Basically, I'm not sure what's a good method for studying. Is it working all the problems in the book? I had to juggle the weight of transferring into a new math class a little over a week ago to fit my schedule and they were already leagues ahead of my previous one. I had to catch up and I'm pretty sure I placed poorly on the exam (at least a D or C at maximum). She required the class to do an amazing amount of homework, which I accomplished and tried to fit in studying as well. I only had about five days of preparation and most of that was spent doing the assigned homework. I woke up at 3 AM every day and went to bed at 11 PM for those five days trying to get caught up. Bad idea, I guess. I felt like I did barely okay enough to pass. The 28th is when my next math test is. We're covering two chapters and as per usual, over a thousand (no joke) homework problems.

I'm going to get started on the homework tomorrow, but I don't know how to come off strongly on this next test. What do you do you when you study? What kind of things do you do to prepare yourself for a test?

I can't tell if you procrastinated or not. If so, don't do that! There are no shortcuts. I used to pride myself on not having to study and then one day the material actually required it and I had such bad habits, it took a lot of work to relearn proper studying.

If you didn't, then good. I don't think 4 hours of sleep is a good schedule. What class is this for? I think when doing practice problems you need to carefully select which ones you do. Make sure you cover all the types of problems in the review and then repeat the more difficult ones. There's no need to waste time though on things you already know.

I think it's also critical to truly understand the concepts of the chapter, not just memorizing formulas. If properly studied, formulas can be easily derived and things are just easier. For example, I cannot forget the quadratic formula because I repeated it so much, but if I did I could derive it.

Give us some more details about your class...

It's a Pre-Calculus class. I was able to test into Calculus (I had studied my butt off for about a month going from simple arithmetic to Trigonometry) through examination, but I decided that since I never had College Algebra or Trigonometry before I'd tackle Pre-Calculus before advancing into Calculus the following semester. It had been about two years since I was last in Algebra II.

I’m very interested in mathematics I’ve come to find and the math dean said my math scores on the assessment definitely suggested I had more ability than what my course grades suggested that I took in high school. I’ve never been that amazing of a test taker, but then again, I was a bigtime procrastinator in high school when it came to math because I couldn’t connect the dots and just gave up. I never bothered studying for those tests.

Now with some maturity put into me since I’ve managed to regain control of myself, but my studying habits vary. I never required myself to memorize anything with maths. I’ve got a pretty great memory, so I’ve never gotten less than an A in any other course that required simple memorization to get through an entire course (history being a big one). I can be really obsessive with learning or I can be lazy. In this case, I wasn’t lazy in the least because this would be my ticket to Calculus by passing this course and it’d give me preparation on how to apply what I’m learning for Calculus. They had already gone through the first chapter and were continuing on the second by the time I tried to enroll in the class.

I wasn’t able to enroll in early because of complications with my school. It was also because of the amount of seats available were filled. However, two weeks into the semester, a spot opened up and I decided to get into the course. It’s got some benefits for me now, but the negatives were realized right off the bat. She’s not very good at articulating concepts or ideas verbally or even visually. She’s got a thick accent and she always makes the problems harder than they really ought to be. When I looked at the course syllabus, she also assigns an insane amount of homework in such little time between exams. I had over one thousand problems to complete in five days and on top of that, be studying for the first exam as it was coming already. It was over the whole first chapter and three sections of the second. I worked really hard to complete my homework assignments on time by working and studying practically all day. I gave little time to my family, my girlfriend, and my friends.

The test day comes and I’m running high with a fever while doing the exam and throwing up outside of the classroom as soon as I grab my bag and head out the door from class. I come home and now I’ve just been chilling, worrying about how badly my grade is going to be influenced right now by that one test. It’s one out of five tests and I fear I might’ve flunked it. There are no retests whether I had a good reason or not.

I’m a good self-teacher. I can learn from the book without the instructor’s help, but I can’t pick up all these concepts and know every which way on how to manipulate the problems in a very short amount of time. I came late into the class and I tried very hard to catch up to the rest of the students to be on the same page as them for next week. We’re starting exponential functions and logarithms.

I’d really just like tips on how to improve. I know practice makes perfect but yeah. I stress the concepts over memorization too, like I did when deriving a lot of trig identities.

Oh, so this is a university course? I know the frustration of having a prof who doesn't speak English well. You really need to look into who's teaching a course before you take it. It can make the class fun or hell. ratemyprofessor.com is a nice site to check.

As for study habits, is this trig plus other topics or just "pre-calculus"? Sorry but I can't give great tips until I know more about what exactly you are covering.

Yeah, I'm taking it in college. It's Algebra plus Trig. I am also taking a Trigonometry course to supplement my knowledge as well since I know she's gonna zoom through Trig. We're going in order from chapter to chapter.

I'm using Larson's 7th Edition for the Pre-Cal course.
Amazon.com: Precalculus Seventh Edtition (9780618643462): Ron Larson, Robert P. Hostetler: Books

EDIT: Thanks for the link. I've seen five pages worth of reviews and it looks to me like they've all spoke up about the accent as well and her monotonous teaching method. She's a nice person...I just think she doesn't know how to teach.

