and my math lessons aren’t helping too so I just gave up but I came across this video and you just gave me so much motivation! I’ve talked to my teachers and they’re moving me to a higher class for better understanding! I def use your your tips when doing math ! I never really studied math before but your passion and knowledge makes me rlly inspired!! Thank you I’ll keep you updated if I did it ! My exams r in 2 weeks wish me luck !
I love you ❤❤❤❤❤❤…. Thank you so much for your hard work making this video. I’m crying watching this. Because i’m at my lowest point in my study, i felt so left out and lost to anybody else….thank youuu…you don’t know how much your video saves and encourages me ❤
The most effective way to learn math is sit 1 hour a day isolated, don't ask any one just keep on doing more and more problems. You suck one day, two day but eventually you learn math. Most people find math hard because they don't know basic rules (like when to add subtract multiply, laws of indices etc.) Remember, patience in the key just follow the rules of math and move on with the problem.
hi han thanks, for boosting my confidence i am from india currently in my last year btech, in asia one of the oldest engineering college,after entering college suddenly i had lost confidence on maths, but since i started following you, i am improving myself, thanks
Konsa IIT ?
@@tusharsharma5053 it's coep in maharastra it was built around 1854
0:40 Just started watching the video, TOTALLY RELATABLE 💀, my teacher rather makes fun of me lmao
What kind of teacher is that..sorry that had to happen to you
Same :(
Same😂🎉
As one who trained teachers, that is not acceptable.
My algebra 2 teacher told me I needed to take algebra 1 this year so i could “relearn” the basics😭 theres no way im gonna be a junior taking a math class for freshmen
Han, you are a true genius. Big respect to you for being able to analyze your experiences and feelings into gaining the control and achieve success. I wish all young people see this video. Chapeau
Best approach in order to self study. What i do is that i use a pdf math textbook, i use their exercises, and if i cant do it, i use a math app in order to get the steps, and slowly i learn the process and i stop using it! Thanks for your approach, i really think that this ways of learning is more than enough for learning, and always work smarter, not harder!! thank you :)
1st THANK YOU FOR THE CAPTIONS! 🙌🏾🙌🏾 it makes it muchhh easier to watch & understand | 2nd 2:45 such a great point about active learning. I’ve noticed a huge difference in my students grades when they switch from passive learning to active learning 📈
4:38 this is good idea for me thq so much 😊
10:05 yeah exactly! Teaching is the best learning!
being practicing math since elementary school through now truly demonstrates what you said
One of the best videos that I have seen thank you so much
My wish complete ✅ thankyou so much. I am. So happy because of you 💗
Aww much love❤️
Can I get Hanzhango's number
You give me that elder sister advice which I need for studying❤
real
That pen spin at 1:15💀
I was watching the same thing 😅
YES!! I’m glad someone is sharing the key to learning. Just look at the answer and then try on your own. I aced chemistry by going through all the exams I could find with solutions. I got really good
OMG this made me feel so much better about math - thank you for posting. It means a lot :3
Me noticing at 5:24 that Han is using a fork to hold her mic:
😂
My girl's efficient lol
Out here mocking us for not noticing the fork 4:24
3:13 Excellent Analogy
1. active learning - do discussions or practice math problems>>>passive learning - reading notes/listening to lectures.
2. walk through how ur gonna solve a problem, give up.
3. look at the answer and try to solve it.
4. keep doing 3 till you get the answer.
5. don't move on to another question or try to understand math by reading it. do the goddamn question and finish it.
6. see if u can explain the math to a kid to see if u understand it.
7 (optional). believe you can be good at math to get rid of anxiety.
Collegiate math is about pattern recognition. Exams don't test your ability to figure out problems, they test your ability to quickly recall the approach to different types of solutions. At the end of the day, it's about knowing which obscure trig identity gets you to the solution. She's right, it's about rote learning and pattern recognition. I suck at math. I have always sucked at math. But I kept from failing out of my undergraduate education by coming to the same realization that she did. Great video
The real issue lies in society and the education system, which doesn't allow you enough time to explore all the things she mentioned. In India, entrance exams have an overwhelming syllabus that needs to be covered in such a short time, mostly focusing on memorizing different types of math problems. Looking back at my school days, my fear of math began during my JEE preparation. I actually gave up on the math portion of the exam because I felt that if I concentrated more on physics and chemistry, I could score better. I couldn't grasp math as quickly as the other subjects, and time was critical during those two years of preparation.
