I am currently studying for an insurance exam (entirely as dull and dry as it sounds) and am up against some reasonably complex statistical analysis.

Its far too late to do anything for this particular exam but in general I feel my maths is not as strong as it should be and would like to improve a little.

I have GCSE maths and attempted A-Level Physics but always got confused when the more complex equations were introduced – why do they have to phrase it so confusingly? Assume xy/abc is the adjunct of b.v2 and therefore if you differentiate x/bc*1ve = the sun.

I appreciate the algebraic notation is necessary but is there any books / online courses people can recommend that take a more ‘English language’ approach to explaining it all.

Really looking for something that covers trig, quadratics, differentials, stats etc at an intelligent laypersons level – does such a thing exist?

Cheers

Danny B

How about looking for some lectures on iTunes U or something like that? I managed to get some decent lectures about stats on that a while back when I needed to revise some probability and bayesian stats.

There are a lot of courses aimed at first year students which cover a lot of background as well.

You really need A Level Maths alongside A Level Physics to keep up with the mathematical work involved.

Maybe see if there is an A Level maths course at a local college?

Coursera and Udacity both run free online stats courses, as well as maths.
Coursera
Udacity

The Udacity course is self paced, the Coursera one started a couple of weeks back.

I use the BBC online resources a lot, but they are better for revision. One of my lecturers recommended a couple of websites, I think one was Khan learning or something like that, I’ll be able to look them up in about an hour or so…

Ok, so here’s one of them:

Algebra

+1 for Khan Academy material.

@danny as its statistics you need based on your post you should focus on that. Have a look at some introductory statistics books. I would say you’ll make more progress with a personal tutor focused on what you need. The are plenty about working evenings. In my experience statistics is more about the data manipulation and knowing how to interpret the results than doing significant algebra but I appreciate your exam may be a bit more theoretical.

A level maths will certainly help with A level Physics its not completely necessary. I passed it with out taking Maths

Thanks all

Whilst the insurance work is heavily stats focused the amateur radio stuff I am beginning to get in to is other maths as well.

Will take a look at the suggestions accordingly.

Cheers

Danny B

The Wolfram Alpha search engine is good too as it can give a step-wise solution to a problem – which helps with the understanding

http://www.wolframalpha.com/

I got on well with KA Stroud’s Engineering Mathematics at uni.
Covers the topics you mention, but in a far less “mathsy” way than Alevel texts I remember, building up from simpler problems before getting too complicated.
It’s expensive (£38 on amazon) but ‘cos it’s a very popular uni text, there’s always loads on sale second hand, and if you don’t mind an older edition then it’s really cheap – one on amazon for 22p at the mo.

ps was a text on electrical/electronic engineering too so should be good for your hobby.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Engineering-Mathematics-K-Stroud/dp/1137031204/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1381145525&sr=1-1&keywords=stroud+mathematics

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Engineering-Mathematics-Programmes-Problems-Stroud/dp/0333448871/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1381145525&sr=1-6&keywords=stroud+mathematics

Thanks again – @loum for 22p for what I am looking to learn I think is sufficient.

@SC – Forgot about Wolfram Alpha – just found a really nice WinPho app (IQ+ for the other 3 people on here with Windows Phones) that hooks in nicely. Tis £2.29 but seems worth it and am evaluating via the trial.

Cheers

Danny B

+1 for Khan Academy

+1 for K A Stroud, saved me on my degree 🙂

Only way to really learn maths is to practice it over and over again. Like muscle memory.

Signed up for Khan and book ordered.

Quite agree portlyone but first you need to learn what to practice!

Cheers

Danny B

I like to practice my sig a lot from different angles..

Cheers

Pythagoras B

What exam is so stats based Danny?

Many years ago when I did mine they had a pure stats paper called Quantative Methods but that was dropped years back. Everyone hated it back then but I guess I was kinda lucky as it was much like the O Level stats paper I’d taken a couple of years before.

I didn’t realise they’d reintroduced something along those lines.