Calculus - how do you do it?

[freeride53]

I'm in my last required Calculus class in the sequence for my major (Calc III). My professor is some fresh PhD who's young enough to be my older brother. He insists on teaching the class outside of the book that is required and used by the school for the sequence.

Had a midterm last Friday. Studied a bunch for it, making sure I knew how to do all the homework and lecture problems, just to eat shit on it.

I don't know what it is - perhaps it being over a year since I took my last calculus class, or what - but it's always puzzled me how to properly study it.

Hell, I rocked an Economics midterm last week that had been known to have a 40% avg, but still cannot seem to go about studying for a lower-division calculus class.
I got an A and a B+ in my last 2 calc classes, and this last one is supposed to be the easiest (vectors, partial derivatives, etc..)

Anyone care to share their tips when coming to doing calc? Sorry for the long rant, this just ruined my day. :(

[Northern]

Pretty much any online calculus self-teaching site, or youtube. As long as you search specifically for what you want, you should be able to find some good shit. I remember some sort of youtube videos by some Indian professor that helped me with some stuff in my Statics course.

I find calc/math textbooks in general tend to jump around too much, and they typically give crap practice questions that don't demonstrate the same variations of equations and shit you'll see on an exam. I'm not sure if this is done on purpose or not, but it definitely doesn't help.

[TheTacoMan]

Wolframalpha has some good stuff, the thing I find with calculus is just keeping doing example after example. In class examples and the HW is just not enough.

[FredK]

yeah, the problem is the assigned problems usually lull you into a false sense of security, then they spring some next-level shit on you for the exam.

So, if you solve additional problems, you'll do a lot better. Don't think about the answer, so much as the HOW you arrived there.

[JJe30]

Check out Khan Academy if you haven't. I've been watching older calc videos to refresh myself. Good videos.

[Jaxx_]

Check out Khan Academy if you haven't. I've been watching older calc videos to refresh myself. Good videos.

Khan Academy helped me all the way though my calc class... after taking it a few times. -__________-

yeah, the problem is the assigned problems usually lull you into a false sense of security, then they spring some next-level shit on you for the exam.

exactly. You need to be way more prepared for the exam than the practice problems. It's easy to solve the same type of problems over and over (replacing the numbers and such) but it's much more difficult when you attempt a problem that you never practiced in homework, but the skills still apply.

[e30rapidic]

Yes, Khan academy has some good stuff. They explain it well. PatrickJMT (http://www.youtube.com/user/patrickJMT) on youtube has a lot of good stuff but from what I remember its mostly I & II stuff.

Do you have to take differential equations? I loved that class.

[Thizzelle]

skip till next year with new teacher

[ReallyDirtyThirty]

The easiest way to improve your performance in this class is to go visit your prof during his office hours and work out problems with him. Go over your mid-term with him, and figure out what he wants you to learn in the class. Go over your homework with him, and ask him what skills he is looking for you to learn from those homework problems.

Every prof has a different style, and what made me successful in school was being able to adapt to the different style's of the prof.

Seriously, just go talk with the guy. Also, developing a relationship with him will help you ask better questions during the lectures.

[E30 Wagen]

I'm in the same class right now. The textbook I'm using is Calculus: Concepts and Contexts by James Stewart, 4th edition.

[slaterd]

Hate to sound this simple but do what I did. After each calculus class/section I would go to youtube and type in the title of the section and watch a couple of videos...they have alot of really good/free teachers out there. I was mid through my semester in Calc II. I was getting a low C. Switched to this method and managed to bring my grade up to a very high B(89.95%-ish). In Calc III I smashed it by doing this...it's like having a free tutor.

[lambo]

My Calc III professor was some crazy old dude that rode a scooter-bike to class and spent most of the class talking about the 4th dimension. We had 3 take home projects which he basically did in class, 2 take home quizzes and a take home final. It was such a joke of a class lol. The professor was weird but pretty damn cool.

[Killacortes]

Khan Academy and wolframalpha for sure I would not have made it to multi variable calc without it

[Killacortes]

Also mymathlab helped alot but it was like a hundred bucks or so.

[Todd Black 88]

As everyone has said, Kahn Academy will help.

Partly funded by Bill Gates foundation, the staff consists of freekin genius'.