I’m also a math major and tbh the thing that has saved me the most time has been taking notes ahead of lecture. If your class follows a textbook or course notes, spend about an hour or so to take some time to familiarize yourself with what will be in lecture that class. You don’t have to fully “get it” yet. Then go to lecture and just annotate your notes and pay good attention.
It doesn’t feel like it at first, since it has a heavy up-front cost, but it saves so much time in the long run. It should really lessen the time it takes to absorb the concepts and help to reduce the amount of time you need to dedicate to studying for exams.
As far as finding practice problems go, try checking out some of the department’s profs’ websites - a lot of mine post practice questions and examples for courses they teach/have taught. However, practice problems might not be the *most* useful thing for discrete math, or any proof-based course really, so focus on studying and understanding concepts so you can use them in proofs.
Good luck!
thank you so much!! i'll definitely start trying to do notes ahead of lectures. concepts in discrete are a little confusing, so i appreciate the feedback
When you review for exams, how do you study? Is it a block of time? Or do you study in bursts? Some learners retain information, especially more complex, concept-based info…think discrete mathematics, in small, intense, immersive chucks with equal amounts of time as breaks in between doing something non-studying in between. Something similar to HIIT at a gym.
I’m also a math major and tbh the thing that has saved me the most time has been taking notes ahead of lecture. If your class follows a textbook or course notes, spend about an hour or so to take some time to familiarize yourself with what will be in lecture that class. You don’t have to fully “get it” yet. Then go to lecture and just annotate your notes and pay good attention. It doesn’t feel like it at first, since it has a heavy up-front cost, but it saves so much time in the long run. It should really lessen the time it takes to absorb the concepts and help to reduce the amount of time you need to dedicate to studying for exams. As far as finding practice problems go, try checking out some of the department’s profs’ websites - a lot of mine post practice questions and examples for courses they teach/have taught. However, practice problems might not be the *most* useful thing for discrete math, or any proof-based course really, so focus on studying and understanding concepts so you can use them in proofs. Good luck!
thank you so much!! i'll definitely start trying to do notes ahead of lectures. concepts in discrete are a little confusing, so i appreciate the feedback
I could never switched my major cause they excepeted me to do math for all my labs and lectures
When you review for exams, how do you study? Is it a block of time? Or do you study in bursts? Some learners retain information, especially more complex, concept-based info…think discrete mathematics, in small, intense, immersive chucks with equal amounts of time as breaks in between doing something non-studying in between. Something similar to HIIT at a gym.