Not exactly. I want to be able to see step by step what I'm calculating. When you're learning programming, you write a very small block of code, (e.g. getting inputs, printing a welcome screen) and then build it from there. With math assignments you have to solve the problem entirely and then check the results. Wouldn't it be better if we could graph every step of our solution, write small loops to test out different values and observe their effect? The math questions I encountered at school were based on tedious and often mysterious manipulations of numbers. Even though I memorized every formula I would still fail. With computer programming you don't have to trust anything. If say you want to learn about pointers, you write some code, get a segmentation fault. You learn from your mistake instantly. If you still don't get it, you read code examples, modify them and see the results instantly. That's what I mean when I say math seriously needs a REPL. In english classes teachers take pupils to the computer lab and give them online exercises. The pupil can fill in the blanks press a button and check his/her answers instantly. Why don't we do this with math? Computers give the pupil the chance to try out different things. If you get stuck, you can always ask it to your teacher.