An example Math Academy status display. The student is about to begin a new lesson; that lesson has two other lessons as prerequisites. The “3644 XP” represents the student’s activity since subscribing to the service, roughly equivalent to about 60 hours for a typical student. Click for a higher-resolution version.
This all started because I don’t know what an eigenvector is. If I were a typical person, that wouldn’t be a problem. I could go through life happily ignorant of how to calculate an eigenvector, or even how to spell the word.
But in the olden days I was a college math and physics major, graduated with a 4.0 GPA, and was encouraged by my professors to consider going to graduate school. (I ultimately decided against it.) Many years later I did a bunch of data analyses in R as part of my blogging hobby and wanted to learn linear algebra (the area of mathematics that includes eigenvectors) to help me understand more advanced data science topics. I worked my way through a few chapters of an old edition of a linear algebra textbook, doing all the exercises (and blogging my solving them), but after almost nine years of working off and on I ran out of gas before getting to the chapter that covered eigenvectors.
And there things sat, until I stumbled across Math Academy, a new online education service (still in beta), via a mention on X. Doing a search for “Math Academy” on X and elsewhere brought up a bunch of enthusiastic testimonials, and since I was still peeved about not knowing about eigenvectors I was motivated to look into it.
As it happens, there’s a lot of online material explaining the Math Academy system, including an entire draft book, The Math Academy Way: Using the Power of Science to Supercharge Student Learning. So, I read the book, took copious notes on it, and read Math Academy material both informal and formal. After doing all that, I decided to spring for a subscription—which at $49 a month was not exactly a impulse purchase for me—and started out again on my journey to learn what an eigenvector is.
(Since I’m getting on in years, I’d like to travel fairly quickly. My goal is to complete the Math Academy Linear Algebra course and any prerequisites to it by the end of 2025. Then I’ll begin a second journey, with a goal of finishing the Probability and Statistics course and its prerequisite, the Multivariable Calculus course, by the end of 2026.)
Because Math Academy makes some significant claims about its service’s effectiveness, and others make even more extravagant claims on its behalf, I thought it was worth blogging about. Because there’s a lot of information out there, and I had a lot of thoughts myself, I divided it up into multiple posts, one per day. For reference, here’s the complete list:
- Part 1: My eigenvector embarassment. This post.
- Part 2: A skeptical prospect. My attempt to ignore the hype and start off with a pessimistic view of how effective Math Academy might be.
- Parts 2-8: These posts contain my notes summarizing the material in The Math Academy Way, along with my occasional comments. Feel free to skip these if you’ve read the book or aren’t interested in my comments on it.
- Part 3: The sales pitch. How Math Academy (the company) pitches Math Academy (the product).
- Part 4: Addressing objections. Why objections to other online learning systems (supposedly) don’t apply to Math Academy.
- Part 5: Product features. The various learning strategies embodied in the Math Academy system.
- Part 6: Customer responsibilities. What Math Academy users (and those who may be responsible for them) need to do to ensure they actually learn something.
- Part 7: Technology brief. The nerd section, with in-depth explanations of how the Math Academy system works.
- Part 8: Follow-up questions and notes. The Math Academy FAQ, and material that hasn’t yet made it into the main body of the book The Math Academy Way.
- Part 9: Customer feedback (non-pedagogical). My comments on my own experience with the Math Academy system, starting with the user interface and other aspects unrelated to the actual pedagogy.
- Part 10: Customer feedback (pedagogical). My thoughts on learning mathematics with the Math Academy system, based on using it for about a month and completing one class.
- Part 11: Final thoughts. Is Math Academy worth the money? Did I learn anything? Will Math Academy revolutionize mathematics education for everybody? Or even for just a few? And is that even worth worrying about in the Age of LLMs?
In my next post I’ll look at Math Academy with a jaundiced eye.