I decided for the first time in my life I'm actually going to read the books. I have about 100 pages of reading material to go, and four days to do it.



What I am noticing thus far is that while not incomprehensible, I am having trouble figuring out exactly what is going on from the initial reading.



I'm curious how to approach this. Should I throw tons of time at the reading, or should I just read it so I have seen what is going on and hope that when it is taught (thus seeing it a second time) it makes a lot more sense to me than it would if I had not read it and gone to class?



Much of this is more mild proofs and concepts I already know, but shown in a linear algebra context. Part of the problem I think is that my education in linear algebra sucked.


 

Duke or UNC?

Honestly good books are hard to find, especially textbooks. I am not an economist, but economics books are more similar to math books than anything else.

The only thing that can help is reading a lot, and reading the same topic presented by different people. It also helps to take classes, and to take classes on the same topics, presented at gradually increasing difficulty. It takes a lot of time.

As for linear algebra, when I took it (I was a freshman in college), we used a book by G. Strang, which is a decent intro book. Different people will tell you different books. What is important is that when you a read a textbook, not only do you read, but you do the problems. Being able to do the problems in a book shows a much higher level of understanding than just being able to read the book. I remember I took the linear algebra course over the summer, and I didn't have anyone to work with. I struggled a lot, but at the same time, solving problems in isolation, without any help other than the book and your brain, leads to deep understanding and, honestly, a lot of satisfaction.

I can tell you that linear algebra is probably the most useful math I've ever learned.

Good luck.

Heh, I'm now here (NCSU) and the semester is almost over.



I've figured out how to study.


 

Damn I didn't even look at the date.

I guess this forum doesn't get too much attention.