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by zcrackerz 2511 days ago
It would really help if professors would give you a taste of something applicable before diving deep into the math itself. I suffered through most of differential equations and calculus, but I happened to take a computer graphics course before linear algebra. We learned just enough math to make things work but linear algebra really took a deep dive that I was able to appreciate having had the basics around affine transformations explained in a very visual and intriguing manner.
1 comments

It's a major problem still: teachers neglect giving examples of practical application of a given concept (might be difficult at times, I admit), and miss the opportunity to make knowledge stick and increase the intuitive understanding of the subject.

I still remember my dialogue with my high school maths teacher when first learning calculus, it was more or less along the lines: "But why do we need these differentials?" "Because it will help you to understand integration." "But why do we need integration?" "Because it will help you in your further education." (No, she didn't even mention velocity/acceleration or area below the curve as it's usually done, I had to figure these out myself.)