I started in late 2016. Initially, it was just during the weekends. I was a regular at the local coffee shop near my place in Boston: I'd go in with my iPad and some sheets of paper, spend 4~5 hours studying, while constantly consuming coffee. Then, I found a friend who had done a Bachelors in math, and we'd visit the local community college 3~4 times a week, and discuss general math and GRE problems on the blackboard for a couple of hours after work: it was a lot of fun.

In mid-2017, I moved to California and spent ~2 hours a day studying by myself, while maintaining a day job writing Haskell and Coq. Then, in late-2019, I quit my job and moved to India to study mathematics full-time (read: 4~6 hours every single day). I started meeting a professor at the local university once a week to discuss my solutions to problems in Miles Reid. We worked through Reid together. I also audited a course in algebraic topology at the university, simultaneously.

In mid-2019, I moved to Paris to continue studying part-time (1~2 hours a day) while working on a Coq project. After some shuffles, I found a professor I really liked, and we started working together. He wrote me the primary recommendation for the Masters program.

I hope the elaboration was more useful than two numbers.