How to Learn Math Faster in College
This post explains why the fastest long term way to learn college mathematics is actually to slow down at the beginning, read the textbook properly, and build the right habits before the courses become advanced.
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How to Learn Math Faster in College
A reflection on why textbook based learning, office hours, early preparation, and slower foundational study can help students move much faster later in college mathematics.
Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ZEF19K3Q9Qo
What This Post Covers
- Why learning math faster often begins by learning it more slowly at first
- Why reading the textbook early matters more than watching online shortcuts
- Why office hours can dramatically improve how you write solutions on exams
- Why students often hit a wall in junior year if they skipped the textbook process
- Why foundational algebra and trigonometry habits control later success in calculus and beyond
Introduction
This post argues that the quickest long term path through college mathematics is not the one that feels fastest at the beginning. Instead, it is the path where you slow down, learn from the textbook, read ahead before the semester starts, and build the habits that make higher level books readable later on.
The main warning here is that shortcut learning may help students finish homework faster or pass earlier courses, but it often leaves them unable to read the more demanding material that appears in junior year mathematics, physics, and engineering courses.
Main Ideas
1. You learn faster later by going slower first
The core argument is that students who take the time to struggle through algebra, trigonometry, pre calculus, and calculus textbooks develop the reading habits that make later mathematics much easier. The early climb is hard, but it pays off when advanced material becomes manageable.
2. The textbook is the real subject
This post insists that if your course is built around a certain book, then leaving that book means leaving the subject as it is being taught. Different books may cover similar topics, but they do not structure ideas, notation, and expectations in the same way.
3. Office hours can save your grade
One especially practical point here is that students can learn a lot by having professors grade or review a problem in front of them during office hours. That helps students see how solutions are expected to be written, which can improve performance far more than guessing what the professor wants.
4. Junior year exposes weak foundations
The post warns that many students manage to get through earlier courses by mimicking methods and memorizing patterns, but once the books become denser in linear algebra, differential equations, and higher courses, those weak reading habits become a major problem.
5. Early preparation is a major advantage
Another key recommendation is to start reading the book before the semester begins. Even getting a couple of chapters ahead can make the course feel far more manageable, especially because the first chapters are often the hardest transition point for many students.
Post Summary
This talk opens with the idea that the importance of the textbook cannot be overstated when it comes to learning mathematics in college. The speaker reflects on how relying too much on the internet earlier in the degree created serious problems later, especially once the material became advanced enough that the books themselves had to be read closely and independently.
One of the clearest practical suggestions in the post is to use office hours strategically. Rather than waiting to be told exactly what to do, students can go to a professor during office hours and ask to see how a problem should be written and graded. That direct exposure to the instructor’s expectations can improve exam writing and overall performance dramatically.
The discussion then turns to what it really means to learn math faster. The answer given is somewhat paradoxical. You do not speed up by rushing through the early material with videos and shortcuts. You speed up by slowly building the skill of reading from textbooks in algebra, trigonometry, pre calculus, and calculus. Once that skill is built, later books become far less intimidating.
The climb is compared to going up a hill. Struggling through the early books is the uphill part. Once you have done that work, reading new mathematics later becomes more like moving downhill. The effort is not gone, but the direction changes because you already have the habits that the subject requires.
A major warning in the post is that online math content may help students finish assignments quickly, but it can quietly set them up for long term failure in math based degrees. Watching other people solve problems is compared to watching someone lift weights. You may learn what they are doing, but you are not actually building your own strength by watching alone.
This becomes especially dangerous in fields like mathematics, physics, and engineering, where textbook reading is not optional. Those subjects depend on intricate print, structure, notation, and formal progression. Students who walk away from that process may survive lower level coursework, but eventually the books themselves become unavoidable.
The post also explains that every textbook is its own structured environment. If your course uses one author’s calculus book and you study heavily from another, you may think you are learning the same subject, but in practice you are stepping outside the structure of your actual course. Different books may reach similar mathematical conclusions while using different language, notation, flow, and emphasis.
The speaker argues that the earlier students start learning directly from textbooks, the better. If this process begins as early as algebra, later advanced courses become much easier to navigate. If it does not begin until junior year, students may discover that they have been passing courses without really learning how to read the scientific and mathematical data they are expected to work with.
