How do you deal with a stressful class like Calculus? At least, it is to me. And its really starting to look like one of those classes I stop going to. But, it is required, so I have to pass. I feel that in college, as long as you try your best, it's hard to fail. And I want to keep trying. It's just so extremely irritating to sit in class and not understand what the teacher is doing and then look at a page in the book for an hour and not make any progress. The best I can do between reading the notes and the book, and practicing problems is to understand things sort of "half-way" (We are doing problems about "precise" limits right now). I know I can pass as long as i keep trying, because the grading structure is friendly, but it's still so irritating and stressful to not understand things. Really, I even have to pause to close my eyes and take breaths while studying sometimes. So if you're not naturally good to math (or dislike it), how do you deal with it?
Calculus blues
- Thread starter AShadeOfClear
- Start date
Visit your instructor's or TA's office hours. My experience has been that they're more than willing to help at that time if you show that you've given effort in understanding the material. Other than that, just grunt through it. Everyone has to take classes they don't find interesting.
Caffine buys you another 2-3 hours nightly. Just dont ditch class, listen in class somewhat, scribble some notes to get the brain thinking a bit, then site down quickly and then do some homework problems to reinforce what you just learned.
Calc is pain, but impressing your friends is worth alot more.
Calc is pain, but impressing your friends is worth alot more.
That pretty much points to the reason of why its painful. There is an ego investment in it. If I can't understand something, I feel dumb or not as good as others. There is also a fear of failure that discourages. I think it would be a lot easier to learn without these types of thoughts. So, perhaps my problem isn't so much with Calculus itself but the feelings that it brings up.
How do I deal with calculus? I go to class, don't take any notes, do one or two questions before the test and get perfect. Does that help? 
Seriously lots of people struggle with calculus. I tutored tons and tons of people in high school.
Precise limits? As in lim x->n where n is finite? Like lim x->5 (x^2 -6x + 5) / (x - 5)?
Do you know l'hopital's rule? hehe... it is a nice way to "cheat" if they haven't taught it.
I've found that one of the most important things for people who struggle in math is for them to know that they're not alone. Not many people will admit that they need help, but a lot of times when they see me helping other people, they don't mind chiming in too. In my last year of high school even the top students would ask me for help and a lot of them had egos the size of jupiter. People like reinforcement.
Do questions that you know how to do and then build on the ideas from those and try harder questions. If you need help at that point then get it. Use a consistent 'attack pattern' for every question so that even if you don't get the answer you will always set things up to get some partial marks.
DON'T ask questions in class. This is the path of no return, really. The way I work in a math class is I just sit back and watch what the prof does and I will only interrupt when he does something wrong. And I make darn sure he's wrong before I do. Usually you can catch a prof once or twice in a class if you're careful. This is my way of making sure that I understand the material 100%. But don't ask for clarification because it's just not the appropriate forum for it. Wait until after class to talk to a prof or TA or your friends.
If you can master polynomials and rational expressions, calculus should be an easy next step. Limits just describe how those functions behave. Derivatives just let you analyize local extrema which again lets you determine how they behave, where they are large, small, etc. Integrals allow you to find the area underneath a certain range of a function. (EDIT: Okay well derivatives are good for concavity and points of inflection and all that fun stuff too, not to mention all the applications I left out)
If you can master those things you've got a good understanding of the fundamentals of calculus. Well, those things + pythagorus + trig identities.... And FACTORING. Lol
Seriously lots of people struggle with calculus. I tutored tons and tons of people in high school.
Precise limits? As in lim x->n where n is finite? Like lim x->5 (x^2 -6x + 5) / (x - 5)?
Do you know l'hopital's rule? hehe... it is a nice way to "cheat" if they haven't taught it.
I've found that one of the most important things for people who struggle in math is for them to know that they're not alone. Not many people will admit that they need help, but a lot of times when they see me helping other people, they don't mind chiming in too. In my last year of high school even the top students would ask me for help and a lot of them had egos the size of jupiter. People like reinforcement.
Do questions that you know how to do and then build on the ideas from those and try harder questions. If you need help at that point then get it. Use a consistent 'attack pattern' for every question so that even if you don't get the answer you will always set things up to get some partial marks.
DON'T ask questions in class. This is the path of no return, really. The way I work in a math class is I just sit back and watch what the prof does and I will only interrupt when he does something wrong. And I make darn sure he's wrong before I do. Usually you can catch a prof once or twice in a class if you're careful. This is my way of making sure that I understand the material 100%. But don't ask for clarification because it's just not the appropriate forum for it. Wait until after class to talk to a prof or TA or your friends.
If you can master polynomials and rational expressions, calculus should be an easy next step. Limits just describe how those functions behave. Derivatives just let you analyize local extrema which again lets you determine how they behave, where they are large, small, etc. Integrals allow you to find the area underneath a certain range of a function. (EDIT: Okay well derivatives are good for concavity and points of inflection and all that fun stuff too, not to mention all the applications I left out)
If you can master those things you've got a good understanding of the fundamentals of calculus. Well, those things + pythagorus + trig identities....
And FACTORING. LolLOL speak of the devil:
somebody (8:41 PM) :
tom!! are u busy?
Tom (8:41 PM) :
not really, what's up
somebody (8:44 PM) :
can u please gimme a hand with calculus?
somebody (8:41 PM) :
tom!! are u busy?
Tom (8:41 PM) :
not really, what's up
somebody (8:44 PM) :
can u please gimme a hand with calculus?
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