calculus is killing me...

[single]

7am 4 days a week, 3 hours (of class) a day. Normally a 12 week course, but concentrated into 6 in the summer. 2nd week in, first mid term tomorrow. [/end blog


Anyone have good online calculus resources. I am having a hard time keeping up in class.

[sIlentRagE]

take notes, especially the example problems, and then review them. read the text, especially the examples. do the problem sets within a day of assignment. go to office hours with a plan (questions, etc...). if you're still having trouble, meet with the prof and get assigned extra problems that you can try and then review with the prof subsequently. also, get ahold of midterms/finals from the past and work them in a testing environment, then meet with a TA/prof to review...

[Poop~Ghost]

7AM?

yer fucked.

[boarddad]

You think Calculus is hard, wait until you get to Diff EQ's. That nonsense is from the devil himself.

Seriously, try searching You Tube. There's a guy that has a ton of math tutor examples worked out in video format. I could have swore I found the link here but I'm almost certain it was all on You Tube.

Good luck! I've been there and I can assure you it doesn't last forever.

[Rip'nStick]

You think Calculus is hard, wait until you get to Diff EQ's. That nonsense is from the devil himself.

I remember feeling so played when I had spent all that time learning diff eq, then the next quarter was Laplace transforms and the professor pretty much says, "remember linear ordinary differential equations? Well now you can just substitute s for the derivative and solve it with algebra!" That would have been helpful about three months previous....

[Caucasian Asian]

I failed calculus three times. After the third time I took it as a sign and went skiing.

[Tippster]

Oddly enough I have never used/applied anything I learned in Calculus once since College.

[RolnThunder]

7am 4 days a week, 3 hours (of class) a day. Normally a 12 week course, but concentrated into 6 in the summer. 2nd week in, first mid term tomorrow. [/end blog


Anyone have good online calculus resources. I am having a hard time keeping up in class.

Any subtopic in particular? Focusing on derivatives? antiderivatives? something else? I've never taken a summer course but I found the class to be easy when putting in the time to review the notes, old quizzes, and doing some random practice problems from my textbook. I'll see if I can find some online resources for you. Just need to know the sub-topic.

Also, Silent has some great advice.

[Crass3000]

Calc is pretty easy if you have a good teacher, take all the notes, and do ALL your homework. Get in on a study group if your lost. Don't get in on one if you start to catch on cause everybody else will be asking you to show them how to do everything and basically you'll be their tutor.

Realistically the teacher of the class can make a big difference in how hard a class is. Ironically I've saw that at some of the bigger colleges they make calc easier cause they need students to pass so they can take all the other courses that have calc as a prerequisite (physics, etc). They didn't care at the community college I took it at and the tests were WAY harder. Some of the tests I saw at the university level were integral of sine and easy stuff like that when we were getting shit you could hardly make up.

[Crass3000]

I remember feeling so played when I had spent all that time learning diff eq, then the next quarter was Laplace transforms and the professor pretty much says, "remember linear ordinary differential equations? Well now you can just substitute s for the derivative and solve it with algebra!" That would have been helpful about three months previous....

Laplace transforms are almost like cheating

[butterscotch]

Vibes dude. Tutored my GF through calc I at MSU this spring. Seemed like it wasn't a particularly well-taught course, but then her math foundation was completely eroded. I also felt like they tried to cram too many topics into the course and there was a lot of shit that was unnecessary, even for someone like me who does math everyday.

I'm pretty busy this month, but if you get desperate for a "real-life" resource, let me know. Also, I bet you could find a starving grad student to be a tutor.

[krp8128]

Fuck, I have taken accelerated summer courses, 5 weeks long instead of 10. Even in an "easy" (psych and patents), the time commitment is a killer.


I can;t imagine trying to absorb anything for that long, then go do HW, then go do it again the next day. Some classes shouldn't be accelerated....

[DHogg]

7AM??? Dude I barely made my 8am's and i lived 10 mins away! (and then winter arrived and fucked that up even more)

Calc is easy if you do lots and lots of examples and stuff, but if you don't its near impossible.

[hafilax]

I generally resort to Schaum's Mathematical Handbook, Maple, Maxima or even WolframAlpha. Definitely good for checking solutions at the very least.

[runethechamp]

Calculus isn't that bad when your head works well with math

No really, just keep up with the advice here. Or post questions here if there's something you don't understand. If my memory serves me well, I could still understand everything that was going on in the calculus classes, and to me that was a key to getting good grades. As log as you understand what is going on instead of just cramming the knowledge into your head to know the method, I think you will be better off. But that might take a good math head or a really good teacher to accomplish.

