A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science (Even If You Flunked Algebra) Paperback – Illustrated, 31 July 2014

An absolutely fantastic book that has completely changed my outlook on Mathematical and Scientific academic ability.Before studying at undergraduate level, I failed A-Level Mathematics due to having poor support in my Post-16 studies. The E's and U's that I earned then still haunt me to do this day and serve as a reminder that not having an understanding of how the brain works and the best methods to learn the material will crucify you when you need to recall the material the most.5 Years later and I'm working towards an Integrated Masters in Engineering. To this day I use the methods recommended in this book daily - Active Recall - Bottom Up/Top Down Learning - Repetition - Space Learning - Interleaving - Mnemonics - Reflection on material - 3R's.If you struggled with a subject at Secondary School level and feel that "you aren't just cut out for math/science" then please buy this book. If you are currently at Secondary School and feel the same way, then please buy this book. You won't regret it.

One of the books I will recommend to everyone. So many actionable tips and strategies devoted to learning. Don't be put off by the title; you can literally learn anything more deeply by reading and using the described techniques.

A very interesting read. Slightly misleading title, in my opinion, as there is no mathematical thinking involved - rather its about understanding the learning process itself and neuroscience research behind it - for which wasn't my motivation behind buying the book. I then discovered that there is a free 4-week Coursera course called "Learning how to Learn" which I suppose is based on this book and is presented by the author herself.In truth I found the book and the subsequent online course utterly fascinating, albeit nothing really to do directly with mathematical or scientific ideas which is what I had originally sought.So, this is a book about understanding how you learn, how you can best facilitate your brain's capacity to learn, how it can be equipped to deal with the more abstract and technical ideas that form maths and science, but in truth this book helps in all general aspects of learning and study.

I know, it's never to late for learning new things. Although, I cannot help thinking of what my academic career would have been if I had followed only a few of the ideas presented in this book.Anyway, the information here is well put and has plenty of research backing it up. The concepts are easy to understand and - depending on how deep are your current habits rooted in you - more or less easy to put into practice.When you read about those ideas, you'd like to apply them all at once. Although, a better bet is probably to introduce a few at a time and get used to them.It's surprising how the same ideas, looked from a different perspective, keep showing up over and over on books related to learning, productivity, etc.If you are able to master those learning tricks as a parent, you might also be able to transform it into a beautiful gift for your kids.

The title is very, very misleading. This is not a book about Mathematics and Science; it is a book about learning and how we learn. It gently instructs the reader how to learn, study and approach any problem in a more efficient and ultimately more successful way.Barbara is an excellent teacher and guides you thought what are sometimes complex ideas which she distills into simple concepts that sink in.There is a free online course (search Learning to remember + MOOC) which is excellent. I found that reading the book and doing the course enabled me to get the most out of it. The video course is very good btw.I originally bought it to try and gain some tips to help my language learning. I now use many of the concepts to help teach my young daughter - and it works.I'd say it was the most helpful book I've read in 2015.

The book contains some fantastic and important learning tools for excelling in any academic discipline or professional domain. However the book falls short in terms of clarity and conciseness. The explanation of the various mechanisms that come into play when learning from a neuro-scientific lense was unnecessary. Life is short...I want a good return on investment in terms of the amount of time and attention I allocate to a book.

I bought this book based on the on-line MOOC course the author offers called Learning How to Learn which was great! In fact the book is more than it's cover as you really are learning how to better read, understand and recall i.e learn. I found it sparked me to pay more attention to this process because don't we all read and forget so much.She writes simple and clear and gives you tips and techniques which really work if you take a moment to put them into practice like closing the book and asking yourself to summarize what you just read, or discussing/explaining the concept/idea with a spouse, friend or partner, or using techniques to avoid procrastination which means you accomplish more and more easily. This book is not only for students, it's application is for everyone including I would say seniors would want to remember better.

I’m really surprised at how easy some of these strategies for improving concentration whilst studying are.Although you have to have the motivation to make these into a good habit, they are surprisingly easy and straight forward.