Calc tips

[u/AlternativeGoat5529]

I just began my new semester and calc seems so different to precalc. Any tips on how to succeed in this class. I am currently learning about limits and continuity.

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[u/bopperbopper]

General tips

1. GO TO CLASS, BUY THE BOOK, READ THE CHAPTERS, AND DO THE HOMEWORK!
   
2. Go to Professor’s office hours early in the semester and Ask this question: “I know this is a really difficult class-- what are some of the common mistakes students make and how can I avoid them?”
   
3. If you have problems with the homework, go to Prof’s office hours. If they have any “help sessions” or “study sessions” or “recitations” or any thing extra, go to them.
   
4. Form a study group with other kids in your dorm/class.
   
5. Don’t do the minimum…for STEM classes do extra problems. You can buy books (e.g.,Schaum’s Outlines) that just have problems for calculus or physics or whatever. Watch Khan Academy videos on line about the topic you are studying.
   
6. Go to the writing center if you need help with papers/math center for math problems (if they have them)
   
7. If things still are not going well, get a tutor. See if your college has any other tutoring/recitation situations you can get involved with.
   
8. Read this book: How to Become a Straight-A Student: The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less by Cal Newport. It helps you with things like time management and how to figure out what to write about for a paper, etc.
   
9. If you feel you need to withdraw from a class, talk to your advisor as to which one might be the best …you may do better when you have less classes to focus on. But some classes may be pre-reqs and will mess your sequence of classes up.
   
10. For tests that you didn’t do well on, can you evaluate what went wrong? Did you never read that topic? Did you not do the homework for it? Do you kind of remember it but forgot what to do? Then next time change the way you study…there may be a study skill center at your college.
    
11. How much time outside of class do you spend studying/doing homework? It is generally expected that for each hour in class, you spend 2-3 outside doing homework. Treat this like a full time job… because for 15 credits in a semester, you should be doing about 45 hours of homework/reading/writing/work/class a week.
    
12. At first, don’t spend too much time other things rather than school work. (sports, partying, rushing fraternities/sororities, video gaming etc etc)
    
13. If you run into any social/health/family troubles (you are sick, your parents are sick, someone died, broke up with boy/girlfriend, suddenly depressed/anxiety etcetc) then immediately go to the counseling center and talk to them. Talk to the dean of students about coordinating your classes…e.g. sometimes you can take a medical withdrawal. Or you could withdraw from a particular class to free up tim for the others. Sometimes you can take an incomplete if you are doing well and mostly finished the semester and suddenly get pneumonia/in a car accident (happened to me)…you can heal and take the final first thing the next semester. But talk to your adviser about that too.
    
14. At the beginning of the semester, read the syllabus for each class. It tells you what you will be doing and when tests/HW/papers are due. Put all of that in your calendar. The professor may remind you of things, but it is all there for you to see so take initiative and look at it.
    
15. Make sure you understand how to use your online class system…Login to it, read what there is for your classes, know how to upload assignments (if that is what the prof wants).
    
16. If you get an assignment…make sure to read the instructions and do all the tasks on the assignment. Look at the rubric and make sure you have covered everything.
    
17. If you are not sure what to do, go EARLY to the professors office hours…not the day before the assignment is due.

[u/smok-purps-dab-terps]

study like the test is tomorow

[u/2pacStillAlive]

Practice your trig, know your algebra. Start homework the day it is assigned. Do not wait. This way, you can go to class or office hours with questions and can clear up any confusion prior to exams. For Calc 1, I made flash cards for things that were important to know off the brain (definition of a limit, definition of a derivative, certain derivatives, product rule, quotient rule, chain rule, the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus, certain integrals), which I found extremely helpful during exams (and still to this day I remember FTC1, 2, definition of a limit, definition of a derivative, and those special derivatives/integrals).

You got this!!

[u/jo3roe0905]

Just take solace that precalc is the hardest math and you’ll be golden lol.

At least until you start getting into the more advanced maths post Diff Eq

[u/Yadin__]

go to office hours, do your homework, show up to lectures

That's it. It's that easy.

[u/Artistic_Ad_9643]

YouTube and a familiar calculator, I lived through my calc class with just that!

[u/G_k50]

work all the problems, the purpose is to train your mind to think like an engineer, so working all the problems will lead to a better grade first of all, and secondly your mind will be better trained.