A good presentation about teaching Maths – “Math is not linear“. The presentation says Math cannot be taught in a linear sequence (one chapter after the other) but a ‘holistic’ approach is required in order to see the big picture – just like the presentation itself as it zooms in and out. Interesting and valid points.

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Inborn talent doesn’t explain high achievement. Researchers say high achievement is due to ‘deliberate practice’. It is not as simple as a ‘practice makes perfect’ adage. Deliberate practice is neither work nor play. Researchers have decoded the pattern, and the path to top performance is becoming much more accessible. The conventional wisdom about “natural” talent is a myth.

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Related topic article: Why are some people smarter? – smarter brains seem to have more efficient networks between neurons – in other words, it takes fewer steps to relay a message between different regions of the brain. Another key factor is the insulating fatty sheath encasing neuron fibres, which affects the speed of electrical signals (transmitted inside the brain).

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To boost your memory, take a break – Link. If you want to retain something new you have learnt, it is better to take a period of ‘active rest’ to enable information seepage into the brain. After learning new information, if you continue to learn even more new information, you may be interrupting the memory you want to strengthen.

Four valid reasons to hate mathematics – Link. It is hard to learn mathematics, let alone practice it for a living. But proponents of mathematics as a subject of study and as a vocation *(mathematician) say that it improves analytical thinking and problem solving abilities (using step by step derivations). Personally I would just rather use Mathway.com.