Chapter 0 How to Learn Mathematics
The sections that follow are intended to introduce you, the student, to methods that will help you become a self-sufficient learner of mathematics. That does not mean that you are expected to re-invent mathematics on your own or that you must learn without the help of other people.
On the contrary, being a self-sufficient learner of mathematics means that you have the skills, resources, and confidence to learn whatever mathematics you want, whenever you want. This may be in the context of a future math class or it may be many years from now when your career requires you to use mathematics that you have either forgotten or never learned.
Since all mathematics is recorded in writing, either in books or online, we will begin by discussing how to read mathematics. Then, since learning mathematics involves solving mathematical problems, we will discuss a general problem-solving framework (that will likely be useful for any other situation where you need to break down a complex problem). Finally, we discuss how to "study" mathematics, meaning how to take new mathematical knowledge and integrate it into your memory in a way that you can retrieve it when needed.
