Math Academy Review
One-sentence takeaway
Math Academy is a great tool for consolidating math knowledge and building procedural fluency, but it is not the best place to learn math from scratch.
What is Math Academy?
Math Academy is a sort of gamified math learning platform where one can learn a wide range of topics from elementary school through college-level mathematics.
The first key feature is that all math concepts and formulas are divided into mini topics with each taking less than 20 minutes. For each topic, a description of some concept or formula and examples of solved problems are provided. Then one solves a series of similar problems to reinforce the concepts and develop pattern recognition.
The second key feature is instant feedback. One knows whether the answer is correct right after submission. In a traditional classroom setting, the feedback is much slower as a student could wait a week or more to get an assignment graded. Moreover, most assignments, quizzes, or exams are designed to evaluate a student's grasp of the material rather than actively developing it.
The third key feature is spaced repetition. Past topics automatically come back for review before the learner progresses to new ones. No doubt it helps information retention.
What do I like about Math Academy?
- A single topic generally takes less than 20 minutes for me, so the friction to sit down and do one is very small.
- The whole system is built around learning by trial and error with instant feedback, which could be one of the most efficient ways to learn anything.
- I like the ranking system, which motivates me to do more topics per week.
- It can improve the grades of college students. Pattern matching and procedural familiarity are essential for solving many exam problems. The Math Academy system is designed to train exactly these skills through deliberate practice.
Can Math Academy fully replace traditional learning?
Unfortunately, no.
Although I would say Math Academy is better than many mediocre institutional learning experiences, it still cannot replace REALLY GOOD lectures and textbooks. For instance, Gilbert Strang's legendary linear algebra lectures provide excellent intuition and demonstrate a depth of understanding that goes beyond what Math Academy is designed to offer. Similar high-quality materials exist for many areas of mathematics.
Sometimes it encourages "shallow" learning. I know how to match this pattern and solve this type of question, but I am unable to explain why we need to use this method or how this method works. The limitation is less obvious in introductory courses, where procedural fluency is often the main learning objective. However, it becomes increasingly important in advanced math to understand exactly how mathematical notions are defined and how rigorous proofs are constructed.
Actively listening to lectures and reading books are valuable skills in their own right, and they benefit a student in the long term. Since Math Academy presents the materials in small, preprocessed chunks, the students might lose the opportunity to develop the ability to digest long-form mathematical material on their own. As an old Chinese saying goes, "Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach them how to fish and you feed them for a lifetime."
My suggestion
For me, the best protocol is to first learn the concepts and formulas from lectures and/or textbooks. Then use Math Academy as a supplementary tool to revisit and reinforce my learning through problem solving.