Hi! I'm working on Nabla, a free math tutor: Nabla

Type your working or snap a photo of your notebook, and it marks the line where your first mistake is and what kind of mistake it is. It doesn't give you the answer, just a hint. It also tells you when you got the right result with wrong working.

It covers equations through derivatives, including the topics on university entrance exams. If it gets something wrong, you can send your exercise to a teacher who'll explain it.

It's still in testing, so if you try it with your homework and tell me what breaks, that helps a ton. 🙌

I was taking to Gemini AI about this math theory but wanted to see if anyone else has an idea? Either from a math/science or philosophical standpoint. I dont have any formal math training besides taking the normal math classes a STEM major takes, but have studied real analysis, proofs, topology, etc in my free time.

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College freshman here, I have a passion for engineering and so obviously I want to get good at calculus. My first calc exam I studied a few days in advance for, took it, mind went blank, got a 30%. I decided this time around I would start studying 2 weeks in advance learning how to do each type of problem, practicing 3-4 similar problems, and so on and so forth. Just took the test and my mind went blank and I remembered basically nothing that I spent so long studying, even though when I studied it all the processes made sense to me. It feels as if calculus is like trying to learn another language off of just remembering past conversations, so I have no idea what to do. Any tips are massively appreciated.

Hi everyone,

I’m writing from Turkey! I’m currently taking a gap year to prepare for our university entrance exams. I work hard every day, but I’ve hit a huge wall when it comes to math word problems.

When I study the concepts or watch video solutions, everything makes total sense. I get the logic and the formulas easily. However, as soon as I sit down with a practice book by myself, I struggle to translate the text/story into a mathematical equation.

Because I fail to make that initial connection, I get demotivated very quickly, feel bad about myself, and end up giving up or walking away from my desk. It feels like a total mental block.

For those who have gone through this and overcome it:

1.How did you train your brain to step-by-step convert story problems into math?

2.How do you deal with the frustration and demotivation when you get stuck repeatedly

Any advice, mental frameworks, or practical study tips would mean a lot to me right now. Thanks in advance!

Keeping it short; I'm applying to (applied) math PhD programs in the US, and I'm sorta doing some guided reading on dynamic programming, and connections to mean field theory right now. Also, some optimal transport. I'm concerned never taking intro to PDEs is gonna really hinder me beyond the whole applications part.

The thing is, I'm kind of faking the fact that I'm familiar with PDE theory; like I never took the course because I had a bad experience in my intro to ODEs class (full of engineers), but I've been realizing that I kinda need it to talk about most of the results in the readings. I'm more comfortable with being unfamiliar with measure theory, which does come up a lot in OT; the PDE stuff, which I feel I should be familiar with by now, is the more troubling part.

My prof is OK teaching me this cus I took his Stochastic Calc course and I had some exposure to PDEs there, but honestly I've always had a bit of a lousy understanding past the simple classifications of PDEs, and the qualitative descriptions of them. I'm concerned that I'm not going to be able to work with more complicated SDEs (HJB, Mckean Vlasov, Fokker-Planck) if this keeps up, and I can't take a PDE sequence until grad school (a year from now).

Also, I kind of don't enjoy how PDEs are motivated with physics; could just be a personal preference.

I've considered picking up a traditional intro to PDE book, but that's lowkey a BIG time commitment I'd have to carve out.

Any tips on what I should do?

Currently a grad student on track to get a math PhD, but I've hit a brick wall and realized I have ADHD with a recent diagnosis. It's been hard to adjust to focusing for long periods of time in grad school, since somehow I got by in undergrad. Any tips?

I have an exam coming up on Friday. I was just wondering if anyone was familiar with ODE’s and would help me study since none of my classmates seem to be available.

I can learn and solve problems but I don’t understand the real world application of it. I struggle to visualize what is going on, and I want to understand the “why”. An example is trigonometric derivatives, 2nd order derivatives, or (Duf) directional derivatives, etc, super easy but I don’t know “why” it’s done that way. Right now, I just memorize the steps rather than understanding the real world application. I want to look at a question or solution and understand why it’s done that way. I couldn’t explain it to anyone. I just solve

So I'm here to ask if anybody knows how do I study or continue my study of Linear Algebra. I know like very basics of math.

Currently I'm watching the Esceene of Linear Algebra by 3Blue1Brown but I don't know what to do after, should I do practice qns or watch any other course.

I also want to add that purchasing any books will be hard task for me because they aren't locally available and shipping isn't also a major option.

I am a foundational learner. I need to understand why and how something works before I can use it properly, and having the basics behind them explained clearly helps me enormously. For example, I want a book that explains concepts and how and why that’s true, like a good physics or physical chemistry textbook (im a physics major). Any recommendations would be appreciated.

can someone please help me find a good yt channel for BCA maths? im in my first semester and they don't teach us anything in clg😭

in school im used to a part of subtracting polynomials being distributing the subtraction sign, the "negative sign" into the parentheses. i understand that doing so is the same as multiplying everything by -1 (well why do i have to do that?) as a positive sign multiples everything by 1 which just equals itself.

in the ordinary integer simplifying question: 7−(−4−3)−9 we do not distribute the subtraction sign into (-4-3). but if this was a polynomial we totally would.

the book im using to self study (Openstax but ive switched to a different open source) explains that - outside of a negative number by itself is actually a positive number because the - sign is asking for the opposite of the number within parentheses. i could get that if it was consistent.

i know the answer to the question, im not really asking how to solve it, im asking what is with this weird rule that applies situationally i cant find much about online?

is "distributing the negative sign" some sort of law? a shortcut for something else? why is it necessary, why cant we keep everything the same? is it related to when we have a variable-- how?

