Hello! I really like your blog and it somehow makes me feel good and safe, your notes are really pretty! When I look at them they seem so interesting and I wish to understand them but the problem is I haven't even started university (I have just finished high school) and I'm kind of scared thinking it would be too difficult for me to grasp. It is just so different from high school math but at the same much more fascinating. Do you perhaps have any advice on how to introduce myself to it, where to start? Or should I just wait for the classes to start and then study?Best wishes to you!! Thank you
I just want you to know that mathematics is difficult at the University level but it is not more difficult than any other university course.It is just different.📚
So how is mathematics different and why you shouldn't get discouraged by it?
There is an entire book written on it.It is called 'Alex's Adventures in Numberland' written by Alex Bellos.There is one particular page that I really like.It talks about how are brain perceives the world around us on a logarithmic scale but mathematics is linear and that is why we have to put the extra effort into it (To convert logarithmic to linear) but according to me this extra effort is far less than wading through hundreds of textbooks often contradicting each other that many other university courses require. Here is the cover page of the book I recommended if you would like to read it.
Apart from having a positive attitude towards it I think it'll be great if you could start studying it before your university begins.
So from where should you start?
If you know where you'll be going for your university studies then you can check if your university has uploaded their notes online and start accordingly.Some old students also usually post their notes,so see if you can get your hands on them.If these two options fail then there are two more.Oxford university has made all their mathematics notes avalilable.You can start with their Introduction to mathematics and complex numbers course (I'll put the link at the end).A student from Cambridge University named Dexter Chua also has made his notes available.You can start with Numbers and sets if you use his notes (Again I'll put the link at the end).
https://courses.maths.ox.ac.uk/overview/undergraduate
https://dec41.user.srcf.net/notes/
You should be fine with these but the beginning steps into mathematics needs a little more help.You can use the book called as 'How to prove it:A structured approach' by Daniel J. Velleman.If you can read this with the first course that you are taking (your university notes or Oxbridge notes) then I think you'll enjoy the course more just like I did.Here is the image of the book
If you want to know more then I'm just a message away so feel free to ask your doubts.
And thank you for all your compliments hehe ^_^