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Right now, I am student of pre-calculus. I am still studying basic calculus (derivatives & integrals) just because - well why not, it helps me get a head start. But as you can imagine sometimes I don't quite "get" it, and as you can see from my questions, they are mostly based on my lack of understanding of the particular subject at hand. I really, really want to thank the community for helping me to really grok these concepts, and for their friendly attitude towards my admittedly, very naive questions. However I want to pay it forward and maybe answer some questions.

But here's the key point - there's no real way to be able to find questions that are within some scope. Sure, I can look at all the questions tagged or or maybe even , but there are barely any questions which I know at my current level of knowledge. And of the rare times I do find one, there's almost always a good, well-thought out answer for it already.

So my question is: While I may not be able to provide the best, or even the most correct, answers in the world, is there any way for me to be able to find questions at my current skill level quickly? And if such a thing does not exist, should we possibly add it?

Thanks in advance!

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    $\begingroup$ Your desire to pay it forward is admirable. Why not start with the algebra-precalculus tag? See math.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/algebra-precalculus $\endgroup$
    – Barry Cipra
    Commented Mar 23, 2016 at 15:22
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    $\begingroup$ However this is also meant to be a more general discussion on how people can find questions of their skill level. Right now Math.SE seems to have this problem a lot more than other sites, but maybe a discussion about this can help other sites as well. $\endgroup$
    – naiveai
    Commented Mar 23, 2016 at 16:30
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    $\begingroup$ Currently, volume seems the only way. Firstly, to start recognising the type of question you can understand and answer (ignoring some tags might help here), and second, to find such questions where the answer you'd write would bring something extra any existing answers didn't address. Easiest place to find the volume is the main page, with buckets of questions coming in daily. Unfortunately it is hard to estimate the conceptual level of questions using an algorithm. $\endgroup$
    – Lord_Farin
    Commented Mar 24, 2016 at 13:16
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    $\begingroup$ @Lord_Farin Perhaps we can have some system by which the asker can "rate" the likely level of difficulty of the question. I know that there are many possible holes in this, but it would help. $\endgroup$
    – naiveai
    Commented Mar 24, 2016 at 15:11
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    $\begingroup$ I don't have any question-finding suggestions (it's a nontrivial problem for users currently, and a nontrivial problem to solve on SE's end), but I do have a few comments. 1) Good, thoughtful questions are rare, and honestly one of the best forms of giving to the community. 2) Someone "in the trenches" and learning/having recently learned a subject is sometimes better able to diagnose and respond to an asker's actual difficulties that may not be visible on the surface. $\endgroup$
    – pjs36
    Commented Mar 24, 2016 at 16:22
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    $\begingroup$ @eshansingh I will say something without any hurting intentions: you are now in the lower limit of Math SE users. Hence you will be learning rather than teaching. It make take months, or years, I can't tell, but it it will take a while and a lot of learning before you can start answering. Embrace the path, ask questions, work hard and you will get there $\endgroup$
    – Way Too Simple
    Commented Mar 24, 2016 at 18:21
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    $\begingroup$ pj36 - Good point. Paying it forward may not always be answering. moonshine - You know what, you're right. I won't be going into professional mathematics or anything, so perhaps I can just use this site for learning. Thanks to all! $\endgroup$
    – naiveai
    Commented Mar 25, 2016 at 4:37
  • $\begingroup$ I really like the suggestion on rating the difficulty level a user feels a question is, it could definitely help users find questions they are comfortable with. $\endgroup$
    – Simply Beautiful Art
    Commented Mar 31, 2016 at 21:48
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    $\begingroup$ I'd think a scaled rating would be a poor measure of problem difficulty, unless that page was host to a larger sample of visitors. What might work, though, would be, well, another set of arrow buttons similar to vote up and down. Instead, it could be a vote for challenging or trivial. $\endgroup$
    – zahbaz
    Commented Apr 5, 2016 at 8:49
  • $\begingroup$ @zahbaz That's one option. $\endgroup$
    – naiveai
    Commented Apr 5, 2016 at 8:57
  • $\begingroup$ this answer contains a query concerning this topic that somebody found useful $\endgroup$
    – miracle173
    Commented Apr 25, 2018 at 15:39
  • $\begingroup$ A recent question which seems related: Where can I find questions I can answer as a high school student? $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Commented Apr 27, 2018 at 4:40

2 Answers 2

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Besides browsing specific tags, you can also go to the Unanswered list. You can also filter that list and show only questions that have at least one of a list of tags, for example:

https://math.stackexchange.com/unanswered/tagged/word-problem+arithmetic+fractions+average+algebra-precalculus+dice+angle+area?tab=newest

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    $\begingroup$ It seems that unanswered question are in general harder instead of easier? $\endgroup$
    – user99914
    Commented Mar 27, 2016 at 8:52
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    $\begingroup$ @JohnMa: Yes, but you would have to fight less with all the other faster fingers. Also, if you pick specific tags, it is not that bad, since there are some questions that just fall through the faster typists' hands and end up on the unanswered list. $\endgroup$
    – user21820
    Commented Mar 27, 2016 at 16:31
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    $\begingroup$ Also, a trick for the unanswered queue is to answer questions far away from both extremes (say, on pages 700-1700). The earliest questions are often still in the queue because they are hard, the newest questions haven't gone through the revision process and also are subject to sniping, but right in the center there are still a lot of questions which were just posted at the wrong time of the day. $\endgroup$
    – Eric Stucky
    Commented Mar 27, 2016 at 20:30
  • $\begingroup$ @EricStucky Good idea, I'll try that. Never tried sifting through many older questions to be honest. $\endgroup$
    – Simply Beautiful Art
    Commented Mar 31, 2016 at 21:49
  • $\begingroup$ @user21820 As if I'd let an questions I can answer in one sitting go by my hands. And if I can't pick it up today... I'll hunt it down tomorrow. $\endgroup$
    – Simply Beautiful Art
    Commented Dec 24, 2016 at 15:53
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On the right side of the your screen near the top-ish (a little bit down) should be a "Favorite Tags" button, where you can click edit to add the tags to questions you are most familiar with.

When browsing through questions, questions with tags that match your "Favorite Tags" other than if you are searching specifically through one of your tags, will appear blue.

enter image description here

You may also find "Related Tags" useful for finding new tags that relate to material you already know.

Personally, the tag is probably the easiest tag, but it may include material from questions where it may not have been so obvious what tag should go with it. Some things that are not so directly related to this tag, like the top question in the picture above, may appear.

The top questions under "featured" "frequent" "votes" or "unanswered" may be difficult, but they are interesting to read and often involve high quality answers/questions you may be able to learn from.

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  • $\begingroup$ Since you mention favorite tags, it is relatively easy to display only questions in your favorite tags, see here. $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Commented Apr 1, 2016 at 6:58
  • $\begingroup$ @MartinSleziak Oh, that's even more helpful! $\endgroup$
    – Simply Beautiful Art
    Commented Apr 1, 2016 at 21:01

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