[rrrrrrrrrrrr2]

If you're talking about me (GP not OP); when I said "school" I meant during my undergrad at a university. I'm claiming that I skipped 2-3 years of math at university by self studying, specifically 2 years of analysis, 1 year of topology, and some algebra.

You can absolutely do this for university math using textbooks if you're motivated enough. Which I was.

Sorry for the colloquialism. "School" means university in the U.S. tech industry, but apparently not in Europe.

Edit: Reply to child comment before I log off. Haha I agree. The really valuable things I learned from math professors had nothing to do with the curriculum though. It was more like stories about all the people they saw going crazy trying to get tenure, ultimately failing and then seeking revenge against those who denied them; how they all go to conferences sometimes and drink very heavily afterwards in the nearest bar; and just little colloquialisms. Math academia was a really interesting subculture of very interesting people.

[ido]

No worries! I think for undergraduate studies I’m sure you can. Although motivation levels of “motivated enough” have to be pretty high!

My experience was that pretty quickly professors (and TAs) provided insight and guidance I couldn’t (or at least didn’t) get from just reading the textbook. But also that this increases the further you go in your education- in a 200 student auditorium class for linear algebra or calculus the professor isn’t going to be giving you any individual attention but in my school even by the 3rd-4th semester classes were already often small (15-20 students) and we had actual conversations with the professors about the material (and beyond).