Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?
This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.
Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
Meet Bob. He's in his late twenties, and has not done any math since high school, where he was a B- student in STEM-related subjects and moderately disliked most of them. Bob is of above average intelligence, but not exceptionally bright (think +1 SD, midwit extraordinaire territory). One day Bob decides to renounce his wordcel ways and try to learn enough math in his spare time to leave his fake e-mail job and join a rigorous quantitative PoliSci program.
How many hours of intensive study do you estimate it would take Bob to get to the level of mathematical prowess of an average incoming first-year grad student in such a program?
Claude seems to ballpark that number at 600-800 hours (200-300 to relearn math up to Calculus, and 400-500 hours for undergrad math). To me this feels like a real lowball (there are like half a dozen videogames where I have twice as many hours, surely learning an extremely valuable skill must take a lot more time and effort – otherwise everyone would do it, right?), but maybe math is that easy, and Bob, like many people, just never really tried.
Are you Bob?
It’s impossible to give a universal estimate, people learn math at such wildly different rates that there’s no point in speculating. If Bob has all the prereqs met for whatever the program is then Bob should be good. Bob can just learn things as Bob goes. Perhaps Bob should just read the sorts of journal articles that quantitative political scientists tend to read, and if Bob encounters a mathematical concept that Bob is unfamiliar with, then Bob can go look it up and do a deep dive on that particular concept. That would give Bob a series of concrete, relevant goals to focus on.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link