Comment by jacobolus
3 days ago
If you want to learn a mathematical topic, I would recommend reading textbooks instead. They are expressly designed for the purpose by experts on the topic.
3 days ago
If you want to learn a mathematical topic, I would recommend reading textbooks instead. They are expressly designed for the purpose by experts on the topic.
I might suggest also trying to find online a syllabus for a course that taught that topic using that textbook. That can give you an idea of a reasonable pace to learn the material. If you can't find one using the same book, you still can get some idea of pacing based on the topics listed.
A good textbook will be designed so that you can move on when when you just have a decent understanding, and your understanding will deepen and complete as you gain experience from the material being used to help teach the new material in later chapters.
At the point where it is OK to move on most students feel like they are nowhere near ready. If you just move on when you feel ready it is easy to find yourself a few months later wondering why it has taken you several months to get to chapter 3 when you know that in college students finish the whole book in that amount of time, which taking several other classes.
It is OK if you go slower than the college classes. If you can't put in as much time per week as college students do you would be expected to go slower. Just use the college pace, adjusted for how much time you can put in, to help know when it is OK to move on so you don't get stuck due to thinking you aren't ready.
It can also help if you can find a list of assignments for a class that used the same book. That can give you an idea of a minimum number of exercises you should be doing. It is ok course OK to do more.
For many STEM subjects, MIT OpenCouseWare [1] is a good place to find syllabi and often much more for free.
[1] https://ocw.mit.edu/
"Reading" a textbook is very different from reading a novel, that should be noted. You gotta do the exercises.