[FranklezZ]

Calculus over the summer is BRUTAL. The only way to get through it is work 10-hour days. You are being introduced to new concepts that your brain needs time to digest. The easiest way to get past that is total immersion. Make sure to do double the problem sets and get help on problems you cannot figure out yourself. DON"T get stuck on one problem! It is always counterproductive wasting hours trying to figure out one problem when you can be moving on and practicing other things and get help later.

Calculus is the most rewarding class in mathematics I have ever taken. Taking the time to understand it at this level will ensure that you will be learning the design/idea portion of your future engineering/sci courses instead of struggling with the math which is merely a tool set.

If you miss a lecture or don't understand your notes you can usually find a very similar video lecture here.

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathemati...lus-fall-2006/

MIT has sooo many courses available it is ridiculous! Seriously though don't waste too much time on watching lectures.

The Key to understanding is PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE.

[hafilax]

I'm a visual person. Plotting lots of graphs helps me a lot of the time. Being able to qualitatively tell if your solution makes sense is a valuable skill. I have TA'd a lot of physics classes and it really bothers me when students have no idea whether or not their answers make sense. If your cart is moving faster than the speed of light you probably messed up somewhere.

[mtflyer]

I used this site a few times in calc:

http://www.wolframalpha.com/

You can plug in equations and have it integrate them and show you all the steps, or how to find the derivative, etc. For example, if you want to know how to find the integral of (x^5)/((x^2)-2) just type in "integrate (x^5)/((x^2)-2)" and search. Once it gives you the answer click "Show Steps" and it will explain how to do it.

[iamTRuTH]

You think Calculus is hard, wait until you get to Diff EQ's.

I thought that shit was easy compared to Fuckin' Taylor Series.

Hint: TI-89 does Integrals and Differentiation.

[single]

Thanks for all the help everyone.

I've gotta say that I think I dont have the best teacher for the course. I think she is just a grad student. And she has to be there at 7 to teach it. Bummer for both of us.

I came really close to quitting this morning. But screw that, I am going to try to stick it out, or go down with the ship. Going to have to cut the hours way down at work though.

Been studying all day for the mid term tomorrow. I think I am going to get screwed. But I think I found a line on a good tutor.

[single]

Hint: TI-89 does Integrals and Differentiation.

and we cant use calculators at any point in the course.

although I guess I can use it to check my work.

[waltonhockey05]

Yeah my calc class didn't allow us to use any sort of technology either. Just paper and pencil. My recommendation besides what people have already mentioned is to check out the book "Calculus for Dummy's". I used a "Calc 2 for Dummy's" book this past semester to help me out with my calc 2 class, and I found that it offered some helpful insight into concepts that my teacher may not have explained fully. So check that book out and see if it doesn't help you. Also, does your school have some type of tutoring center? I used that all semester in calc 2 and it was an absolutely HUGEEEEEE help (assuming you get a good tutor). Good luck man, with the right amount of work, I'm sure you'll do fine.

[QuikR12]

I fucking hated math, I wasn't that bad at it, but hated it. I didn't do so well on my first trial of Calc, but I sat through rather than dropping it despite knowing i'd be back there the next term. The next term came, and sure enough everything that was taught from the beginning just felt like an easy refresher. That was good and bad, cause actually understanding it resulted in me teaching the recitation class cause the chinese grad student assigned to teach us understood neither English OR Calculus. Also, my reputation as the frat-dick jock was severely tainted.

Anyway, that was the only college level math class I got an A in, but it did definitely help me out in stats and econometrics down the road.

[warthog]

Most of my math problems came from bad teachers. Iknow this, because once I found a good teacher, that shit made sense in a second.

Try the tutor route. Once it clicks, it is stupid easy. You just need to get someone to get you over that hump.

I withdrew from Calc and Stats one year- the teachers sucked, and it made no sense. Made it up that summer at another college, and aced both. I worked construction from 5 am to 3:30, and the class was 4:30-7. Trust me, I would have killed for a 7 am class.

[mangle]

I'll second the recommendation to look at the MIT ocw materials. They do a pretty decent job teaching the course. In addition to the fall 06 course franklezz linked to, they also have the fall 05 course posted.

I took an accelerated 18.01A/18.02A in fall 03, and it kicked my ass. I got 5s on both the calc ab and bc tests, but failed the first three tests in that class. Thankfully, first term at MIT is graded pass/no record.

Oh, and during that time, I got to see two professors get in a fistfight over the curriculum. It was awesome.