Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Tarcher (2014), Paperback, 336 pages
Description
Mathematics. Self-Improvement. Nonfiction. HTML:The companion book to COURSERA®'s wildly popular massive open online course "Learning How to Learn" Whether you are a student struggling to fulfill a math or science requirement, or you are embarking on a career change that requires a new skill set, A Mind for Numbers offers the tools you need to get a better grasp of that intimidating material. Engineering professor Barbara Oakley knows firsthand how it feels to struggle with math. She flunked her way through high school math and science courses, before enlisting in the army immediately after graduation. When she saw how her lack of mathematical and technical savvy severely limited her options�??both to rise in the military and to explore other careers�??she returned to school with a newfound determination to re-tool her brain to master the very subjects that had given her so much trouble throughout her entire life. In A Mind for Numbers, Dr. Oakley lets us in on the secrets to learning effectively�??secrets that even dedicated and successful students wish they�??d known earlier. Contrary to popular belief, math requires creative, as well as analytical, thinking. Most people think that there�??s only one way to do a problem, when in actuality, there are often a number of different solutions�??you just need the creativity to see them. For example, there are more than three hundred different known proofs of the Pythagorean Theorem. In short, studying a problem in a laser-focused way until you reach a solution is not an effective way to learn. Rather, it involves taking the time to step away from a problem and allow the more relaxed and creative part of the brain to take over. The learning strategies in this book apply not only to math and science, but to any subject in which we struggle. We all have what it takes to excel in areas that don't seem to come naturally to us at first, and learning them does not have to be as painfu… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member nmarun
The book begins by explaining the concepts of focused and diffuse modes of thinking. These are core and essential to understanding the rest of the book. As the names go - focused is concentrated and direct thinking that is applied to a specific problem while diffuse mode is a high-level and
I've read other comments saying 'A Math book without any Math' - but that I think is the real essence of the book. The learning techniques mentioned in the book are useful for pretty much any learning, not limited to only Math and Science. There is a general dread for Math among many people. The author probably put 'Math' on the cover just to appeal to such people to begin with.
I was amazed how much a simple act of blinking can do. I used the blinking technique while playing Sudoku and I'm able to see the big picture on the Sudoku board because of diffuse mode approach (of course, I still have lots to improve in Sudoku ha ha).
The concepts of Chunking was an interesting read and the book shows how creating these 'chunks' in your mind helps retrieval of those much faster and releases working memory for other tasks. On Recalling, the author says 'read less, recall more'. Totally agree!
The book has many tips from a wide variety of people - junior students to experienced psychologists - on how they overcame their inhibitions towards the learning of some difficult subjects. These are definitely motivating. The 'Summing it up' sections at the end of each chapter provide for a great reference that we can come back to in case we need to refresh our memories.
All in all - if you want to learn something and are having a tough time to do it, read this book while applying those techniques to what you are trying to learn.
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abstract perspective of looking at the problem. The point the author is making is that most of the times we are unable to solve something is because of too much of focused thinking and too less of diffuse mode approach.I've read other comments saying 'A Math book without any Math' - but that I think is the real essence of the book. The learning techniques mentioned in the book are useful for pretty much any learning, not limited to only Math and Science. There is a general dread for Math among many people. The author probably put 'Math' on the cover just to appeal to such people to begin with.
I was amazed how much a simple act of blinking can do. I used the blinking technique while playing Sudoku and I'm able to see the big picture on the Sudoku board because of diffuse mode approach (of course, I still have lots to improve in Sudoku ha ha).
The concepts of Chunking was an interesting read and the book shows how creating these 'chunks' in your mind helps retrieval of those much faster and releases working memory for other tasks. On Recalling, the author says 'read less, recall more'. Totally agree!
The book has many tips from a wide variety of people - junior students to experienced psychologists - on how they overcame their inhibitions towards the learning of some difficult subjects. These are definitely motivating. The 'Summing it up' sections at the end of each chapter provide for a great reference that we can come back to in case we need to refresh our memories.
All in all - if you want to learn something and are having a tough time to do it, read this book while applying those techniques to what you are trying to learn.
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LibraryThing member CTLLibrary
This book can serve a variety of audiences with innovative and insightful tools for learning sciences and mathmatics. This book is for any student (from high school to college) who needs help learning math or sciences. This book is also for the student who feels comfortable in their abilities with
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math and science, but also wants to explore new helpful tools. And further, this book is for the teachers of math and sciences: this book is a glimpse at learning best practices and effective frameworks inside and outside of the science and math classrooms. Show Less
LibraryThing member jen.e.moore
I read this book as a companion to the Coursera course "Learning How to Learn," which is taught by the author and is, in fact, nearly identical to the book. But for once I wouldn't brush it off as unnecessarily repetitive; in fact, I'd recommend both the video lecture-based course and the book
I'm not in school any more, but I've been trying to improve my math skills (I got good grades in school by avoiding math wherever possible), and this book & course have offered me some useful techniques for learning, partially just by making it clear what I was already doing instinctively to learn things that come easily to me. Now that I know what those things are, it should be easier to apply them in situations where I have to stretch myself a little more.
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together. Reading the book really helped drive home some of the key points from the lectures by actually putting them into practice. Spaced repetition and recall - reviewing material some time after you've learned it - are easy to do when the book and lectures are covering the exact same material, but you're a little behind in the book where you are in the lectures, and vice versa. Oakley also recommends trying to recall the material in a different setting than you originally learned it, to build flexibility into your understanding - easy to do when I was watching the lectures at home on my computer and reading the book at work over lunch.I'm not in school any more, but I've been trying to improve my math skills (I got good grades in school by avoiding math wherever possible), and this book & course have offered me some useful techniques for learning, partially just by making it clear what I was already doing instinctively to learn things that come easily to me. Now that I know what those things are, it should be easier to apply them in situations where I have to stretch myself a little more.
