Essential Mathematics for Games and Interactive Applications

So the current class I am undertaking is using the book I've so lovingly and frustratingly used as my title.  I will say that and programmer who gets paid to do what they do 100% deserves the money they earn.  I'm barely 2 weeks in I am just trying to keep my head above water. 

I know that some of you would like to know more about the actual learning to make games process and I want to ensure that everyone who is coming here gets a healthy dose of advice. 

1. Write your own programs
2. Write them again and ask yourself why everything is the way it is.
3. keep studying and practicing coding - I'm saying this because when it comes time to add the math you'll want a full confident swing into it and not a dual struggle between understanding both the math and the code.
4. test your code, code often and never more than a couple days between.
5. practice, practice, practice.

I've heard a quote a couple times over the last couple months that says if "you want to be a master at anything it'll take 10,000 hours of time to obtain it."

Seriously, I don't know how much time you think you've spent playing games but that is a ton of time! to put it into perspective in a fun simple math kind of way

10,000 hours is the equivalent of 250 work weeks at 40 hours a week
or 4.8 years
or 62.5 months.  That's a lot of time.

I'm currently learning about the dot product and vectors in C++ and the mathematical concepts that go with them.  The programming seems simple enough but without proper understanding of the math is seems to all melt away. 

Also given that I am doing this all in an online setting I find it really hard to meet and talk to my peers- those also in the GSP program with DeVry and others who may be along the same path I am. 
The most frustrating aspect of this is not having anyone who understands what you are trying to accomplish and bounce ideas off of. The best way to understand something is to try and place it into your own words and have the understanding of someone in the same position.  Online classes is super convenient however not good with the social and integration standpoint.

So remember kids - practice your code and treat math with 100% attention - you're going to need it!