Math Academy is much more dense and on-point that Khan's. You don't have to sit through 15 minutes of video when 2 minutes worth of text explanation does it.
It uses spaced repetition for topics that you aren't good at, and for recently learned subjects.
The topic dependency tree and automatic progressing to "unlocked" topics is obvious in retrospect, but here it's done very cleanly and unobtrusively.
The initial evaluation test is worth its weight in gold. It eliminates the need to grind through things that you already know, but still covers any gaps.
I had kids on Khan for few weeks and it was a hassle. The pace was too slow, too much time sunk into trivialities and they were bored most of the time. With Math Academy they sit down, they do their 20-30 min of focused hands-on effort and they are done for the day.
> Math Academy is much more dense and on-point that Khan's. You don't have to sit through 15 minutes of video when 2 minutes worth of text explanation does it.
This is precisely what bothers me about KA. I guess they're trying to ease into the topic, but I find that kind of repetition annoying and distracting.
I did a year and a half ago before getting too busy with work. I found it to be a bit spartan, but still the most efficient tool for math study I've used.
I was a math major long ago, so it was more a case of relearning than initial learning for me but the built-in SRS helped a lot and so did the granularity of the lessons. It's head and shoulders above Brilliant, IMO.
If it didn't exist or I couldn't afford it, I'd probably go the OpenCourseWare approach. https://ocw.mit.edu/
It's really good for its goals. I've used it for a few months and was really happy with the results. The spaced repetition aspect worked perfectly. The courses are still being worked on - already 99% there with quality, but you can report any issues and they get fixed. Just keep in mind that the target is largely students, (at least at the moment) so the aim is mastery of the subject - if you're interested in learning the concept but not actually doing a lot of practice of using it, then it may not be the right service. And there are magic internet points / leaderboards if gamification is something that works for you.
The exercise sizes are also very small almost all the time. That means instead of a whole topic at the time and figuring out where you left the last time, you can do as much as you want at a time and not be restricted by artificial "chapters".
I have been doing the Math for ML course and would recommend.
I have UK A level math but not Further Math, so up to basic calculus. But I forgot most of it and so Math Academy has me going through a lot of the Math Foundation units along the way.
I was initially put off by the monthly price, as it is quite steep. The clincher is that about a year before starting Math Academy I had gone through the Open University’s MST124/125 textbooks (covering the same stuff as Foundations). Except even after a year I’d already forgotten most of it.
Math Academy learning feels much more robust, since it includes spaced reviews and regular tests. I record things in Anki but it’s useful to have regular practice questions too. I also use ChatGPT to spell out things and find it works well at this level.
Some things I’d like Math Academy to have:
- ability to skip lessons (I don’t want to spend ages going over symbolic integration again)
- a reference page to track unlocked material, maybe with Anki integration
- fewer multiple choice questions and more in depth problems
- proof-based math. I’m told this is coming but the degree-level courses have missed their estimated due dates.
I will definitely finish Math for ML and then do linear algebra and multivariate calculus. You’d still need a good textbook to do them rigorously, but I think Math Academy sets you up well.
Hi, I'm Alex, curriculum director at Math Academy.
Thanks for your comments. In response to the things you'd like us to have:
"ability to skip lessons" - we plan on introducing "mini-diagnostics" sometime soon, hopefully within the next few months. This will allow students to "place out" of certain content they know. The primary diagnostic assessment will have done most of the grunt work here, but mini-diagnostics can be used for fine-tuning the knowledge frontier.
"a reference page to track unlocked material" - This is an interesting idea that we can discuss.
"fewer multiple choice questions" - We're actively introducing "Free Response" across the entire curriculum. Complete coverage across all courses will likely take several months, maybe over one year. Many of our lower-grade students should be seeing lots of free-response questions already.
"more in-depth problems" - we have multipart problems in most courses. We plan to add many more. Introducing "challenge problems" into the curriculum is also something we have planned for the near future.
"proof-based math" - We plan on launching our "Methods of Proof" course within the next 6-8 weeks. This course is designed to introduce students to all fundamental concepts related to proof building: sets, logic, functions, relations, cardinality, proof by induction, direct proofs, counterexample, contrapositive, contradiction, and trivial and vacuous proofs, to name a few. Most of the content is already ready. We have a few technical challenges to overcome before it can be launched due to our new "proof" question format, but we have a clear idea of how these challenges are to be resolved, so 6-8 weeks is certainly realistic.
It's very good. I've tried it after hesitating a bit because of the price tag compared to Khan Academy — no regrets.
K.A. is great and I still use with my kid, but M.A. is more condensed and to the point for my needs. I was properly guided through the first program choices according to my profile, and the diagnostic exam you start with was perfect to highlight what I actually need to work on given my limited time.
Explanations and courses are super condensed, with the right amount of example and pedagogy that clicks for me.
Has anyone tried that course? Is it any good?