My Journey Back to Math: A Short Review of MathAcademy | Hacker News Reader

My Journey Back to Math: A Short Review of MathAcademy

staszewski.xyz

17 pointsgmays15 comments

Is there some kind of marketing campaign by MathAcademy targeting hn or is it just an amazing product? I’ve seen multiple similar blog posts via here from blogs with very few or no other articles published, as well as various commenters singing its praises. Including other submissions by the submitter. Is it just that good?

I keep wondering this too.

I’ve been tempted to try it because I tend to view HN as an organic place, and I’ve seen it pop up on the front page so many times.

But I have ultimately hesitated to try it because it feels like a suite of targeted ads.

For what it's worth, I've tried and I loved it. It feels a bit like grinding Anki flashcards - nearly 100% of your time is used productively.

Did you use it in a goal oriented way or just for fun?

I’m hoping to solidifying some previously learned ML maths skills (mostly LA & calc), but also want to expand my stats knowledge. I’m thinking of trying it to see if it piques enough of a passion to shift into a more ML oriented role.

I did it for several months for fun and enjoyed it.

They use a placement test to figure out where you'll start. They offer a college level statistics course. And you're in luck: their marquee course focuses on ML math.

It's like how people tend to evangelize Anki. Is it hyped? Yes. Is it actually worth the hype? Also yes.

I use it, it’s pretty good at keeping me engaged at the right difficulty level. However its treatment of topics is a bit shallow, focusing more on drilling problem solving techniques rather than going deep on the concepts being taught. I usually supplement the lessons with YouTube videos explaining the concepts in more detail, then use math academy as an “adaptive” workbook.

Have you done a systematic/blind analysis of the mention frequency? Without it, you’re subject to bias.

If it's a campaign, I fell for it, and regret nothing. I've been doing it for about a week now, but it really hits the sweet spot with my needs for brushing up my math. I finally feel it's within my grasp to get to the level I want. And it's incredibly convenient, you feel you're actuy making progress and it keeps the challenge at the juuuust right level(I've noticed this is incredibly important).

If its an ad, it sure worked on me. I'll report back in a month. (maybe remind me if i forget haha). My maths is quite weak and i'm trying to go through this to supliment my fairly maths heavy data science course

“ Then in my mid teens I had horrible math teachers that made me hate the subject. All the years have passed and I still feel that it wasn’t me be being rebellious that I didn’t pay any attention to their class. They made me feel stressed whenever the class was coming up.”

It seems like there is no accountability in teachers/coaches who sap the joy from whatever they’re supposed to be guiding our young to improve on. I’d much prefer the teacher who keeps the spirit of kids high on the subject, even if they make less progress. I’ve seen way too many talented kids give up because of one bad teacher/coach.

I'm doing a Math major right now as an undergrad, in my final year, and I've honestly lost a lot of motivation and passion for maths. I realized early enough I wasn't cut out for the challenging pure maths courses anyways, but I never imagined myself souring to the subject to this degree -- the courses are paced too fast, and I never feel like I'm able to take my time getting familiar and comfortable with the material enough. So it's nice to hear these accounts. I hope later on I can come back and learn more maths at my own pace, in my own time.

" I feel like when I don’t post what I learn, I’m becoming less interested in it with time"

I know the word "autotelic". Is this "exotelic"?

(And, obviously I don't understand it - WALDT)

  Time to finish a quiz varies from a few minutes to 10-15 minutes. Most of the time I have to take it twice, cause I’m not that fast and I fail it on the first try.

You can give yourself extra time on tests. In Settings -> Accommodations.

I wouldn't do that, still. If you fail, it forces a review and better automatism because it pushes you to be faster. I think best results come from just leaving it as-is.

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