As a result, I did well and got into engineering. But now, here I am again, struggling with higher-level math. I can't wait to leave math behind since there won't be any math subjects in the upcoming semesters. I feel like I've failed to live up to my potential from middle school.
If there's another Indian or Asian student watching this video, remember that the education system is flawed. Unfortunately, there's not much you can do about it. If you're preparing for the JEE, focus on what will get you marks, even if it means giving up on math. At least you can score better in other subjects to make up for it. But after the exams, before you enter college, revisit those math topics. If you don't understand math once you're in college, you might completely give up on it. At that point, going back to revise school math is tough, and as a result, we end up abandoning math altogether.
This is the experience of someone who struggled with math-proceed at your own risk.
Bro, I totally relate to what you’re saying. I’m also weak in math and currently in engineering. I remember some topics, but I find math really hard. I’m in my first year, and sometimes I struggle to grasp the concepts. Can you share what you did to tackle engineering mathematics? Any tips would be super helpful!
@@brute6230 Hey, I’m in my second year, and here’s my advice: just follow your teacher, do the class problems, and stick to the book they recommend. Trust me, most of the exam questions come straight from there. The syllabus isn’t too crazy, but you should definitely give more time to math than physics or chemistry.
Now, full disclosure, I was that idiot who only started studying a day before exams... and, surprise, my grades showed it. Since you’re still in your first year, you’ve got time to explore and enjoy other stuff, just try not to procrastinate like me. You’ve got this - manage your time well and you’ll be fine! As I mentioned before, maths is only for a few semesters.
You don't learn how to ride a bike or play tennis by reading a book. The only way is to try to ride one or go out and hit balls with a racquet.
Something I learned in the first year of the Math Degree is that maths are hard almost by definition.
No matter how good you get, there will always be a problem that will far exceed your capabilities (even if you are Terence Tao).
But if you ask me, this is good, since it means there's no limit to how much one can improve in mathematics. ✨️🔥
I have such a genuine love for learning. As someone who graduated from high school with a super low gpa, and had no confidence in math. I can now say I am pursuing a degree in engineering and gaining confidence I have never had before. If you're reading this, DO NOT DOUBT YOURSELF. You are capable of everything you dedicate yourself to. NOTHING is difficult, you are just not used to it.
Great advise! This is exactly how I became proficient at math (and physics). Actually, I became really good at physics when I was a physics tutor during my university.
Oh yes, of course. Now you go say you finally are "good at math" to everyone. Except every time you cross paths with a problem slightly different to everything you saw before you're back to being a "dumb idiot". Well you never stopped being one, you just masked it very well and memorized a lot of bullshit. Even if you say (and you did) it's not quite like that, the best practice will always be to understand everything to the most fundamental level, that's when you'll achieve true confidence, won't have to study for even half an our to tests, will be able to create, discover, and to solve any logical problem ever. Turns out memorizing less has me creating my own math to solve problems, and it works. No memorizing tons of formulas, no memorizing what to do in certain types of exercises. I understood the base of it all, and I force myself to hardly ever use a concept before fully understanding it. Every time the teacher or any other source doesn't explain where something comes from, I start playing around with it UNTIL I FIND OUT. That's how to truly get good at math, so stop it already. What a disservice.
edit: also apparently I'm nobody cause I really like to get stuck in a hard intriguing problem. I fell as like I'm fighting the final boss in a videogame, soundtrack playing in my head and all.
well said, that was exactly my thought process while watching this video
i don't know how people do that really, if i don't understand something, i can not apply it to anywhere. it defeats the purpose of learning.
@@hakanyukselderin7202 ye, right?
Why I could not avoid to focus on.... fork!!!
lol, just kidding
please keep doing clips.
