i just spent 150 dollars to buy a linear algebra textbook with one day shipping from amazon. why did i do this? because i want to pass linear algebra this semester. see, this whole time, i thought all this linear algebra stuff was just over my head and that's why i couldn't seem to get higher than a C (sometimes low ones at that) on tests. then i went to amazon and checked the reviews for the textbook we're actually using this semester. it sucks. the one review of the book states everything that is wrong with the textbook better than i could. but, since this is my blog, i will proceed to bitch and complain because that is my godgiven right as an american.
the textbook is incomprehensible. it's not the subject matter. it's the presentation minus the explication along with an egregious absence of appropriate examples. there are almost no visual aids in the material despite the fact that they would be enormously helpful. nice, visual, geometric representations of the material would be wonderous. however, the book mostly provides abstract theory and proofs. that's great for someone reviewing material they've already studied. for someone who is new to the material, it is a horror of horrors.
i found class notes for a linear algebra class online. i read them. what seemed so horribly difficult to understand before was crystal clear after reading them. so, i decided to buy a textbook from amazon that had great reviews. let's hope i pass. i really don't want to take 5 classes next semester if i can help it. no no no. just no.
Monday, May 09, 2005
I Can't Think Of A Title For This Post
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1 comment:
yukino, i think it's just the way our undergrad institution taught math - it made courses that could be digested with a reasonable amount of work at any other institution completely incomprehensible. i took honors multivariable calculus at the university of north carolina the year before i took it at harvard, and i got one of the higher grades in the class. so i decided to pad my grade my freshman year by taking it again, and it was a miserable miserable experience. i ended up with a C+, and although i managed to talk my way up to a B- (those assholes rounded DOWN!!!), i'm still bitter. math should be logical and intuitive, not some weird exercise in deconstruction.
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