There is also an important point about patience. Students often want to understand everything immediately, but advanced mathematics does not always work that way. Sometimes the right move is to apply the structure, trust the author’s framework, and let deeper understanding arrive over time. Not everything has to make perfect conceptual sense at the first encounter.
Another recurring argument is that many students confuse speed with progress. Rushing through algebra and pre calculus with online help may feel efficient, but it often leaves major holes in knowledge. Those holes show up later when the student realizes they do not actually understand the algebra underlying more advanced work.
The post concludes that if you truly want to learn mathematics faster in college, you must start by taking the slower, more methodical path. Read the books early. Stay with the assigned source. Use office hours. Build the skill of reading scientific print. The speed comes later, after the structure is in place.
In short, the message is that serious progress in college mathematics comes from discipline, patience, and repeated exposure to textbook based study. The fastest route is the one that trains you to handle the books directly instead of avoiding them.
Closing Thought
If you want mathematics to feel easier later, the best investment is to make it harder in the right way now. Struggle with the textbook early, and future courses stop feeling like a wall.
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Original Transcript
fills a finite void. And uh but but anyways, the the the importance of the textbook, how to learn math faster in college. Look, you’re going to you young man or lady, you’re going to learn math way faster than everybody else because you struggled through the textbook learning at algebra. I didn’t start learning from the textbooks until linear algebra and differential equations. And and I mean, I did at first with algebra, but then I transitioned in the internet. I found the internet. I’m like, “Oh, wow. Everybody’s doing my homework for me. This is such an easy way to fail college to have everybody do your homework for you on YouTube. [laughter] Like, but I got the junior year. I’m a I’m a relentless kind of person though. And I got the junior year and I I I couldn’t I didn’t know how to read these books. And that was very problematic. And so then uh then I learned how to read them. And it it caused me a lot of uh pain and suffering because had I had I had I read the syllabus and did did what the syllabus had said and worked from the textbook, had I been a bit bit more strategic, less arrogant, less cocky, more strategic. I learned later on that if you want to know how to get a good passing grade on your exam, you should have your professor grade a question for you in front of you during office hours. That’s what they’re there for. And a lot of you, you’re like, “That makes a lot of sense. I go to the office hours and I have the professors show me exactly how they want the solution written on the exam. That should increase my grade exponentially.” And you’re like, I know some of you your first response is, well, nobody told me that. And I’m like, that that’s what separates people that are successful from people that aren’t successful. The people that are successful figure out what to have people tell them. The people that aren’t successful sit around waiting for people to tell them things. And now you know I’m sharing some inside advice for you with you. But learning math faster in college starts by climbing up the hill. Once you climb up the hill, you can then go down the hill. That’s a difference in work and energy to get up the hill versus coming down it. You climb up the hill by struggling through like the algebra textbooks and the trigonometry textbooks and the pre-calculus textbooks. Then you struggle through the calculus textbooks. It’s a lot easier to get through those books if you read them weeks before the semester starts. You get like two, three chapters ahead before the semester starts. It’s a lot easier. Way easier because the first couple chapters are always the hardest. So, if you really if you want to learn math faster in college, watching people on the internet, that that’ll help you pass your course quickly, it’ll help you get your homework done quickly, but it will set you up for failure long term. It it really will not help you if you’re a math, physics, or engineering student. Watching other people do math, it’s not going to help you at all. I always tell you guys in these videos, it’s like watching people lift weights, and you’re trying to get stronger by watching people lift weights. Now you’re learning everything about how to lift weights by watching them, but you’re not actually getting stronger. Even though you understand how it works, you’re not getting stronger. [snorts] And uh you know, that’s that’s very it’s just very important if you guys are math physics student, math, physics, engineering students. It’s just so important that you you guys you can’t walk away from the textbook learning process. It it’s not you’re not having an advanced education having somebody draw on a tablet. You’re having an advanced education by learning how to read intricate print. You guys just can’t walk away from that. Everybody else, it’s not really it’s not really a big deal. You’re a medical student, a biology, whatever. You want to use these platforms to do your homework because you just have to take the course. That’s just part of