Not rude at all! Thanks for the question. My background is in Statistics not Machine learning (that came later) so I covered these topics without reference to M

Not rude at all! Thanks for the question. My background is in Statistics not Machine learning (that came later) so I covered these topics without reference to ML applications. I suppose I never learned to connect these ideas when I was learning about ML, it was only when I went back to my old material I realised how these ideas relate. I agree with your point about teacher material, when I was learning about ML it was separated from raw Calculus. A short answer to your question - yes I took those courses before I started looking at the more integrated material.