Tips on studying math

From: none (_at_(none))
Date: 02/17/05 

Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 23:54:44 +0000

Hello!

I'd be very happy if some of you who have successfully studied math (at
least on graduate level) would answer some or all of the following
questions. I myself am currenlty at the end of my undergraduate
education (functional analysis, galois theory, tensor analysis) and
could use some good hints about study technique. Please think deeply
(but quickly if you want) before answering; it's the subtle details I'm
mostly interested in.

(1). When you recieve a book which you are going to study, what do you
do first? How do you continue?

(2) When you read a proof several times, but don't understand it, what
do you do?

(3) When attending a lecture, in what "mode" is your mind? (For
instance, do you try to disprove everything the lecturer says?)

(4) Do you ever experience a great sense of fatigue, even though you
have only studied like two hours that day? If yes, what do you do? (This
happen to me all the time.)

(*) Other interesting observations. (What interesting questions did I miss?)

           / John