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Comment by 1457389 | Hacker News Reader

I'm in this category. I guess my excuse is that I did Bio instead. What's the best way to get up to speed without having to go back to school? I stopped at linear algebra in undergrad but I probably need to refresh that as well. Would appreciate any thoughts you have.

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Without getting bewildered I would suggested going through these 3:

1. Book of Proof by Hammack (http://www.people.vcu.edu/~rhammack/BookOfProof/)

2. Calculus by Spivak

3. Linear Algebra Done Right by Axler

Be prepared to work through all (or at the very least only the odd numbered) exercises. If you can't stomach that or find that life gets in the way of you completing even these very basic books, you do not have the time or discipline required to advance in mathematics.

Thank you!

If you make it through all of those, pick up Hubbard and Hubbard's Vector Calculus for a unified treatment of multivariable calculus and linear algebra.

might be worth noting that "calculus by spivak" is famously mistitled and is what people today call an intro analysis text. (says so right in the intro :-)

there are now "warm up" books (alcock) as well as even more basic real analysis books (abbott, about half the length of spivak).

The first two years of math in any engineering curriculum should cover these topics. Look up the books, lecture materials and videos from various universities online. It is important to try out the homework exercises to absorb the knowledge.

Thanks, I've started on a couple MOOCs but the ones that sound interesting end up being over my head,

Yeah that is why the coursework is spread over two years to help students absorb the knowledge. You just have to put a lot of time into it.

Schaum's Outlines are also good if all you really need is a refresher, or to use concurrently with learning the material fresh.

try a statistics class and a linear algebra class from coursera.

Thanks!

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