I like how easy it was for me learn octave; my professors just needed someone who knew what they were doing, so that made things easier! It's also pretty fast which makes your code run faster when writing scripts in general (which can be really helpful). There are some features you have to pay extra money for but if you don't mind paying then there isn't much harm in buying them. If you're looking into learning math / scientific computing this would definitely help out with getting those skills