Many thx
Watching this video made me feel like I can do math. Thank you for this logical motivation, which gives me faith that everyone can become good at math with the right techniques.
What I do that helps me. Is focus on summarizing steps 1. How to identify particular problem 2. Formulas used and all that in between. Writing in steps can help me understand exactly how professor got the answer and also how to solve similar problems in the future 😊
Math is like geometric progression (GP); the more you practice, the faster you will improve.
True. Having a really good grasp on adding and deducting helps with multiplication. It’s essentially adding over and over after all.
Having a really good grasp on multiplication helps with division since it’s the same in reverse. And once you are comfortable with these, exponents become easier learn; exponents are basically multiplying or dividing over and over.
The area of your foundation expands with tools like these. It becomes strong with practice. You can then build anything on it.
Mic holder was lit 😂
Becoming good at math ❌
Becoming good at (up to high school) math exam ✔
As a former math tutor for “challenged” kids, this woman is 100% right. This was my exact approach.
I would demonstrate steps and then instantly have the kid practice the same problem over and over. They’d come back later in that week with an A on their recent math test.
Kids would go from staring at a problem for an hour to effortlessly solving complex questions. Even after their teachers, parents, and everyone else gave up on getting them good at math. Starting to practice almost instantly turned them into the best solvers.
Oh my gosh, the calculus example you gave is the exact situation I am currently in down to a T. I just started university and I have to take Calculus this semester and omg it's the absolute worst. Everyone else seems to immediately understand what's going on but me. I'm an international student too and I don't think I learnt precalculus back in hs and I'm assuming everyone else did. I literally broke down in tears this morning over Calculus, I really want to pass this course so badly but so far it feels like that's not within my gasp. Your study tip on looking at the answers first for a question made something click in me and I'll apply that to my studies so hopefully that'll help
4:44 So she does try to understand the math. The thumbnail is such a clickbait and is very misleading lol
I guess she meant by "understand" that you do not have to go into it and take the logic behind it like if I take trigonometry, When I did it I thought I have to understand it then only I'll do it turns out I just have to give myself an exposure of as many questions to have many ideas ti solve it.. so while doing any question I look at it think of some ideas on how it can be done and if not correct I look at the answer...
Maths is super fun once you understand the basics I went from 45% to 87%
If we dare to move on to the next math problem without finding a solution, there will be consequences 🍴🍴
Nice video!
Mad props for the fork ! that’s some nice smooth physics right there
Yes!!! I love this video so much. I've experienced this so much so far in college where I do well in my hard math classes and people assume it is because I am just a genius/smart/naturally good at math. The truth is that I was like you and I was terrified of all my math classes in high school. I remember the first time I learned about adding a negative number in elementary school and I cried at the dinner table while my parents yelled at me to just understand because they couldn't explain it. It took me a long time to realize that I started at such a low place in math because I was riddled with fear and not able to consciously process for fear of being yelled at or called stupid. Once I realized this, I started to like math again because I found out it's a field where analytical-type people flourish, and I love the satisfaction that comes with successfully computing a problem. I study the same way as you; I try first to do a problem, but if I don't know the answer I will immediately search up how to do it and learn the correct solving algorithm. I mean, you don't know what you don't know! Everyone starts somewhere, and I'm really grateful you made this video. I relate so much to your story, and I hope that more people come to understand this concept that math is more about practice and patience than natural ability.
You see my problem is I am good at everything you say and I am so good at understanding it in class but when I do the homework it is similar to this
In class: a^2 + b^2 = c^2
Homework: Tanisha is filling a sphere 87% filled with water while traveling 77 miles per hour on the highway. Calculate the wind resistance thats slowing down her car and find what % of the suns gravitational pull effects her speed
Like wtf 💀 this is literally nothing we done in class. What does this have to do with pythagorean theorem and where the hell did we go over calculating wind resistance and the suns gravitational pull. And this isnt an exaggeration, yes I made it up but my homework is as ridiculous as this example
I can’t stress enough how important this video is to me. It s about the itching self doubt you can’t scratch. Thank you!