our society. There there’s a limit to integrity. You know, there was certain courses like macroeconomics and history and government I had to take. I they were a nightmare for me. absolute nightmare. I did everything I could to just get it ripped off like a band-aid. I’m not talking to people that are in that kind of a mathematical situation. The math, physics, and engineer students, you guys, you just you just don’t get it till until you get to junior year, then you’ll get it. You’ll be like, “Ah, I see what he’s saying now.” Yeah. So, I just bring this message to you like the earlier you start learning from the textbook, the better. Because if you can’t if you leave that textbook, you’re no longer in the subject. you’ve walked away from it because you’re not following the rules of that professor’s structure. It’s not universal, guys. The subjects change textbook to textbook. You can’t mix and match these books. If you’re assigned Stuart calculus and you go watch people solve problems from Thomas calculus, you’ve left the subject. You’re not studying it anymore. And and they it’s not about one of them being easier than the other. It’s about you understanding how to navigate very complicated scientific data from a single source that can be used to apply to something. So, so good for you. Good for you. And I’m glad you left that comment because that’s what people need to hear. It’s like, yeah, it’s it’s harder at first. Okay, guys. The way to learn math faster in college is to read the books a few weeks before the semester. Get a few chapters into them and to start as early as possible at algebra. Then by the time you get to something like linear algebra, these textbooks won’t be a nightmare. But what happens for those of you who don’t know how to read these books, by the time you get to linear algebra, junior year, you get to that point, it’s over for you because it’s like you’ve missed two years of practice. You’ve learned absolutely nothing. But you were able to mimic solutions, get the answers right, and take a good crapshoot and memorize them and pass an exam. That’s fine. You can get an associates degree that way. When you get to junior year though, when you have to read these books that are beyond linear algebra, your math and physics and engineering textbooks, when you got to read these things, I’m showing you guys the the books again here. I’m I’m just redoing everything. If you guys you guys don’t have all that practice reading those books, some of you will be like me and overcome it one way or another. And it was not easy for me to overcome that problem. Okay? It was not easy. Took a long time and but now I understand it and I share it with you guys because I get it. Like I’m like I totally get it. Like I totally understand how to read these books and I’m trying to share it with you guys. So uh but anyways yeah if you want to learn math faster you have to learn slower at first. When I open a math book now after after I spent all this time learning all these books, reading these books, solving problems using the book, the book, the book, the book, nothing but the book. I did all of that work. Now I can open up pretty much any book that I want and I can just read it without having read it. like I can go to a different chapter like I need to apply this this uh partial differential equation to the heat you know heat equation uh in in a bar heating up or something I can just go to it and I can solve the problem I don’t even understand the science that’s the beautiful thing it’s like I don’t understand the science but I can solve the problem the people who wrote the books they have a better understanding of the science but they structured it so that you can solve problems without understanding the science and some of you guys get messed up when you’re trying to learn this way in college is that you’re trying to understand everything. You’ll understand things as you need to and when you need to. You also need to just understand to apply and trust the scientist who wrote it because some of you don’t apply it correctly because you don’t trust it. You’re like, “This just doesn’t make sense to me.” And the more you watch people draw on the internet out that it’s not working from your book, under the rules of your book, the less you’re the more time it’s going to take for you to figure out how to understand that stuff. and you’ll understand it. There’s just a time where you have to just be like, “Okay, I don’t understand it now. I but I’ll understand it later.” You know, but but yeah, my best advice if you want to learn math faster in college, it’s to take it slow at first. It it is long. It is tedious. The kids who use things like Khan Academy to rush through algebra, trigonometry, and pre-calculus, when they get to actual calculus, they realize they messed up. They’re like, “I don’t know anything about algebra.” It happens to a ton of people. I mean, it’s a huge reason why the drop and fail rate for STEM is so high. You guys just don’t you don’t know the basics of algebra and you don’t understand that the algebra that you’re doing is is actually a lot more complicated than you think. You’re just taking snippets of the application side of it and you’re applying it and you think that’s math. It’s not. For math, physics, and engineering students, you guys, you got to take a different approach. If you can’t commit to the textbook based on like every study out there right now, the odds of you graduating as a math, physics, or engineering student are not