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If it is the case that I wish to concentrate my efforts in learning Probability, Statistics and Game Theory, then is it also the case that I must become proficient in calculus?

Is calculus a foundation for all mathematical learning... or are there other foundations that would better pertain to Probability, Statistics or Game Theory.

I ask this because

-When reading books such as "Introduction to Probability" "Introduction to Statistics" or "Introduction to Game Theory" I always end up encountering terminology or notation that I cannot understand and therefore cannot progress through the rest of the book. I am unfamiliar with the terminology/notation and my immediate reaction is that these terminology/notation are related to calculus in some way ---> am I mistaken in this assumption? Are there mathematical foundations outside of calculus?

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    Probability is a very broad subject. Can you be more precise? Can you, for example, list some of the terminology and notation that you don't understand? Have you tried looking them up on Wikipedia?2011-07-19
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    I have looked most of them up on Wikipedia. The biggest problems that I have been facing were associated with set theory. Almost every time set theory came up infinite sets followed and the summations started to pop up (as if it was supposed to be assumed that I understood their meaning) this is what caused me to stop reading literature on probability or game theory and focus just on calculus. Which brings me to the question of whether this was the right choice. I'm unfamiliar with how to represent symbols on this sight so it's hard to give examples now.2011-07-19
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    Even the use of subscripts and superscripts began to confuse me. I've searched for an introduction to set theory, but it seems to cause more problems because there's no basic explanation for the use of any of the notation... this might have to do with my lack of experience with higher level math, but it's hard to find a bridge. I've tried to google and wikipedia the notation for the topics, but each explanation for these notation or terminology seems to require more assumed knowledge.2011-07-19
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    Well, it is quite important to understand infinite series in probability, and generally the first place you learn about infinite series is in a calculus course. Are you a high school student? Is there a school nearby where you could take higher-level courses?2011-07-19
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    I've just graduated high school and am going into college. The college I'm going to be attending will of course have higher-level courses. Your suggestion would be for me to take calculus then?2011-07-19
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    Yes, that would be a good idea, and there should be probability and statistics courses to take as well after that.2011-07-19
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    Thank you very much for the help. I really needed the confidence to commit to learning calculus and I have definitely obtained that.2011-07-19

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