You got this🩷
1 like for holding mic with fork
Definitely a lot of good advice here. My masters degree is in applied mathematics and operations research from the technical university of Denmark, and its interesting to see how many of your experiences mirrors my own. Doing, while reading was a major breakthrough for me, because until you actually do it, and see how much easier you absorb and understand by doing it, it will likes a lot of wasted effort. For example when I did my introductory courses on optimization algorithms, actually programming and animating the the algorithms, made a lot theorems that seem like archaic magic, become instantly intuitive. Really good video.
thank you for voicing my current condition TT feeling blessed to watch this vid. Thanks Han!
honestly can relate to you in your first explanation about failing math and looking dumb whenever I ask others, I'm in the 10th grade and I honestly feel hopeless anyways thank u so much for this video ♥
it helps ♥
i used to be you! i'm in the 11th right now and i was struggling for a while to keep my grades up, but i realized that the time that you spend doing nothing, like scrolling or just laying down can be used to solve math problems. even if you only solve one problem a day, that's still 365 problems in a year. you can do this!
@@_98310 tnank you ♥ and I'm very very positive that with a mindset like yours you'll definitely get where u wanna ☺ 😉
I’m in 10th grade, I’m not bad at math but I do overthink and skip a few steps in math equations, I’ve realized my weakness was 6th grade and up math equations so I’m deciding to relearn math, your not alone
@@_98310 u too! thank you so much😊 also I feel like I've improved so much ever since I took Gad more seriously anyways u got this 😁 sorry for late reply
@@Brusmite-dy9rr 😊🧡
Easy, just be asian.
Wait, i am asian.....
Wait, I'm also Indian!!
Math has been completed
I love your impressive mic. I wonder how many people noticed the fork? Thanks for the video
having ADHD makes math even worse
Make no mistake. When she says she's bad at math, she meant she just couldn't get an A and got an A- or B+ instead.
Yes, that is. She confuses struggle with talent. She has more ambition than talent, so she has been struggling all her life. Most certainly she got her ambition from her parents.
Now she thinks she can coach people with much less ambition.
What a mistake...
See my comment
@@tarhelytarhely5662she said she was failing😂😂
@@tarhelytarhely5662 why are you so salty??? this isnt supposed to make anyone a master at math, it supposed to help you understand enough to pass 😭😭 struggling doesnt make you stupid and calling people stupid for not being a expert is EXACTLY why no one wants to try in the first place 😐
@@lemonsteas I am salty, because the video suggests exactly what you have said.
Good at math=understand enough to pass
And I am salty, because I am a salty person. So I look out for subjects to be salty about :)
Struggling is a sign that you are not up for a task. Feeling stupid means the same for me. The best and brightest persons in the world feel stupid all the time, and they openly admit it.
I think it is morally compelling for everybody to reach the limits of individual personal capabilities. So struggling is natural, if you are on a right path.
But if you reach the level of struggling where your personality changes from "I want to understand this, and be good at it", to "I just want to know enough to pass", then to " I just want to pass, I do whatever it takes", then you have overextended your capabilities.
If that happens, you find yourself surrounded with people much more capable then you. You fought for it, and you got it. So "feeling stupid" which is a relative term, becomes "being stupid", because of your reference system. Better face stupidity before that happens.
This is not about being good at math. It's about being good at passing math courses. These are different things.
I dont agree. Sinceath isore like a language. The answers will make you practice the language till something clilcs and it becomes logical in your brain. Therefore having a positive experience practising really helps. I have a similar experience. I am not at all a math expert, but as a financial analyst I got really good at it only after my studies, by indeed reverse engineering the answers and learning methodologies and simply remember the rules not always understand the rules, which only will be helpful if you will become someone that does math research, yet still you will start understanding anyway by doing
@@PatriceMeijboom You give the example of languages; let's go with that. I'd say that being fluent in Turkish is not the same as passing Turkish courses. If someone makes a video called "being fluent in Turkish is easy", but spends all the time on how to practise answering exam questions, then I think it's fair to say "This is not about being fluent in Turkish . It's about being good at passing Turkish courses. These are different things." And if they tell you you can be fluent in Turkish while not understanding it, then they are clearly not being honest with themselves.