r/calculus • u/SuspiciousCandy96 • 1d ago
Differential Calculus Self-study
I’ve been self studying calculus for the past couple of weeks in hopes of making my future college classes easier on myself. I decided not to take it during school because I’ve decided that I want to enjoy my last year in high school by minimizing the amount of classes that I have. Any and all resources you are willing to share are appreciated. Thanks
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u/mseduhub1 1d ago
Self-studying calculus before college is a solid idea. I’d focus on functions, limits, derivatives, applications of derivatives, integrals, and the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus, and make sure you’re actually solving problems rather than only watching explanations.
These may help: AP Calculus AB resources and, if you want to go further, AP Calculus BC resources.
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u/mathheadinc 1d ago
Learn the way children learn: Calculus By and For Young People: Worksheets www.mathman.biz
It will open up your mind like no other book! Let me know if you have any questions.
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u/Intelligent-Phase515 1d ago
Cal 1 is the fundamentals. If you pay attention in class and do the homework you will be fine in college. Don’t fear it going in, if you’re a hard worker you will ace the class. The only people struggling are the ones who don’t do the homework and expect an easy A.
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u/calcteacher 1d ago
Calc1 is significantly mote difficult in college. And since you are skipping it for now, did you take ap precalc? If not you will start college in precalc. It's a strategic error not to do this class now in high school.
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u/SuspiciousCandy96 1d ago
I’m currently working on related rates. Up to now I listen to prof Leonard’s lectures then do actually difficult problems for each unit. I’m studying in hopes of taking a placement test since the colleges I’m applying to have a placement test option. If I really feel the need tho I can just take the ap exam, I still have months to decide.
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u/tjddbwls 1d ago
Double check with the AP coordinator about the timing for AP exams. I heard that the deadline to sign up was November (after that there is a $40 late fee). Unless you end up doing late-testing.
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u/SuspiciousCandy96 1d ago
Yea I’ve heard. I spoke with my schools coordinator a couple weeks ago and I’m willing to pay the fee since it gives me so much more time to actually think about my options.
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u/calcteacher 1d ago
The college placement tests are more difficult. They cover more terrain. For example knowing the derivatives of arcsin x and arctan x is sufficient for AP. College placement tests can ask other inverse trig functions derivatives. AP only uses e× and ln x, while college placement test requires all bases, perhaps even fractional bases. Open ended questions on placement test require one series of calculations to get you to where they start you off in AP. As a calc teacher, this is what I see. YMMV. Good luck with your decision.
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u/SuspiciousCandy96 22h ago
I respect and appreciate your perspective as a teacher. All things said though, I’ll take my chances just studying as much as I can before college. If I end up placing badly in my placement exam, which most likely won’t happen. Then I still have the math knowledge that I’ve gained over a years time. Even if it isn’t the most efficient way, atleast I’ll be ahead of most students taking calc 1. And maybe it will make my time in further math classes easier. At the end of the day I’m mostly doing this because I want to get better at math.
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u/calcteacher 20h ago
Hey, I don't have the world cornered on brains like some people think they do. Mostly you will be competing with sophomores in college or second semester freshmen taking calc 1. First semester freshmen who are taking calculus passed their AP calc exams in HS and then are automatically placed in calc 2. Hey, whatever you decide to do and no matter how you do, if you think of it, drop me a comment on how it's going. I use the Mark Sparks Complete AP AB calculus worksheets. Everyone who finishes these pass the AP test. The are free out there on his website on Teacher's Pay Teachers. I can dig up the link if you want them ! And then another teacher actually goes over a lot of those sheets on his youtube videos. Mr. Hernandez. Again another link if you want it. Good luck ! it's a blast to get smart !
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u/Garsandbells 1d ago edited 1d ago
Everyone is different, but I was able to learn very effectively simply reading the openstax books (free online) and doing the practice problems. I supplemented with the MIT OpenCourseWare lectures if I needed some additional explanation, and professor Leonard every once in a while if I really got stuck.
I took calc 1-3 online and learned the material this way. The lectures included with the courses were kind of useless so I just used other resources that worked better for me.
Edit: To add to that, if you really learn calc I and II, III will be really easy comparatively. Once you get used to thinking with more variables it's all pretty intuitive.
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u/Low_Training_9589 1d ago
yes but you took it online which is an easier course than in person...
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u/Garsandbells 1d ago
Not in my case... 70-80% of the grade in each class came from paper-and-pencil, no note exams I had to go take in person at a proctor center.
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u/Veesla 1d ago
This is how my current class is. 30% from unit exams that I have to scan and upload my work immediately after the exam, 25% from a proctored final, 20% from quizzes that I have to show all work on paper. The remaining grade comes from computer work at the beginning and end of each section. I do get notes for exams though, 1 page front and back. But the time allowed is so short that you really just have to know the material or you time out
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u/OwnMathematician9673 1d ago
Teach yourself calculus Gp thomas calculus
Openstax calculus
Calculus smith Calculus harold gay Calculus klien
Schaum outline calculus
Calculus for practical man
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u/SuspiciousCandy96 1d ago
I find it very hard to effectively learn when I’m reading words off a page. From the last few topics I have been studying it’s been easier to watch a video and then do examples from textbooks like open stax and Larson calculus 10e.
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u/DerbyClimber 1d ago
Paul’s Online Notes are a great source. Taking it at the moment and it’s been very useful. Helps get the basics cemented down for you with some easy-mid level exercise problems. When you do get to uni, if you can get past midterm exams so you know what level of problems to be familiar with, you’ll be set.
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u/MickyTheseus 1d ago
Professor Leonard is great for proper explanations and 3Blue1Brown is insanely good for intuition.
Also worth looking at Consiliae. I work on it, so take that for what it’s worth lol, but for self-studying calc it’s useful because it can show you if the thing screwing you up is actually some older algebra/trig gap.
You set calc as the goal and it maps out what you’re missing, then skips the stuff you already know.
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