What you'd probably say, and what a teacher, engineer or search engine would rather hear. The right word is usually the difference between three pages of results and the one you wanted.
Math isn't one subject, it's about a dozen. Naming the right branch is how you find the right chapter, the right tutor, or the right person in the room.
The working vocabulary, grouped by where it lives. Skim a group when you're heading into that territory; search when you're already in it.
Symbols are just abbreviations for words. The trouble is nobody reads them out loud to you, so here's how each one sounds.