Get ready to put 2-3 hours a day into this class, if not more. Problems: Do every problem over and over again. Problems from the book, homework, quizzes, lectures and tests. Start with a blank sheet of paper and write them out over and over. Do the problems until you have them memorized and fully understand every aspect of the problems. The trick is many of the test problems will be similar or use some technique from the problem. Some problems might take an hour to understand, this is normal. Difficult Problems: You will come across many "WTF?" problems in this class. I had tons of them, but I identified them and went to war with them, until I owned them. If you have no clue how to approach a problem use Google (search for the problem or similar problems, there are a ton of Discrete Math problems from other colleges all over the Internet), Youtube, your instructor, TAs or fellow classmates. Do not skip comprehending a problem, this will be your doom! I remember I had two "WTF?" problems and almost decided to skip them, but I didn't and both problems were on the test. Midterm and Finals: Do not wait until the day before a test to review past materials. There is just too much content to digest and understand. If this your plan, have fun with your C. Go to Khan Academy and at least master Intermediate Algebra. Ask your instructor the types of math the course problems will be focused on. My instructor told us the techniques used to solve proofs would not go above Intermediate Algebra. I saw a few proofs for Geometry and Calculus in the book so each class might be different. The Textbook: We used Discrete Mathematics and Its Applications http://www.mhhe.com/math/advmath/rosenindex.mhtml. This textbook does a poor job teaching the concepts. It has a 2.3 star rating on amazon and many of the reviews are brutal. If you plan only using this book to comprehend the materials, you will fail. If is very difficult to understand many of the discrete math concepts from the written word, especially from a textbook written for geniuses. The only good thing about Rosen's book is the problems and the extra problems on the website. So how did I solve the bad textbook problem. First step buy the Students solution manual for Odd Problems in the book. Link to Solutions Manual I used the Solutions Manual to help me with most of the homework problems, there are always similar problems in the book and the solutions manual offers very detailed (more detailed than the solutions in the back of the textbook) solutions to the odd problems. The next thing I did was buy this book Discrete Mathematics with Applications (I purchased the previous edition for about $5), this book does a great job introducing Proof techniques. Last important point about Rosen's Textbook: As the class progressed, I found myself skipping over reading the chapters. I would skim over them and pull out the concepts it covered. If there was a concept not in the lecture, I would find another resource to teach me. The reason I stopped trying to comprehend the book, was due to time. In the beginning of the class I would spend 5-6 hours just trying to read through and comprehend each chapter. Each week I kept getting the "in over my head feeling". I finally realized that it was not me, it was the book, it just did a poor job teaching the material. This was when I switched to the skimming method, and at this point I felt in control again and started kicking some major Discrete Math ass. Also, make sure you understand all the example problems in chapters that are required reading. Do not get behind: Each week gets more and more difficult, if you get behind you are dead.





I hope this helps.





Discrete Mathematics is a very challenging class and covers many different forms on mathematical theory in regards to computer science. Two weeks into the course I felt I was in over my head and prematurely kissed my 4.0 good bye. Each week the content kept getting exponentially more difficult. I was in bad shape and considered dropping out of the CS program. Then I read this post and it saved my 4.0:Case Study: How I Got the Highest Grade in my Discrete Math ClassHere are some tips: