MATH1651 - Overview
Introduction
Because I spent most of high school on a construction site, I
ended up needing to self-teach most of the math I know. I
recognize a lot of the course material as things I learned
from brilliant.org before I ever started in University, and
I am lucky that I by chance happened to build a solid math
foundation via self-teaching before starting University.
For those of you taking MATH 1651 as mature students, you may be
in a similar boat, and after having already completed Calculus
and Statistics during my first year, the best advice I can
give for learning math as adults is that it is important to
learn rules for exponents, fractions, square roots,
trig, geometry, polynomials, and anything else that you can
find that you may have missed or forgotten from high school.
For those of you fresh into TRU after high school or a relevant
college program, congrats! You already probably have what you
should know for beginning this course. Feel free to use these
resources to supplement your existing knowledge.
I have compiled here a list of important resources that I have
studied during this course as a student, or from my earlier curiosity,
and hope that they can benefit you as much as they have benefitted
me. I have sorted them into general resources and then for each
module of our program.
Preparatory Resources
If you have some money to spend, you will likely benefit from
Brilliant.org, which is where I formed my foundation
of math knowledge. A subscription costs between 10-30$ USD/CAD
monthly at the time I am writing this. I no longer use Brilliant as a
service, but it taught me the basics of many
things that come up in this course before I even started.
For mature students, I strongly
recommend giving Brilliant a solid go before even enrolling in this
course. You won't regret it, and it will teach you a lot of what is
in this course already if you go through the logic, symbols, algebra,
and other course-related sections.
Check out Brilliant.org!
Other than, or in addition to brilliant, make sure to brush up on the following basic math rules, as they can prevent you from making small mistakes and ensure that you can present your answers in the proper format:
Simplifying Square Roots
Exponent Rules
Fraction Rules
Can fractions be Negative?
If you're like me starting and haven't done math in a while, you may feel more comfortable
after practicing general algebra before starting this course. I feel no shame
in ocassionally practicing algebra after not doing math in a long time, as it
fires up my math brain and gets me ready for more complex topics. Think of it
as a warmup - You wouldn't stop working out for a year and head to the gym to
lift the biggest weight of your life, so don't feel bad about practicing y=mx+b
before heading into university level math.
Here are some khan academy lessons that make a good warmup:
Khan Academy - Forms of Linear Equations
Khan Academy - Trigonometry
If you're really not familiar with math, here is a link to all algebra on Khan Academy, which is likely more than what you need, but I included it here because I think it can provide the math you need to know to start this course. It's probably overkill to do all of this for most people, but if someone had zero math knowledge, I'd think that this could get them ready for not just this course, but any first year math course. For most people, just pick out things you see in this course that you struggle with, and it should be a useful adjunct to your learning.
Khan Academy - All Algebra
General Advice
As a student in this course, my advice for others studying are:
1 - Practice: Make sure to do lots of extra practice on anything
you find yourself not doing well consistently. Use the study
resources in this guide to find places to practice concepts from this course,
and search the internet for more if you find yourself struggling with something
not covered here or in the course material. The practice questions in this course
do a good job of teaching concepts, but repetition is how you can get the best
results when problem solving.
2 - Graphing & Computational programs: Don't hesitate to make use
of math-specific programs to suit your needs. Some examples of ones I like
to use are:
Wolfram Alpha (link) is an
amazing resource for graphing out examples, calculating solutions, and asking
questions. The free features are good enough for me most of the time, and I use
it to get extra practice out of the textbook by having it find answers to
questions where no answer is given, as well as
generating practice problems (link)
and graphing out things I wonder about. Check it out, play with it, and
if you get something wrong, it should be able to solve it for you and show
you how it did it.
Symbolab (link) is similar to
wolfram alpha, and contains some generators for practice problem types
that wolfram alpha does not have, like vector angle and projections. Check
this one out too, because between sybmolab and wolfram alpha you should have
many bases covered.
Desmos (link) is a graphing
calculator, right in your browser. It isn't as useful in this course as it
would be in calculus, but it's good to know.
3 - Glossary: Make sure to follow the advice in the study guide and
take notes, on paper or on the computer, recording all relevant keywords
and concepts in this course in the way that they make
the most sense to you. This is important to have because the modules are mostly
disconnected and it is easy to forget things you aren't regularly using. Make
your glossary/notes and go over them regularly. I like to color-code my notes,
as this helps me read and understand easier. Here's an example:
4 - Talk to others!: Don't be afraid to ask for help from friends,
fellow students, faculty, or anyone else who may know useful things. I don't
have this luxury because I am studying online, but to those that do, do
not squander it! There's a reason we can use language, and it can make things much
easier to understand.
Navigation
Finally, I have separated resources by module. The three ways to navigate are:
1: Via the side menu, under "Study Resources -> Math 1651"
2: Via the module menu at the top of the study guide pages
3: Via the links at the bottom of the page: