Calculus class makes me want to cry

[DrMetallica]

I'm taking a 4-week summer calculus class. I've never experienced anything this complicated... I actually have a new outlook on life now, and enjoy everything sooo much more because I could always be in the calculus class hurtin'... my head really hurts after that class.

Now, I love school in general. I love learning... I read all the time. I'm also good in math. But with calculus...I understand about 60% of the stuff she teaches, and usually just make stupid mistakes on the quizes that take a second to fix but by then it's too late.

Like lets see, today I spent ~5 hours doing the homework, and I still have an exam to study for tomorrow morning.

My question, how do you cope or how can I to do well in this class? What helped you learn calculus?

 

[Centaurion]

lol

join the club mate!
:cheer:

I've found that MATLAB to be my best friend when it comes to calculus. Just use the 'syms' function so you can do symbolic algebra and the rest should be easy.

 

[dakota]

Key ideas.
1.ALWAYS read ahead in the book, even if you do not understand it at the time.
2. do the homework, and then do it again.
3. create a "checklist" of things you slip up on commonly and make sure you check them on the problems. ie "powercheck", signs check", dervivitive check, integration check. I still have my old list somewhere.
4. Do the homework again.
5. Finally, for the tough problem of the day. Take a good look at it before you go to bed and start working on it in your head. If you solve it, get up and wright it down.

Who Am I to say this?
A teacher of all things science and math. currently - physics, chemistry, ecology, biology,meteorology,astronomy along with in the past algebra, earth science and physical science.


and yes your life will become calculus for a while.

 

[quest]

i know how you feel..
last year i failed calculus.

after about 2 weeks i said "i'm lost" "i can't do this" and i virtually gave up. i spent no time on it. and i failed, got about 44 on the exam.

now i am repeating it. i had my last lecture for calculus this morning.
and definently, for me, i need to pay 100% attention in class, and i need to take every note down. i need to put about a million arrows all over my page showing me whats whappening and write little points about why its happening.

but i think i'll get about 90 or higher on this years exam. it almost seems easy now.

easy compared to my other subjects, which are more then just learning methods but actually understanding concepts.

 

[aftershock]

PRACTICE! Thats all I can say. Practice makes perfect.

The only way you can revise for maths is by doing questions.

 

[Luveno]

Calculus is easy. It just has a bad reputation.


There are TWO things in simple calculus:

1. Differentiation - example: x cubed becomes 3x squared

2. Integration - example: 3x squared becomes x cubed.

Integration is the reverse of differentiation and vice versa. It's really quite simple.

Differentiation measures the SLOPE of a line.

Integration measures the AREA UNDER the CURVE.

 

[repeatx3]

Yeah I was afraid of taking calculus because in college but did surprisingly well. You just have to put your best efforts forward and study a lot. Haha, you are going to love evaluating series.

But chemistry just totally owns me...that was some hard stuff!!!

 

[Disconnect]

Calculus is pretty hard, but not as hard as chemistry.

 

[WORKEROUTER]

Calculus by Apostol.

This is the book you should check out or buy. It will give you an understanding of calculus as what it should be, an introduction into the realm of analysis, unlike the cook-book approach found in most modern calculus books (i.e. Stewart).

 

[blackbirdbeatle]

I breezed though Chem, bio, physics, even pure math(What they called advanced math up here), but never liked calc. I went to get my Commerce degree thinking I'll never need calc again(Not a finance major and the finance calc is simple) but I got nailed with one full year of it along with the math and science majors. I'm graduating this year and after all the finance, stats, accounting,etc... classes I have only needed the simple calculus, nothing close to as advanced as what I did first year.

Feel good that you have completed something so advanced that you'll likely never use it again and everyhting else will seem easy(Unless you go into a math or engineering field).

What got me through was buddying up with someone else. It's likely that one of you has the answer to the others question or you can use the 2 heads are better htan one approach to problems.

If they offer free toutorials go to them.

Good luck and I don't envy what you have to go through one bit(Unless it's high school calc then suck it up, it's not that hard).

 

[flyinshark]

Is it calculus I, II, or III ?

