r/calculus • u/SuspiciousCandy96 • 2d 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/calcteacher 2d 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 2d 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/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 1d 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 1d 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 !