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LibraryThing member ShadowBarbara
Companion book to the course "learning to Learn". Easy to read and reinforced the material in the class. Quite helpful
LibraryThing member highlander6022
The is the second book by Professor Oakley that I’ve read (the other is “Mindshift”)…I read this one after Mindshift, having heard about that one first, leading to reading this book.
I can’t say enough about how valuable this book may be for learners (even if you are like me, even in my
The author talks about test-taking techniques – I’d always been told and believed that when taking a test, you should find the easiest problems first, do them, then go on to the toughest…she disputes this method. For some of us, doing the easiest ones first might work, especially if we never freeze on the tougher ones and really know the material enough to breeze through them…but for many test takers, they are easily stumped by the tougher ones and have spent energy (and perhaps allowed more stress to build fearing what’s to come) by doing the easier ones, only to freeze on the tough ones. She says that by going immediately to the tough ones for a short period, a minute or two (and shifting to some easy ones if you are really stumped after trying the toughest), your brain can be allowed to sub-consciously be working on a solution for the tough ones while you do easy ones…then shift back to tough ones and your brain may have worked in the background to solve the tougher ones, or at least make progress on them). If brain science/research is what she says, that technique theoretically should work.
In one of the last chapters, she recaps the 10 best study techniques and the 10 worst. A mine of gold is in those lists. And, how I wish I’d had those lists when in college.
The book is substantially aimed at college level learning…but some of the techniques can clearly work for high school and probably lower levels as well…some would have to be adapted to the situation, and some could not. But I enjoyed both books immensely, so much so that I bought a copy of this one (read the library’s copy first) and am giving it to my high school senior granddaughter…to help in her final year, but hopefully see her learn these techniques now in preparation for next year’s college start. The book will also be helpful to my high school junior granddaughter…
I can’t say enough about how valuable this book may be for learners (even if you are like me, even in my
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60’s and semi-retired, I still consider myself a learner). I realize that all techniques mentioned here might not work for all people, but the fact is, she reveals what much of research is showing about ways we learn, and how that research often contrasts with many learning techniques people use today (which may be preventing them from learning). I used her analogy in one chapter to quickly learn the 5 layers of the human skin by use of a “route” through my house…I’ve gone around a couple days now reciting them to my wife, to strange looks…but I’ve got them down…The author talks about test-taking techniques – I’d always been told and believed that when taking a test, you should find the easiest problems first, do them, then go on to the toughest…she disputes this method. For some of us, doing the easiest ones first might work, especially if we never freeze on the tougher ones and really know the material enough to breeze through them…but for many test takers, they are easily stumped by the tougher ones and have spent energy (and perhaps allowed more stress to build fearing what’s to come) by doing the easier ones, only to freeze on the tough ones. She says that by going immediately to the tough ones for a short period, a minute or two (and shifting to some easy ones if you are really stumped after trying the toughest), your brain can be allowed to sub-consciously be working on a solution for the tough ones while you do easy ones…then shift back to tough ones and your brain may have worked in the background to solve the tougher ones, or at least make progress on them). If brain science/research is what she says, that technique theoretically should work.
In one of the last chapters, she recaps the 10 best study techniques and the 10 worst. A mine of gold is in those lists. And, how I wish I’d had those lists when in college.
The book is substantially aimed at college level learning…but some of the techniques can clearly work for high school and probably lower levels as well…some would have to be adapted to the situation, and some could not. But I enjoyed both books immensely, so much so that I bought a copy of this one (read the library’s copy first) and am giving it to my high school senior granddaughter…to help in her final year, but hopefully see her learn these techniques now in preparation for next year’s college start. The book will also be helpful to my high school junior granddaughter…
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LibraryThing member LDVoorberg
More words than necessary to convey its message, but I guess the author had to stretch it into a book, and she is writing for not-so-smart students. Basically it is a book on how to study and be a good student. Most of the tricks I used myself, but some of them are articulated in a way I may not
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have been able to convey myself. the biggest take-aways for me were the strategy of taking short breaks when it gets too challenging to let you subconscious work on a problem, and focussing on process not product. That means don't be overwhelmed by how far you have to go to get to the finish , but focus on doing 20 minutes every day (or whatever is practical) and eventually you will get to the end. And it won't be as awful as you imagined. Also, practise, practise something else, then practise some more to instill it in your brain. Good advice, but no more magic than focus and keep at it, smartly. Show Less
LibraryThing member DeborahJade
Where was the book back when I was in high school and university?
And what can I now study just so I can try out the techniques and advice in the book?
This is one of my favourites reads this year and is full of really great explanations and examples which underpin the practical advice given in the
"We develop a passion for what we are good at. The mistake is thinking that if we aren't good at something, we do not have an can never develop a passion for it."
And what can I now study just so I can try out the techniques and advice in the book?
This is one of my favourites reads this year and is full of really great explanations and examples which underpin the practical advice given in the
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book. It is a book that challenges you to go further."We develop a passion for what we are good at. The mistake is thinking that if we aren't good at something, we do not have an can never develop a passion for it."
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LibraryThing member thegreatape
Understandably a little more aimed at students than older folks like me looking form better self-guided learning habits, but a good collection of study techniques and tips nonetheless. Probably some things I could have actually used while in school, but I don't know if I'd have had the maturity to
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actually apply things like spaced repetition back then. I'll have to come back and rate this once I've seen how much of an effect it winds up having. Show Less
LibraryThing member sami7
Among self help material, this is a good one. There is an excellent Coursera course (learning how to learn) by the same author & based on the same material.
Language
Original language
English
Physical description
336 p.; 6.05 inches
ISBN
039916524X / 9780399165245
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