Question

Taking an hour on one section of understanding analysis

Answer 1

Nope that's fairly normal. Just keep on plugging along and don't get discouraged.

Answer 2

I'm not familiar with that specific book, but I am familiar with taking an hour (or more) to understand a few pages, or even a single paragraph, of a math book. You should be taking time to read, think about why the definition is like it is, and then solve a few problems. That's how you learn math.

Answer 3

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is that some math texts are confusing as written. There have been many instances when I look over material that I am quite comfortable with and have to use the fact that I already understand the material to make sense of what the author is trying to say.

As others have mentioned, it is a good idea to have supplemental texts, work practice problems, and/or ask an expert/professor about it, particularly if a particular section is causing you difficulty. It could easily be the case the author has written things in an obfuscating manner, in addition to it being non-trivial material.

Answer 4

I took many hours for each lecture to understand optimisation (which is kinda just applied analysis), and now it's integral to my PhD work. Sometimes maths is just hard to build intuition for.

Answer 5

> However, I can’t help but notice that I really have to spend about an hour to hour and a half one just one section.

Amateur. Try taking a day per section.

Answer 6

Like the others said, it’s really all about taking it at your own pace. If I’m studying a subject that’s ‘easier’ for me I can get through content fast, but sometimes I still find myself getting stuck on a paragraph or page for hours at a time, even if I find it ‘easy.’ It’s not a big deal, people just comprehend some topics in a different way than others. So, I’d say you’re doing completely fine right now haha- as long as you’re able to understand the material, it’s really not that big a deal.

Answer 7

Don’t worry! My real analysis class spent at *least* two weeks on convergence of sequences. Spending an hour per section is quite efficient.

Answer 8

This is a fine pace to go at given you’re just starting out. In fact, its actually pretty fast, considering you included doing the practice problems. You’re definitely on the faster side from what I've seen.

Answer 9

That's normal. Sometimes i like to find lots of different books. Occasionally one of them explains things in a different way i can understand better. Occasionally i just waste time googling things and spend more hours reading the same thing.

If you're really really stuck, you can ask someone for help. But often it takes days, not just hours, to understand something that's supposed to be "elementary".

Answer 10

If anything you're too fast. Most people need to spend about two hours of full-bore thought to absorb one page of material when they're learning analysis for the first time. Furthermore, you can only sustain that type of full-bore effort for maybe four hours per day.

Going any faster than that is counterproductive. You will not imprint the material into your long-term memory and you will have to waste much more time afterwards going back and re-learning the material properly when you actually need it to progress further.