>>11334463>what do you reckon is the best way to catch up and exceed others in mathematics without the necessary background.Exactly how bad are you off?
>Is it hopeless for an 18+ year old with inclinations towards the cultures to reach calculus before his 30th?Absolutely not! How long it will take highly depends on how much time you can spend on it though.
>How have you gone about it?I learned high school precalc by self-studying from the exact books they use in high school in my country. I found them at my public library, then later bought my own versions. It took me about a year to learn the most of high school math (I faintly remembered some of it, but only the babby shit, almost none of precalc). I read every section of the books and did close to all the meaty exercises. Then I took public high school exams for those classes and got good grades. Then I could apply for uni, and got in. I learned calc the regular way at uni. That is single variable calc first semester, then intro to multivariable calc and linear algebra second semester. If you just want get to and learn calculus as fast as possible, there are probably better way to do it. That is, better books and better methods. I did it this way because I wanted to be able to apply for uni and my country has these very particular high school courses I needed to pass to be able to apply.
