What are the prerequisites for studying Machine Learning?

Machine learning is a vast field.If you are a fresher in this field, it could possibly be quite confusing for you from where to start.In this article,I am going to share prerequisites for machine learning from my own experiences.

“How to study machine learning? What are prerequisites for machine learning? — Google is flooded with lot of questions like this on stackoverflow , quora etc.

What you will conclude from all such articles is that, you should have a good mathematical background , programming experience in Python or R (as these languages are clearly stand out to be the leaders in machine learning),good knowledge of statistics and probability.

What I actually did was that I followed top down approach of learning.With very little python programming knowledge , I enrolled in a machine learning course.There I got to know a lot about probability and statistics .It wasn’t that much difficult as I was having good mathematical background. If you are a engineering student, it won’t be difficult for you either to grasp the concepts. Whenever , I got stuck, I searched for those specific problems over stackoverflow ,quora ,etc.

And within very little time, I learnt a lot about machine learning. I think this top down approach is best for freshers in machine learning. After following this approach , if you still feel you are lacking in some specific areas , then you can simply watch videos over youtube or search google for tutorials related to that topic. After gaining good knowledge of basic machine learning , you can explore more yourself by working on projects. Instead of working yourself on a unique idea in starting , work on project ideas which have been already worked upon. Search google for project ideas, find a one with provided tutorials and code along with the tutorials.

I want to conclude that , in general there are a lot of prerequisites for machine learning but if you keep yourself mastering around these prerequisites , your motivation for machine learning may die in between.This happens with a lot of students. People say, machine learning is tough because it involves a lot of maths.Reality is that, the approach you follow to learn ML makes it tough or easy for you. If you start applying the concepts of machine learning , then you will find that at some points you require probability ,statistics and linear algebra. On seeing the application of mathematical concepts in real life , you will find it quite easy to learn them. This will deepen you interest in machine learning as well as in mathematics behind it.And, you will never loose your motivation.

“Hope this article helps you to begin your career in Machine Learning ! ”