Current Events > How can I -not- get destroyed by Calculus... again? (Long, BlogFAQs warning)

(+) Yeah! (+)

So I've taken calc a total of three times now.

The first time I dropped within a couple weeks because the instructor was a horrible, awful human being that was honestly horrid at teaching. At the very least though, that did get me in the groove of checking instructor reviews because she was hated all throughout the math dept by her fellow instructors, student aides and all, at the time I'd go to the math resource center for tutoring, just mentioning her name brought more "Dude, just drop now" and "I'm so sorry you have her"s than I could count... and I would've known that if I were privy to intructor reviews at the time because the only people passing her class were people who'd previously taken calc in high school (as I probably should have... and I didn't because computer courses counted as math credits when I was in HS).

Third time was technically the only time I actually saw it the whole way through, and it was a wreck. Learned in great detail that me having a poor grasp on the unit circle and trig identities was gonna be burn on top of burn on top of burn... and in addition to that, my job as an IT lead comes with relentless interrruptions and so much schedule eating that I didn't get ample time to study at all... and it was probably poor timing on my behalf entirely seeing as my son wasn't even a year old at the time, and he was at the height of his dependency. Growth/decay killed me. Summations were massacre. It was bad. I think the only concept I did really well in was... limits.

I skipped over the second time because I wanted to talk about it last... because in addition to not getting these concepts down, I had to drop the second time because I became severely depressed when my mother died halfway through the semester... and now there's a psychological link between calculus and my mother's death.

Whatever the case may be, I've decided to try again. While I was initially following the logic that I should see it through even if I fail, choosing to fail instead of drop took a huge toll on my GPA, and I may no longer be able to attend engineering school if I don't do well this time... I believe a huge culprit was just my studying strategy or how being an IT lead means I'm pretty much on call even when I'm off the clock... I've either lost touch with what I did to ace Trig, or it's not a good enough strategy to do well in calculus.

My soul's kinda crushed, and I'm a hop and a skip away from feeling totally defeated... like I should just walk with the three degrees I have and hope that maybe my son can run the distance when his time comes.

For the time being though, I've got just enough fight left in me to give it one last go. For those who passed calculus (especially those who had to work and/or raise kids during) what worked for you? Any good study strategies?
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Is it the first calculus? I don't even know how you can fail calculus that many times. The professor does an example, you do the examples at home, you get the test and do the example again with different numbers. If you are failing it three times you have a far deeper misunderstanding than just the unit circle in my opinion because worst case scenario you memorize all the unit circle numbers.

Protip: Unless you're going into engineering or something where calculus is necessary, don't bother.
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Hexagon posted...

I don't even know how you can fail calculus that many times.

I actually didn't fail more than once.

Had a bad instructor, dropped.
Mother died, dropped
Third time is the only time I actually went the whole way through.

The professor does an example, you do the examples at home, you get the test and do the example again with different numbers.

I probably would've done well enough to pass if it were like that... but our in-class and book examples were nowhere near as elaborate as what we were tested on :\

Muffinz0rz posted...

Protip: Unless you're going into engineering or something where calculus is necessary, don't bother.

I thought I'd mentioned this in the OP, but I am engineering school (software engineering). Programming classes are a breeze, and I'd aced every math class prior... but I haven't done well in calc thus far.
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learn it yourself. stop depending on instructors because a number of them are crap
pick up a book or 2, and start going through the shit on your own. find places you can ask questions for help, find youtube videos for other instruction.

you have a lot more tools available now then just an instructor.
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Calculus 1 is by far the easiest in the math sequence for an engineering major. Perhaps up your study time, increasing the number of problems you work beyond just those assigned. Most of the text books have solutions manuals. You should get one and check your work. Don't enter class without having completed your homework and checking with fellow classmates to ensure you understand. You might need to drop gaming for a while.

TLR_ posted...

Hexagon posted...

I don't even know how you can fail calculus that many times.

I actually didn't fail more than once.

Had a bad instructor, dropped.
Mother died, dropped
Third time is the only time I actually went the whole way through.

Muffinz0rz posted...

Protip: Unless you're going into engineering or something where calculus is necessary, don't bother.

I thought I'd mentioned this in the OP, but I am in college to be a software engineer. Programming classes are a breeze, but I haven't done well in calc thus far.

Oh, I'm so sorry to hear about your mother passing away. My condolences. In that case I don't blame you for having difficulties with your school work. Doesn't your school have a counselor or somebody that you can talk to? My university has facilities where you can get help when you are experiencing the things you're going through.

Make friends who you can group up with regularly to study with. It's the best thing you can do.
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Xeno14 posted...

learn it yourself. stop depending on instructors because a number of them are crap
pick up a book or 2, and start going through the shit on your own. find places you can ask questions for help, find youtube videos for other instruction.

you have a lot more tools available now then just an instructor.

I actually learned of khan academy (of course too late for it to be useful).

C7D posted...

Calculus 1 is by far the easiest in the math sequence for an engineering major. Perhaps up your study time, increasing the number of problems you work beyond just those assigned. Most of the text books have solutions manuals. You should get one and check your work. Don't enter class without having completed your homework and checking with fellow classmates to ensure you understand. You might need to drop gaming for a while.

I think the lack of study time is what's killing me the most. I'd been batting around the decision to just take a loan in addition to grants to pay bills and whatnot and simply leave my job so I could devote more time to studying. That's the major thing screwing up my schedule... being lead they're always calling me when things go wrong, relying heavily on me and trying to have me travel for meetings or training new ITs.

Hexagon posted...

Oh, I'm so sorry to hear about your mother passing away. My condolences. In that case I don't blame you for having difficulties with your school work. Doesn't your school have a counselor or somebody that you can talk to? My university has facilities where you can get help when you are experiencing the things you're going through.

Tbh, I'm not sure... thought it was something I could just tough through. It's something I'll have to look into though because focusing gets quite a bit more difficult with calculus being associated with all that whole period of getting calls and texts while I'm in lecture hall... more or less telling me mom wasn't gonna make it.
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leverageblargh posted...

How old are you

29
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Tbh, I'm not sure... thought it was something I could just tough through. It's something I'll have to look into though because focusing gets quite a bit more difficult with calculus being associated with all that whole period of getting calls and texts while I'm in lecture hall... more or less telling me mom wasn't gonna make it.

If the service is free, which I think it will be, I don't see why not. And if they look at your performance and history you might be able to get some extra time on your examinations.

Make friends in the class
And ya, calc one was hard for me because of all the trig stuff. I found the other ones easier.

Also, a good sourcr I used was Paul's online math notes. Can't remember if it has calc 1 stuff, but I used it for other calc classes
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Hexagon posted...

If the service is free, which I think it will be, I don't see why not. And if they look at your performance and history you might be able to get some extra time on your examinations.

Yeah that'd be incredibly useful seeing as I never feel there's enough time in the day. Thanks, I'll try that out then.

emblem boy posted...

Make friends in the class
And ya, calc one was hard for me because of all the trig stuff. I found the other ones easier.

Also, a good sourcr I used was Paul's online math notes. Can't remember if it has calc 1 stuff, but I used it for other calc classes

Kinda got ripped away from this thread due to work, but I didn't want to go without thanking you for this. I did verify calc 1 content is there, and I'll definitely try to make use of it. Getting a study group may prove incredibly difficult with my schedule; but being that it's the most consistent suggestion here, I'll have to try that out too.
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