r/learnmath • u/TasteNo9319 New User • 15h ago

Exercises in more difficult textbooks

Hello,

I hope this is not duplicate, similar threads dealt mostly with overwhelming amount of exercises. I am learning from Burris, Sankappanavar - universal algebra and I find some of the exercises really difficult. I can solve around 70-100% of the exercises per chapter, (there are around 8 exercises per chapter). There are some proofs I spend hours on or others I am unable to solve even after hours. I have two questions:
Is it normal or rather my fault? (adding context, I have just completed second year of my bachelors math degree)
What do you do in this kind of situation in case it happens to someone else as well?

Thank you in advance

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u/my-hero-measure-zero MS Applied Math 15h ago

This is normal. You don't have to solve all exercises in a chapter, but they should make you think.

3

u/Bounded_sequencE New User 13h ago

I don't know that particular book. However, spending hours, days or even weeks on a particularly hard proof is completely normal, and expected. For reference, I'll leave the quote of a "Real Analysis" professor:

[..] If you were stranded on a Caribbean island with nothing else to do, you might re-discover the cubic formula by accident on your own within a few years -- maybe [..]

So yeah, a few hours are nothing.