Cause then it would be a point, no one can see

If π/e were rational, then so would be its reciprocal, e/π. This means both π/e and e/π can be expressed as a fraction of 2 natural numbers, a,b where a and b ∈ N. So, a/b * b/a, given that both variables are natural numbers, would yield "a natural number over itself," before simplifying to 1. However, I get (πe)/(πe), which is "1" anyway, but it is "an irrational over itself," based on the assumption (since both π/e and πe cannot be rational). A natural number times a different natural number wouldn't yield an irrational number.

I'm 31 and based in the UK (sorry we call it maths here) and I've struggled with numbers and the whole subject my whole life. I excelled in most of my other subjects at school, however when it came to mathematics, I just couldn't get my head around it. I was extremely fortunate that I received extra help at school and that my parents recognised my struggles and had me going to personal maths tutor, but despite all this I still only got a C in maths (I'm fairly convinced that the grade boundaries were heavily lowered though due to our school year doing so badly).

During college, the tutors recognised my struggles and organised some sort of dsycalculia assessment type thing along with other students who were struggling. Stupidly, I never finished the assessment (turns out I had undiagnosed ADHD which I've only had diagnosed this year), so I never found out.

I have a degree in Biology which thankfully doesn't have too much maths involved, but I've had enough of just getting by trying to avoid the subject, so the last few months I've been trying to re-learn it starting from the very basics. My partner is a maths whizz and he offered to help me, claiming that I probably just had bad teachers, but then he said he was finding it difficult because I just can't grasp basic stuff and I ask weird questions like "but why is a 7, 7"? or "but why is this number on top during a fraction?". Just getting really deep into it, it's like a whole different language for me. I can't visualise numbers and calculations, even when I write it down and my brain just gets muddled so easily. I couldn't figure out 20/1=20.. because I can't visualise it, I just see a different language that I need to try memorise, so I don't know the difference between 20/1 or 1/20. It's embarrassing because I still need to do basic maths in my job and I can't do simple stuff because I just don't understand it, or I know the answer but I don't understand why that's the answer. Sometimes I overthink a correct asnwer so much that I end up making it incorrect.

I'm so embarassed and sad about this. I feel like no matter how hard I try, I just can't get it. When I was learning basic fractions, I had to draw pictures of pizza slices and stuff and I was still getting it wrong. I'm 31 years old and I can't do basic fractions or times tables or literal primary school maths. No matter which method I try, I get confused. I've tried books, youtube videos, mock tests, my partner going through questions with me.

I don't know what to do, I really want to keep trying to learn but it's just making me feel depressed and stupid :(

I can say im actually decent at understanding math. However each week theres new lessons, and i have 3 subjects about math (Diffcal, math in modern world, and math for engineers.)

Heres how my study would go.

Id learn this new concept in math (like logarithms) then when i find that im weak at factoring, i spend so much time reviewing it to fully absorb it. Then when i return to logarithms, i find that i also have gaps in knwoledge when it comes to equations. So thats another thing that will eat up my time. Then my time has been fully eaten up and i havent even started to solve problems in logarithms and then its quiz day. I feel like i review so much and focus too much on fundamentals. Its so overwhelming and i feel dumb.

Any tips? ​

So my iq is low like 120 ( it was tested when I was 14 years old )

I really love this subject but I read some studies regarding how high iq is required to understand and so high level mathematics

Should I pursue maths

I’ll keep it short and simple. During sixth grade, he had a 100 in math straight up.
But he’s now in 12th grade and his brain completely shuts down when he has to do math.

He’s had around three awful math teachers
One was obsessed with homework every day and you had to get a 100 just to turn it in. Meaning he had to do hours of constant correcting.

Another one just had another student teach for him, which made it awkward and he eventually stopped trying.

And then the third one was that kind of teacher that just told you to Google it instead of actually teaching

I just feel like there’s nothing I can do to help and he feels like he’s hopeless that his brain is completely shot when it comes to this.

Is it true that you can have trauma from bad math to where your brain will shut down from it?

Retaking the pert test to skip remedial math. ( I should probably take them but I am trying to take my time and really focus on learning the fundamentals of math since I've always sucked at it and I also want to save money on courses)

I know I should do a lot of practice problems, but for the people who are taking more advanced math in college, how are you able to remember all the previous math you've taken? Ive been told all math just keeps building off previous math, so how does one continue to remember all the math they've learned? Say one is going to take college algebra, then calc, then maybe statistics ? Or whatever the order is lol

i’m struggling to understand how to identify whether a slope is increasing or decreasing in a reciprocal quadratic function, more specifically the intervals between the vertical asymptote and the axis of symmetry. if it’s a positive function where the “U” shape opens down, would the slope of the first half be decreasing because the left of it starts steep and goes downward? sorry this was a really bad description i’d add a picture but i’m not really sure how

I'm studying for my GED. im passing the homework given so far. but everything i do its only because of the help of tutors. alone i have no clue at all what im doing. and i feel like when i think i understand how to solve a problem, there's always another way to solve it, and then it just confuses me. i'm not at all experienced in math growing up. so when i see how easily everyone else, it makes me feel incapable and useless. i'm gonna keep studying. even if it won't matter in the end.