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First, I want to thank all the members of MSE because this community helped me a lot!

But this question is a hard one for me. I want to tell my story with math to all of you in search for an advice.

In high school I liked school math and also some olympiad math as well, but I have never committed too much on it, sincerily I made just the necessary to take good marks . Then, I started university and even if I had fun solving some math puzzles I thought math couldn't be my subject because I considered it abstract in some sense , so I enrolled in a course which is a mix of economics and statistics. But after my pretty introductory course in math for social sciences, I started to see math in another way, not because of the course, but because of the dissatisfaction for it! So I looked around and I found Calculus I by Apostol , and more and more I was reading it more and more I wanted to go on with the reading because I was amazed by the material. So, I started thinking that I like math and I read also some other parts of other books, some I liked some not. But in the end I consider my experience with math pretty satisfactory so I started some elective math courses at my uni to face what studying math really is and to have something to put on my CV maybe to try to enter a graduate school in math after having taken my current degree. I passed the first exam really well even if I didn't like neither the way the material was presented neither how the exam was ; in particular for the preparation of the exam I took a bad habit : looking for patterns in it and nothing else. Also, the material was covered not very in depth but because of this I studied just the necessary without pausing.

Now I'm not so far to take other exams but I can't say I'm satisfied with them because I read the material but nothing the same thing is happening to me, so :

should I consider myself not suited for university math and so quitting my courses and returning to pure self study would be better? Do you think that if this happens at the start of my journey in math uni this will become even worse if I would in the future enroll (if I will be accepted) in a graduate school?

Tortar
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  • Sounds like you just didn't like one particular course. Why not take one or two more on different subjects and/or with a different instructor? – Jair Taylor Nov 16 '20 at 23:46
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    If you're already at a university, why self-study instead of taking courses? If you're going to put in the time you may as well collect the credit while you're at it. – Jair Taylor Nov 16 '20 at 23:49
  • yes, collecting the credit would be good for me if I would self study the material and then take just the exam, but I started to go faster than the pace I would like so even if I can pass the exam I think I'm not happy with this way of doing things, because I think that if I do so my knowledge will be really momentary – Tortar Nov 16 '20 at 23:53
  • maybe the problem is that I'm a slow learner and that I have taken the wrong habits with exams namely just doing what's necessary and nothing more – Tortar Nov 16 '20 at 23:57
  • but this seems to be that this I'm not able to change this attitude because of time constraints and pressure to take a good mark – Tortar Nov 17 '20 at 00:01
  • If you're not able to study as much as you'd like due to time constraints, you could try cutting down on the number of credits you are taking. You might talk to an advisor. In any case, math in general is challenging, and it sounds like you are pretty good at it and enjoy it, so I'd just say stick with it. – Jair Taylor Nov 17 '20 at 00:03
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    Given that I'm teaching university science at the moment, I would always recommend taking bona fide courses with an expert. You'll better understand what is important and what not-so-important, avoid getting lost in topics or problems needlessly, get university credit, meet other folk, and have someone to talk to about matters far more broad than what you'd find in a textbook or online. – David G. Stork Nov 17 '20 at 00:08
  • thanks to all of you, I would say that the pandemic situation isn't great to meet people at the moment unfortunately. Anyway yes maybe I'm just lost and I'm too negative and meet some people interested in the subject when will be possible would help me – Tortar Nov 17 '20 at 00:13
  • I have also to say that my uny at the moment is all online and lots of courses (all of the math I'm taken also) are asynchronous. So maybe this is conditioning me – Tortar Nov 17 '20 at 00:15

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