Is Calculus hard?

[AlphaWolf829]

What part is the hardest? Im taking it next year and I would like to know what I got myself into.

 

[BillGates]

Stay far, far away.... It's useless to most people, and one of those classes they make college students take that never apply to real life.

Wait, that's all college classes.

 

[Evadman]

Depends, are you good at math?

I was a dual major with CS and Physics, so I had to take it and its advanced derivitives. I am glad I like math so much. I almost majored in math too because I would have only needed 4 more credits.

 

[Hubris]

I really like calculus, so I'm taking Calculus for Engineers, even though I'm not an engineer and my advisor asked me wtf I was taking the class. But it's all personal; some people love it, some people hate it. Jump in and find out.

 

[Turin39789]

no! its sooooo much fun, i just did my homework 5 times because i didnt want it to end!

 

[Anubis]

yea its really easy

 

[A5]

It'll apply to your career if you become an engineer or a math teacher, but if not either of those, go as light on math as you can.

 

[rpc64]

Calculus SUCKS big time. If it's not required for your major, stay away. And if it is required, good luck.

 

[silverpig]

Differential calc: not too bad.

Integral calc: Kinda crappy. I always found the tests do-able, but if you guess and use the wrong method of integration, you could be screwed for time.

 

[Random Variable]

The difficulty of calculus fluctuates wildly depending on the specific area that you are studying.

 

[brunswickite]

calc 1 = intermediate (derivatives, limits)
calc 2 = difficult (integration by parts, series)
calc 3 = intermediate (multicvariable)
calc 4 (differential equations) = easy

 

[Martin]

calculus is easy, fun and enjoyable.

seriously, I was always good at math, but never liked it UNTIL I took OAC (kinda like AP) Calculus in last year HS. From then on, I fell in love with math.

depending on how university goes, I might start to hate it, but we'll see. Taking calculus and lin. algebra this semester (first year comp eng)

 

[AlphaWolf829]

Well, Im taking it in my senior year in High School. Im very good, averaging around 99 - 100. Im planning on going into engineering in college.

 

[TechnoKid]

i know my calculus, u plus me equals us....hahhaha

Well, so far calculus is easy for me. Im a senoir in HS BTW.

 

[Maleficus]

its actually pretty easy if u just pay attention, if u slack off and dont pay attention it will most likely be hard but keep a sharp eye on what the teacher is doing and ask questions if u dont understand and u should be fine

 

[Goosemaster]

I failed it three times...


then I actually opened the book


Actually, it isn't that bad...


Too bad I am an EE student and will be a year behind.....and I was getting A's on my calculus exam until I stopped trying:|

 

[Stojakapimp]

Originally posted by: TechnoKid
i know my calculus, u plus me equals us....hahhaha

Well, so far calculus is easy for me. Im a senoir in HS BTW.

and the integral of e to the x equals e to the x plus C. Just write it down...you'll understand.

Anyways, I loved calculus. I still have differential calculus to do but so far it's been good. Not all that hard if you keep up with the work. I got some C's on midterms simply because I put no work into, but then for the finals I crammed and did fine.

 

[Ameesh]

science without calculas is like programming without pointers

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: brunswickite
calc 1 = intermediate (derivatives, limits)
calc 2 = difficult (integration by parts, series)
calc 3 = intermediate (multicvariable)
calc 4 (differential equations) = easy

calc 4. humm we dont have calc 4 took calc 3 last sem our next thing is linear algebra

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Never take a course that challenges you to learn. Your GPA will suffer. Try remedial golf instead.

 

[MrBond]

Originally posted by: brunswickite
calc 1 = intermediate (derivatives, limits)
calc 2 = difficult (integration by parts, series)
calc 3 = intermediate (multicvariable)
calc 4 (differential equations) = easy

I agree with this 100%. It's a good idea of what kind of difficulty to expect from calc. I thought Diff Equ was super easy, but without calc 1-3, it'd be impossible.

Calc one and two are the hardest, by calc 3, you're just doing stuff you learned in calc 1 and 2 several times in a row.

You'll probably feel overwhelmed with calc 1 at first. Most colleges teach you how to do derivitives the long way first, which is quite confusing. When you learn the easy way to do them, you're going to wonder why you were ever tought the hard way .

Pray you don't learn series. It depends on your prof, but mine loved them. I found them incredibly hard and with no real application. Some of it isn't too bad, but it can get very confusing, very quickly

 

[Stojakapimp]

Originally posted by: MrBond

Originally posted by: brunswickite
calc 1 = intermediate (derivatives, limits)
calc 2 = difficult (integration by parts, series)
calc 3 = intermediate (multicvariable)
calc 4 (differential equations) = easy

I agree with this 100%. It's a good idea of what kind of difficulty to expect from calc. I thought Diff Equ was super easy, but without calc 1-3, it'd be impossible.

Calc one and two are the hardest, by calc 3, you're just doing stuff you learned in calc 1 and 2 several times in a row.

You'll probably feel overwhelmed with calc 1 at first. Most colleges teach you how to do derivitives the long way first, which is quite confusing. When you learn the easy way to do them, you're going to wonder why you were ever tought the hard way .

Pray you don't learn series. It depends on your prof, but mine loved them. I found them incredibly hard and with no real application. Some of it isn't too bad, but it can get very confusing, very quickly

I don't know about you, but calc 3 was one of the more tougher ones for me. Mainly the tough part about it was working with vectors and all of those weird equations and planar stuff. But then again, I only went to my math class maybe 4 times the entire quarter

 

[abaez]

I think math classes depend HIGHLY on the instructors skill to teach the concepts. I got a D in one of my early math classes, then I took calculus and finite mathematics with another and got A's in both because he was such a good teacher.

 

[Stojakapimp]

Originally posted by: abaez
I think math classes depend HIGHLY on the instructors skill to teach the concepts. I got a D in one of my early math classes, then I took calculus and finite mathematics with another and got A's in both because he was such a good teacher.

For me the teacher had very little impact on what i learned. The most important part about the class was simply doing all the bookwork. The book teaches you the most. 2 of my 3 college math teachers have been foreign teachers and not the greatest, but I still learned a ton simply by doing the work from the book

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Little advanced for the beginner, but while we are talking about calculus, I found this to be a helpful book

Calc book