This web site is provided to help high school and college/university students eliminate common mistakes and to learn important facts. The approach is not to give a list of the types of those mistakes (see some of the links on the "Links/Other Web Resources" page for such lists), but instead to show examples of such mistakes along with corrections and brief explanations. My hope is that these examples complement what your teachers and texts tell you about correct techniques, and that they will help you eliminate these kinds of mistakes.

A second reason students struggle with mathematics is that important basic facts are not known well enough to use them correctly consistently. Just as the multiplication facts are crucial to doing arithmetic, for example, so it is with the basic facts of algebra, trigonometry and calculus. The facts pages on this web site provide flashcards to help students learn these facts as well as pages providing examples of their use and some explanations.

• If you are a student who makes more math mistakes than you would like, look through the examples. Try to find the mistakes before checking the corrections. Read through the explanations. If you sometimes can't recall important facts, use the flashcards. Look through the worked examples and explanations in the learning center pages. If something does not make sense, write to me at the email address below.
• Note that this web site is under development. At this point you may look for a particular kind of mistake or certain facts on this site and not find them here. Check back again later - what you are looking for may have been added. You are also welcome to send me suggestions for content you would like to see on this site.
• If you have suggestions for improving these pages, you may send them to the email address below. I don't guarantee to use any suggestions or material sent to me. Please note: If you send me any material, you agree that I will provide you no compensation or sharing of any revenue that might be generated by the web site in exchange for using that material.
• If you notice any serious errors on these web pages, I would appreciate hearing from you so that I may correct the problem. Please realize that reasonable people will disagree about how to explain certain concepts. In certain cases, therefore, I may not act on your advice. I may in certain cases receive or have a conflicting opinion on some aspects of these pages and will choose the approach that makes the most sense to me. Therefore, please resist the temptation to nit-pick the content of these pages.

Email address: mistakes [at] mathmistakes [dot] info

Russell Blyth is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri, where he has taught classes at all levels since 1987. (The university has no connection to mathmistakes.info, which is being developed using whatever time can be found during evenings, weekends and holidays after work duties and life obligations have been attended to.)

The web site of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Saint Louis University provides information about its degree programs and has resources for teaching and learning mathematics and computer science. Links:

• Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Saint Louis University
• Undergraduate programs in Mathematics at Saint Louis University
• Saint Louis University home page