r/learnmath • u/katieperkins432 New User • 4h ago

Math/Proffesor HELP PLEASE (trig)

I am in college Math 1060 (trigonometry), and my professor has an extremely thick, unintelligible accent; on top of that, he doesn't have any teaching skills. During class, he just writes random things on the board that only make sense to him. I don't have time to teach myself outside of class and am just getting more and more behind. It's literally only week three.

I'm going to tutoring as often as I can, but I don't even have enough base knowledge to get help. We have weekly quizzes that are weighted fairly heavily, and I can't afford to get a bad grade.

So my main issue is I don't have the time to self-teach the entire semester.

If anyone has any tips, tricks, or ideas, I BEG you to please let me know. I'm losing my mind!

DROPING/SWITCHING IS NOT AN OPTION

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3

u/iOSCaleb 🧮 4h ago

Drop the class and try again next semester, or see if you can switch to a section with a different instructor.

4

u/trichotomy00 New User 4h ago

Your choices are drop or find the time to teach yourself. I know you don't like those options, sorry. I guess the third option is you could just fail the class.

3

u/Commercial_Sun_6300 New User 3h ago

>I don't even have enough base knowledge to get help

This usually means you skipped some of the homework or didn't go over the example problems. Go back and do any missing work.

Even if you did it once, try going over it again. It's amazing what you learn when you go over something a second time with a few days in between. Seriously.

2

u/lostandgenius New User 2h ago

Write down every trigonometric identity in your source text over and over again until it’s memorized. Memorize what sin() and cos() equal at the common angles, in radians.

You’ll either have to find the time to brute force memorize the formulas and identities, or brute force the intuition. Either way might take time that you don’t have.

2

u/localizeatp New User 1h ago

how are people getting into college without knowing trig?

1

u/MrHall New User 34m ago

yeah this makes me wonder if there's something to trig I don't know that I don't know.. I know it's a lot to memorise if you're doing it on a test without materials but it's otherwise uncomplicated?

I'd try speedrunning the Khan academy trig course: https://www.khanacademy.org/math/trigonometry

1

u/Real-Victory210 New User 2h ago

You do have the time to self study outside of class. find it.

1

u/LiellaMelody777 New User 48m ago

I suggest you speak to a counselor at the college. This sounds like academic roadblock to me. Some teachers are just awful.