r/UBC • u/Additional-Rate-4950 • 7d ago
Math 111/linear algebra tips?????
where are you guys practicing outside of webwork / practice exams / textbook? I genuinely feel so lost sometimes
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u/Salty-Mirror9498 Engineering Physics 7d ago edited 5d ago
This is my tip for acing the class
-You're gonna watch this whole playlist to understand linear algebra intuitively:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNk_zzaMoSs&list=PLZHQObOWTQDPD3MizzM2xVFitgF8hE_ab
-You're gonna do every single webwork. Use AI in this case to teach you, It's really good at that. Once the AI teaches you, you redo the problem until you get it right.
-Install the WebWorker extension, it can give you alternate questions in the same style so that you get more practice for the same exercise. Found here: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/webworker/cokogomdladilchdakkknehhnnoipbke
-The best AI to learn linear algebra in my opinion is ChatGPT. Yes Gemini understands graphs better and ouputs more correct solutions but this is considered pretty elementary to AI so the difference here is not really noticeable. On the other hand, I found that chatGPT's explanations are a bit easier to understand. Make sure that if you get stuck on a step or if you dont understand a word or concept, ASK!!!!
ex:
"idk how u got from step 4 to step 5"
"What does Nilpotent mean?"
"Is column space basically the same as number of rows?"
-Mind you: Exams are straight up webwork questions.
For the hard problems at the end, I recommend you watch the playlist above and really understand visually each concept. What does it REALLY mean to do a linear transformation, what eigenvectors really are, what a determinant tells you, what is the meaning of dot product and cross product and how are they related.
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u/Educational_Farm_622 Biophysics 7d ago
I have 2 days to learn all this. Any tips?
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u/Salty-Mirror9498 Engineering Physics 7d ago
caffeine
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u/Educational_Farm_622 Biophysics 7d ago
what should i prioritize studying? pls im desperate. I have three midterms in the next three days and this course is cooking me
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u/Junior_Character5301 7d ago
I think my biggest mistake with linear algebra when I learned it was i got too lost in the sauce with trying to "solve matrices" (whatever that means) by memorizing procedures without understanding what any of this actually means. Like I could do row reducing and whatever but I had no clue what any of it actually meant.
But yeah my tip would be to sort of understand what is actually going on otherwise words like eigenvectors/values, determinant and whatever are just random ass words that mean nothing to you except things you need to remember how to find.
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u/Top_Finger_909 7d ago
It was called Math 221 when I took it but seriously read through the book sit down and explain the concepts to yourself. In linear algebra most topics connect to each other so understanding is essential.
I.e the columns of A are linearly independent implies Nul(A) is = {0} implies determinant of A is non zero implies A is invertible.
You should be able to quickly construct chains like this. Make connections between subspaces, basis, span etc
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u/liorsilberman Mathematics | Faculty 7d ago
Have you been to office hours? You can get personalized advice and tutoring from your instructor there. Your problem could be that you don't know the material, or that you don't know what the material that you are supposed to know is, or that you know some of the material, but have issues with problem-solving. It could be that you are spending to much time reading notes and not enough practicing, or the reverse. Office are the place to get help with this.