In calculus I i did derivatives, in II i did integrals, in III i did more of both and it was awfully hard for me. Btw, i heard it goes up to Calculus 14 for those who love math, so smile, this is nothing but the basic stuff

 

[apache]

I do all three sciences but i can't stand maths. I dropped that last year, but when i did do it the best way i found of revising was practise. Like someones already said, practise makes perfect.

 

[GlutusMaximus86]

Calculus made me want a cry too, I got a D in it. I was in an evening class that meet only once a week every thursday night from 7:00-10:00pm. The professor I had also had a very boring, monotone voice (and there were some times when I could've sworn she was a robot) and always used the entire 3 hours. Going to that class was hell and I hope I never have to take calculus again (but sadly I probably will, however it will be with a different professor at a different school). Like everyone else has said just practice and get a study group going (and if it really gets bad try getting a tutor as well).

 

[Ever onward]

I THOUGHT Calculus was the hardest class ever, then I took Business Stat. Ughhh I take the final next Thursday...

 

[JPR]

I recently graduated with an electrical engineering degree and calc classes (1-3) and well as Diff EQ math kicked my butt I failed a bunch of em and had to repeat them. I understood the theory for the integration and differentiation yet I hard a hard time knowich which rules to use to simplify and solve complex and long equations. I'd look at them and have no clue how to get started at times. The thing that saved me was a TI-89 calculator. It does Calc nicely and easily. Also it helped that almost everyone in my classes seemed to cheat off each other, it was getting rediculous at times how openly people traded and communicated during exams

 

[SuSHI]

Originally posted by Luveno
Calculus is easy. It just has a bad reputation.


There are TWO things in simple calculus:

1. Differentiation - example: x cubed becomes 3x squared

2. Integration - example: 3x squared becomes x cubed.

Integration is the reverse of differentiation and vice versa. It's really quite simple.

Differentiation measures the SLOPE of a line.

Integration measures the AREA UNDER the CURVE.

HAHAH, have you taken calculus in university? Cause it gets waaaaay more complicated than that. To the point where its not the calculus that is making it hard, but everything else...trig for example.

 

[Luveno]

SuSHI,

yes, I actually have an honours bachelor of science , and I graduated with a 4.0. So just to get that out of the way...


You're incorrect. Differentiation and integration are all that calculus is. There are little nuances and tricks one has to learn like trig identities, but they are not calculus. They are other parts of math.

Rudimentary calculus is just differentiation and integration. That's it.

 

[harwell]

Originally posted by SuSHI
HAHAH, have you taken calculus in university? Cause it gets waaaaay more complicated than that.

Seriously... that's what I was about to say...

Business calc and the calc math majors take are quiiiiiiiite a bit different...

My roomate's girl is a biol major and she just had to take business cal. to get her math credit. In what science did you get your degree, Luveno?

To the poster of the thread: practice is what it takes, no getting around it. (Your prof can make a big difference thought...)

Originally posted by Luveno
2. Integration - example: 3x squared becomes x cubed.

... + unknown constant, c

 

[Luveno]

... + unknown constant, c

Good point. I guess I would've lost a mark.

I'm a microbiology and immunology major who took up to 2nd year level calculus as electives.

My point was people like to give math a bad reputation because they either:

1. had a bad prof

2. didn't put the work into it

Math courses aren't like any other course. It is imperative that you understand how to do it right, because its impossible to memorize.

So practice!
But don't go thinking that calculus is something that's impossible. Anyone can do it.

 

[SuSHI]

Originally posted by Luveno
SuSHI,

yes, I actually have an honours bachelor of science , and I graduated with a 4.0. So just to get that out of the way...


You're incorrect. Differentiation and integration are all that calculus is. There are little nuances and tricks one has to learn like trig identities, but they are not calculus. They are other parts of math.

Rudimentary calculus is just differentiation and integration. That's it.

HAHA you have a BA in science eh?...that might impress some people, but i am taking the samething now and i know that you only need one year of calculus for that (your first year) and i finished mine just this year, so unless you specialized in anything after your ba, you and i have the same experience in calculus. And yeah, there is more to calculus than just integration and diff, there are optimizations and rate of change questions that require everything from trig to vecters that can make you cry just looking at the question. And if you have ever done washer problems for integration, some of those can be really complicated as well.