Preview
  • A Mind for Numbers

  • How to Excel at Math and Science (Even If You Flunked Algebra)
  • By: Barbara Oakley PhD
  • Narrated by: Grover Gardner
  • Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (160 ratings)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

A Mind for Numbers

By: Barbara Oakley PhD
Narrated by: Grover Gardner
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $15.75

Buy for $15.75

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

The companion book to COURSERA®'s wildly popular massive open online course "Learning How to Learn"

Whether you are a student struggling to fulfill a math or science requirement, or you are embarking on a career change that requires a new skill set, A Mind for Numbers offers the tools you need to get a better grasp of that intimidating material. Engineering professor Barbara Oakley knows firsthand how it feels to struggle with math. She flunked her way through high school math and science courses, before enlisting in the army immediately after graduation. When she saw how her lack of mathematical and technical savvy severely limited her options - both to rise in the military and to explore other careers - she returned to school with a newfound determination to re-tool her brain to master the very subjects that had given her so much trouble throughout her entire life.

In A Mind for Numbers, Dr. Oakley lets us in on the secrets to learning effectively - secrets that even dedicated and successful students wish they’d known earlier. Contrary to popular belief, math requires creative, as well as analytical, thinking. Most people think that there’s only one way to do a problem, when in actuality, there are often a number of different solutions - you just need the creativity to see them. For example, there are more than 300 different known proofs of the Pythagorean theorem. In short, studying a problem in a laser-focused way until you reach a solution is not an effective way to learn. Rather, it involves taking the time to step away from a problem and allow the more relaxed and creative part of the brain to take over. The learning strategies in this book apply not only to math and science but to any subject in which we struggle. We all have what it takes to excel in areas that don't seem to come naturally to us at first, and learning them does not have to be as painful as we might think.

©2014 Barbara Oakley (P)2021 Penguin Audio
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Critic reviews

“If you struggled through math and slept through science, there’s hope. In A Mind for Numbers, polymath Barbara Oakley reveals how to unlock the analytic powers of our brains so we can learn how to learn. This book should be required reading for students - and for my mother.” (Adam Grant, New York Times best-selling author of The Originals)

“A good teacher will leave you educated. But a great teacher will leave you curious. Well, Barbara Oakley is a great teacher. Not only does she have a mind for numbers, she has a way with words, and she makes every one of them count.” (Mike Rowe, creator and host of Discovery Channel’s Dirty Jobs and CEO of mikeroweWORKS)

“In my book The Math Instinct, I described how we have known since the early 1990s that all ordinary people can do mathematics, and in The Math Gene, I explained why the capacity for mathematical thinking is both a natural consequence of evolution and yet requires effort to unleash it. What I did not do is show how to tap in to that innate ability. Professor Oakley does just that." (Keith Devlin, NPR Weekend Edition’s “Math Guy”)

What listeners say about A Mind for Numbers

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    119
  • 4 Stars
    24
  • 3 Stars
    12
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    4
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    102
  • 4 Stars
    16
  • 3 Stars
    10
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    3
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    99
  • 4 Stars
    20
  • 3 Stars
    10
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    3

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic!

Hits the mark spot on describing my very intelligent 8th grader who for some reason feels he’s not good at math. Now the trick will getting him to list or read this book. Wish me luck.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

old favorites and new techniques

I learned why some techniques I'd picked up on my own work and which ones to try next. Creating stories to memorize formulas once you understand the formulas and can use the formulas helped me memorize things I've struggled to cement in my mind for years!!!!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A basic skills that are often overlooked training manual.

I disliked that I didn't have this book as an undergrad. Would recommend this and another memory training book as Bibles to this kind of study

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Learn How to Learn!

Oakley teaches many techniques to improve your learning, as well as what pitfalls to avoid that may stifle your learning.
I recommend this book to everyone!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

very helpful

I wanted to listen to this book to help me get primed for Math. It's a good book. Makes you rethink learning tactics.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Use and maintenance of your brain

Excellent narration. It really helped understand the focus mode vs diffuse mode of the brain.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Not about numbers.

If you are looking for help with dealing with numbers, this book will not help you.

It teaches you about how to solve problems and be better a learning.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Perhaps it should be renamed to "how to study"

I was hoping there would be more of a math focus. The book is generally just giving you tips about how to think through problems or pay attention in class.

As someone who works in a STEM field, I was hoping for something more like Jordan Ellenberg's book. I don't have a problem studying specifically. The advice here is pretty general, but nothing here was news to me. Good narration, only an okay book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A must read.

Breaks down how the mind learns and provides essential strategies to increase learning ability. Highly recommend!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

AMAZING

I recommend this book/audio to anyone who struggles with math to top professionals who can still become even better a the math/science subjects.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!