Growing an interest: Maths

 

Discovering Maths

I enjoyed most of my maths lessons at school.   I preferred Algebra and Arithmetic over most of the stuff we covered – I was at school in the days before calculators made an appearance so logarithm books with table after table of figures in them were par for the course.   I was also there in the O level/CSE era, before GCSEs were introduced.  

We had a really good Maths teacher at school, but I still struggled with it, even though I enjoyed most of it.  I finally got the O level at grade C on the third attempt and I felt as though I’d got a degree in the subject!  Glad to put it behind me, I never thought I’d see the day again when I’d pick up a maths book.  But it duly arrived, about 47 years after I left…

And recently I started to worry about the state of my brain and whether I was exercising it enough.  I try to walk fast for 40 minutes 4 or 5 times a week, enough to get my heart really pumping.  But was my brain getting  a work out? 

They say that doing puzzles is good for the brain – and I love crosswords, but they were all the same sort of puzzle.  Then it occurred to me that Mathematics gives us lots of different TYPES of puzzles to work out. 

I started to look for arithmetic puzzles online – addition, subtraction, multiplication and division to begin with.   I got myself a little exercise book and made darn sure that the maths I found online had the answers available.  I didn’t use calculators because the whole point is to give the brain exercise and use it.   Much to my surprise, I discovered I loved doing my maths.  I wanted to do more.

This is "Mathematics: A Complete Introduction: The Easy Way to Learn Maths"
I've found it really helpful and I've enjoyed working my way through it!  
Find out more here.

Enter Mathematics:  A Complete Introduction:  The Easy Way to Learn Maths which I bought from Amazon.   I bought it because the reviews said it explains things very well and just as important, the answers are in the back.  It’s got explanations, and examples of how to work questions out.   Half an hour a day 5 days a week, is really giving me new things to think about and get immersed in and I am really enjoying it.  My favourite thing to do is algebra and after I've completed the textbook I'm working from, I hope to go on and study that in more depth.  

Am I going to sit an exam, check in to a college to do a GCSE?   Not at this stage. I am still finding some of it tough, but if I’ve got to a stage where I’m stumped, despite the explanations, I hop on to You Tube and see what explanations I can find there.   And yes, I mark my work with a red or pink pen! 

It’s another example of getting stuck in and finding a new interest – and it hasn’t cost me a lot, either.   And it’s great when I get a page of maths right !   Oh the power of the tick!!  The joy of seeing the book’s answers match your own!!!

 

The power and joy of a tick when I get the maths right!   
And if I'm struggling, I look to the answers in the back of the book
and try to work backwards to the question.
And if I'm still struggling, I hop on to You Tube and look for maths tutorials to help me.  
I use Silvine Exercise Books (A5). 

Will I join the IMA?  That's the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications?  I could look at joining as an affiliate;  Affiliate Members are persons "who have an interest in mathematics and its applications and who wish to participate in the activities of the Institute but who are not necessarily engaged professionally in mathematics or its application".  

The NCETM (National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics) has a list of maths associations and why it's good to be a member.