A Mind for Numbers

How to Excel at Math and Science (Even If You Flunked Algebra)

By: Barbara Oakley

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

The companion book to COURSERA®'s wildly popular massive open online course "Learning How to Learn"

Whether you are a student struggling to fulfill a math or science requirement, or you are embarking on a career change that requires a new skill set, A Mind for Numbers offers the tools you need to get a better grasp of that intimidating material. Engineering professor Barbara Oakley knows firsthand how it feels to struggle with math. She flunked her way through high school math and science courses, before enlisting in the army immediately after graduation. When she saw how her lack of mathematical and technical savvy severely limited her options - both to rise in the military and to explore other careers - she returned to school with a newfound determination to re-tool her brain to master the very subjects that had given her so much trouble throughout her entire life.

In A Mind for Numbers, Dr. Oakley lets us in on the secrets to learning effectively - secrets that even dedicated and successful students wish they’d known earlier. Contrary to popular belief, math requires creative, as well as analytical, thinking. Most people think that there’s only one way to do a problem, when in actuality, there are often a number of different solutions - you just need the creativity to see them. For example, there are more than 300 different known proofs of the Pythagorean theorem. In short, studying a problem in a laser-focused way until you reach a solution is not an effective way to learn. Rather, it involves taking the time to step away from a problem and allow the more relaxed and creative part of the brain to take over. The learning strategies in this book apply not only to math and science but to any subject in which we struggle. We all have what it takes to excel in areas that don't seem to come naturally to us at first, and learning them does not have to be as painful as we might think.

©2014 Barbara Oakley (P)2021 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“If you struggled through math and slept through science, there’s hope. In A Mind for Numbers, polymath Barbara Oakley reveals how to unlock the analytic powers of our brains so we can learn how to learn. This book should be required reading for students - and for my mother.” (Adam Grant, New York Times best-selling author of The Originals)

“A good teacher will leave you educated. But a great teacher will leave you curious. Well, Barbara Oakley is a great teacher. Not only does she have a mind for numbers, she has a way with words, and she makes every one of them count.” (Mike Rowe, creator and host of Discovery Channel’s Dirty Jobs and CEO of mikeroweWORKS)

“In my book The Math Instinct, I described how we have known since the early 1990s that all ordinary people can do mathematics, and in The Math Gene, I explained why the capacity for mathematical thinking is both a natural consequence of evolution and yet requires effort to unleash it. What I did not do is show how to tap in to that innate ability. Professor Oakley does just that." (Keith Devlin, NPR Weekend Edition’s “Math Guy”)

old favorites and new techniques

I learned why some techniques I'd picked up on my own work and which ones to try next. Creating stories to memorize formulas once you understand the formulas and can use the formulas helped me memorize things I've struggled to cement in my mind for years!!!!

Fantastic!

Hits the mark spot on describing my very intelligent 8th grader who for some reason feels he’s not good at math. Now the trick will getting him to list or read this book. Wish me luck.

Use and maintenance of your brain

Excellent narration. It really helped understand the focus mode vs diffuse mode of the brain.

Not about numbers.

If you are looking for help with dealing with numbers, this book will not help you.

It teaches you about how to solve problems and be better a learning.

Perhaps it should be renamed to "how to study"

I was hoping there would be more of a math focus. The book is generally just giving you tips about how to think through problems or pay attention in class.

As someone who works in a STEM field, I was hoping for something more like Jordan Ellenberg's book. I don't have a problem studying specifically. The advice here is pretty general, but nothing here was news to me. Good narration, only an okay book.

A must read.

Breaks down how the mind learns and provides essential strategies to increase learning ability. Highly recommend!

AMAZING

I recommend this book/audio to anyone who struggles with math to top professionals who can still become even better a the math/science subjects.

Very valuable information although catered to students

I realize I’m in the minority of this books demographic however I’m not in school I’m learning on my own so several analogies and even an entire chapter in the end of test were meaningless to me. I will say there’s a lot of value in the information and tips nonetheless and would recommend for anyone learning difficult topics in STEM especially. I’d also recommend listening in segments because this book has a very structured almost directional approach and if your like me and have a tendency to mentally wonder this is a book to be split up not a road trip book. I really enjoyed it overall I think Barbara brought a lot of insight and applicable tools in my nevertheless quest for more knowledge.

For all learners

As said in the afterword...I wish I had this book back when I was in school. Practical advice, and specific strategies. The good news is it is for all learners, young and old, mathematical and NBAotherwise.

I wish I had this book 30 years ago.

I have never been able to understand algebra. I have went back to college and between this book and a wonderful instructor I am finally done with algebra after all of these years.