r/matheducation

Sto lavorando da tempo sul problema delle difficoltà che incontrano gli studenti quando iniziano Analisi Matematica 1 e mi interessa capire quanto pesino realmente le basi precedenti.

Per chi l'ha già affrontata o la sta affrontando adesso: qual è stato il punto in cui avete cominciato a perdervi?

Limiti e forme indeterminate? Studio di funzione? Derivate? Oppure il problema era ancora precedente: algebra, disequazioni, logaritmi, trigonometria e altri argomenti che all'università vengono spesso dati per acquisiti?

Mi interessa soprattutto capire se la difficoltà maggiore sia stata comprendere i nuovi concetti di Analisi oppure seguire passaggi matematici che il corso considerava già noti.

Ieri vi avevo chiesto quale fosse stata la difficoltà maggiore incontrata con Analisi 1 e non mi aspettavo così tante risposte.

Ne sono uscite esperienze molto diverse: basi poco solide, difficoltà con il linguaggio matematico, dimostrazioni, collegamento tra gli argomenti, studio troppo meccanico, difficoltà nel capire quale procedimento utilizzare e soprattutto il famoso “perché?” dietro ai vari passaggi.

Stavolta vorrei fare la domanda opposta.

Per chi all'inizio era in difficoltà e poi è riuscito a sbloccarsi: che cosa avete cambiato concretamente?

Non intendo necessariamente cosa avete studiato di più, ma cosa ha fatto davvero la differenza nel vostro modo di affrontare la materia.

C'è stato un momento, un metodo, una risorsa o semplicemente un cambio di mentalità dopo il quale Analisi ha iniziato finalmente ad avere più senso?

Se doveste dare un solo consiglio allo studente che oggi si trova nella situazione in cui eravate voi all'inizio, quale sarebbe?

I'm building a math practice game for grades 4–6 and keep hitting the same design problem. In quiz-style review games (Kahoot-type), the fastest kids win, and everyone else checks out after their first wrong answer.

Things that seem to help:

- team progress instead of an individual leaderboard

- points for accuracy, not speed

- a comeback mechanic, so one mistake doesn't end your game

What works in your classroom or tutoring sessions? Do leaderboards help or hurt your weaker students?

My 10 y.o. son really likes math, and his school doesn't have an accelerated track. I signed him up for Math Academy in August, and he's been loving it, but I've seen a number of people here mention Beast Math.

Does anyone have experience with both? What are the relative strengths/weaknesses?

Thanks!

Maybe this is a non-sensical question but here is where I'm coming from.

I'm in the middle of a bioinformatics program. Growing up I always struggled with math. I do a lot of analytics work now and I've been learning more and more about Linear Algebra, Calculus, Probability Theory, and Statistics, so I'm a little bit late to the party when it comes to learning math and I don't have a good pen-and-paper math skills. I do basically all of my work on the computer, in programs like Python, R, and Julia, and I understand the concepts pretty well and how they related to each other (example an integral being the limit of the Riemann sums, a determinant of zero meaning a linear transformation collapses space into a lower dimension, etc), but if you ask me to even do a basic integration or determinant calculation by hand, I wouldn't even know where to start. I just compute them with functions of code.

I guess my worry is that if I was ever working on a team and we were having a discussion about some concepts and mathematics came up, if I had to go up on the board and do some basic math I would not even be able to do anything apart from basic arithmetic and pushing around variables.

I guess my question is do you think there are some pen-and-paper skills that are still essential nowadays (e.g. factoring, derivatives, integrals, etc.)? Curious to hear people's thoughts.

Sorry everyone, English is not my first language, so forgive me if my writing is all over the place 😅. I'm a 22-year-old mechanical engineering graduate in India. From my childhood, I liked mathematics more than any other subject because it was the only area where I liked spending my time. I was shit at memorising, so I couldn't score much in other subjects. As I started high school, I realised I wasn't special. There were so many people better than me, and I always felt like I wasn't enough. Slowly, the joy of learning became the stress of who's going to be better, and the competition to get into good colleges in India is crazy!! I slowly stopped putting in effort. I did engineering at a very mid-level college and am now working in a core sector as a trainee. My job does involve using engineering knowledge, but it isn't the job I wanted. I didn't honestly study properly during college, so this is the only job I could get. Now I'm trying to relearn and appear for an entrance exam that is needed to do a Master's and get a good job as an engineer. So my biggest fear is this: In college, even though I loved learning engineering mathematics, I'm so scared of starting to study again. I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I have forgotten some basic high school stuff. How can I ever master these complex things? Is it possible to relearn properly from the beginning, or should I just admit this is the level I am capable of? I know this sounds silly, but every time I hope to clear the exam, it just feels like daydreaming. I have tried so many times to start learning, but I get scared or procrastinate and leave it in the middle 😔. Any math geniuses, students, or engineers, is it really true that average students can't overcome their threshold? I don't want false hopes, just a solution for whether I should just be happy with what I have or strive for more.

TL;DR: I used to genuinely enjoy maths and learning, but competition and constantly comparing myself to others made me lose that joy. I didn't study properly during engineering and now I'm scared to start again because I've forgotten even some basic concepts. I want to prepare for a Master's entrance exam, but every time I try, I feel like I'm just daydreaming about clearing it. Can an average student genuinely rebuild their fundamentals and reach a high level, or should I accept my current limitations?