That reminds me of a story about a friend of mine from high school. In fourth form (age 14) he did every exercise in our maths textbook and sent the author a list of corrections to the printed answers. I don't think this was very well received by the author. That friend went on to miss 7th form year, got preferential entry into a maths degree, and had his degree by the time I finished year 1.
It was big. Compared to textbooks today it was probably very good. Hardcover and probably 500 pages. This was 1984, in New Zealand, but I think the textbook was British.
I tried to help my daughter with some maths a few months ago and I couldn't believe how bad her textbook was. It didn't appear to explain anything, just used exercises to show results.
What book? I always thought that doing this with Evans PDE would be the best possible way to learn the subject, but I am not skilled or dedicated enough to do such a task.
It is EXTREMELY time consuming.
The actual solution manual is already available online.
I might gain an understanding of this field, but I doubt I will ever get an interesting job because of this effort.
Unless I revise this stuff, I will forget most of it in a few years.
Why am I doing this? Idk. Vanity perhaps?
Somebody stop me....