good. But the odds of you getting a job with the degree are even worse. It’s all because you guys you can’t read the scientific data. You don’t know how to use any of the tools that are out there. You’re all you’re all convinced that using types set latte is what you should know when you’re going to apply for a job in a couple years that needs three to five years of Microsoft Office tools experience. Type latte can type math differently and do things that are structured with citations and flow. It’s not what you guys are going to do. If you’re going to go into a grad school, you might do that, but it’s not what you’re going to do if you’re going to get a job somewhere. And so, like I just bring these messages to you. I’m like, go look at the job applications. Go ask people that work in these fields what what happened with them because because if you look at the numbers like it it’s just it’s not good. And it it it pretty much it’s just because you guys you’re smart. You guys are smart. So you’re using you’re using your smart intelligence, your sharp mind. You’re using it irresponsibly. You’re taking a shortcut thinking you’re getting somewhere faster when that shortcut leads you to the start. That’s the fascinating part. But if you want to learn math faster in college, you got to be two weeks ahead of the semester before it starts. And you got to start learning at that textbook at the algebra level. Out of all the subjects that you can study, if you don’t know how to use textbooks for math, this is the fascinating thing. out of all the subjects you study, if you don’t know how to read these textbooks, you’re not learning anything. When it comes to math-based knowledge, but when it comes to every other subject, most of you guys read those books and you don’t have to because it’s all fictitious for the most part. None of it’s actually real. You history, government, that’s all fictitious. The rules that are made, they don’t they’re not actually real, but if you we all follow them, they’re real. But in math, you can actually prove something is exactly what it is. Under under the under the rule of law of like government law, it it boils down to who’s better at lying basically, who’s got more money and who can lie better. Math that doesn’t happen. And you know, so you can get around your degrees. It’s just funny to me all all the all the people that take these other degrees, they manage they they can they could get through the degrees without reading those books, but you guys can’t get through the degrees through the degrees without reading the books. And uh you guys are the ones that are all using online platforms to you’re not learning anything. You guys are just copying other people’s work. It’s not helping you. And and and some of you, you’ll hear that and it’s like it upsets you because you’re like, but I’m just telling you, look, you can go your route. I’m just saying come junior year, you’re not going to be happy with your abilities because the books are going to slap on your lap. You’re not going to be able to read them. But but anyways, so if you want to learn math faster, you have to take it slow at first. Every time you open up a new book, you got to be methodic about it. It’s a book filled with words. You’re supposed to know those words. Th this is something that in the past like 20 years, most of you kids that are in college now, you were born in the boom of like YouTube and you guys you guys have this notion that you think that it’s a legit way to learn because it’s modern, but it’s not. And your syllabus says you can’t use it, but you’re just like convinced that it’s a superior way to learn when all you’re doing is just copying other people. it. So, if you want to learn math faster, you got to know how to read these books faster. And that starts at a slow pace. And the sooner you start reading from a textbook, the better. And if you’re at a high school where your parents or your not your parents or your teachers or whatever are putting you in front of Khan Academy, I would ask them, why are you doing this? This is not what we’re going to do for a living. This is not how we’re going to do work. This is not helping us get a resume. Why are you showing me this? I need to know how to type professionally. I need to know how to read scientific data professionally. And you guys are putting me in front of a child scribbling chicken scratch on a digital coloring board. None of that is what you do in the workforce. Why? Why they do that? Why you’re doing that to the kids? I It’s It needs to stop. The kids are becoming stupider by the video they watch. It’s not helping them do anything. They’re not understanding the rules, the structures, how to how to follow the rules that are provided within the books properly, how to type it professionally, which is what you’re going to do in the workforce. So, take that for what you will. You can be like, you can disagree with me, come back junior year and agree with me, or you can agree with me and save yourself a lot of stress when you get to junior year. All right, don’t forget to subscribe, check out my books, The Ultimate Crash Course. I wrote that thing to fix your issue, to show you everything you’re supposed to know by junior year. All the math you’re supposed to know, jumpst start information on advanced topics that going to help you understand how to tackle your junior assignments. That’s primarily why I wrote it. I just did this for like 15 years of people. And so, check it out. Have a nice day. Take it easy.