Firstly, 4 hours of sleep a night is a very bad idea. When you are studying it is important to look after yourself. Eat regular, healthy meals, sleep properly, and take breaks. Studying is really draining, so eating and sleeping are important. Breaks are important too as they stop your mind from getting too stretched and so unable to concentrate. When I take a break I often find it helpful just to sit in my chair for 10 minutes with my eyes shut, but other times I keep my brain working - I learned to juggles during my second year uni exams!

What is also especially useful, although perhaps less so in the situation you just found yourself in, is doing those "thousands of examples" when you get given them. If you get stuck, ask your lecturer, or ask here. This means that when revision properly comes along you've already done all the questions, and should at least understand how they work, meaning you don't have to spend all your time on all of them, and can skip the really easy ones. I didn't realise this until my second year of honours - but it made a massive difference when I did!

I would also do what Jameson recommends...

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Thanks for the advice guys. Had some interesting news today. I thought I totally bombed my Trigonometry test that day, but I got a 92. I thought I did alright on my Pre-Calculus test (well, C ish), but I got a 58...

Now I've all been freaking out about what type of grades I'll need to make to pass the class. This is taken from the syllabus:

I need to pull at least a C in the course to get credit. I'm planning on aiming high for the exams of course, but I think a reasonable grade for me when I'm not sick would be at least a B on each test. 80. I don't know how many quizzes we're going to have, but I missed one quiz (was not enrolled or there to take it and the last one I took I got a 9/10). I could make at least a B on the final, I'm pretty sure.

Why do you think you are so off with how you think you did and how you really did? That could mean something.

If you missed a quiz due to not being enrolled, you need to talk with your professor. There's no way you should be penalized for this.

If you give us some topics you're covering we can give more detailed study advice.

Okay.

I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because of the placement exam I took. 95 in the Algebra/Algebra II. I scored a 95 on the College Algebra section and a 50 on the Trig section. 50 was the cut-off, so I barely tested into Calculus with the Trig I knew. I didn't know a whole lot and I was moreso ready for the Algebra. I thought I did bad because I was the last one out of the class and struggling to find answers to some of the questions because I had trouble remembering what I had learned. I mean, the homework was ridiculously easy and I actually like my teacher. She's hot.

Anyway, I hadn't prepared period for my Trigonometry test. I haven't really done any Trig work for three weeks or so and just been listening to the lectures. I had some major catching up to do with the Pre-Calculus and it wasn't that I found the homework was hard in the first chapter, it was just that it was too much. I made sure I understood the whole first chapter but none of that was on the exam. I barely had time to study chapter 2-2.3 because I was so busy doing all the homework for her, even though it's worth virtually nothing. She says "practice" and you'll do well. I don't think that left me a lot of time to comprehend what I was actually doing. I was sitting in for today's lecture and even though I failed the exam I understood what was being taught pretty good, except for a few things. Like how she'd pull the imaginary unit i out of her butt when there wasn't anything that'd make that the obvious thing to do. She also messed up big time doing the problems, always rewriting them after we had copied them down to make them easier for her to do and show us, I guess. I was able to finish this humongous pile of homework, but I didn't really have much in my brain about zeros of polynomial functions that day. I had a fever as well and just tried my best. I got 11.5/20.

Today we went over: Zeros of Polynomial Functions

Topics that were discussed:

The Fundamental Theorem of Algebra
Linear Factorization Theorem
The Rational Zero Test
Rational Zero Test with Leading Coefficient of 1
Using The Rational Zero Test
Solving a Polynomial Equation
Conjugate Pairs
Complex Zeros Occur in Conjugate Pairs
Finding a Polynomial with Given Zeros
Descartes's Rule of Signs
Using Descartes's Rule of Signs
Finding the Zeroes of a Polynomial Function
Using a Polynomial Model

Why is it that the bounds on root of polynomials are so neglected?

CB

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A tactic you need to learn fast and use all the time is understanding how the professor thinks about the class and topic. You should strive to understand the material fully, but doing well in the class and knowing the content are different things.

I asked you why you gauged your results poorly because I think that you aren't aware of your professors' expectations of you. Try to figure out what kind of questions will be asked. Will they be directly from the homework? Are the tests multiple choice or free response?

I've had professors that like to be hard on everyone during the semester to push them, but if you make it through alive you will most likely get an A regardless of your test scores. This is probably not going to happen in first year courses, but talk to your professor during office hours and let her know you exist and are interested in the course.

Hope this helped some.

About the poor state of your sleep... did you know that sleeping helps memorizing what you learnt through the day ?

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Yes, I knew that sleep helps consolidate memory.

We learned about it. I was refreshing my memory also about it yesterday before I took a quiz and used what I knew about upper and lower bounds.

They're free-response. What she does is she gives us a set of review questions and says, "If you can do these, you will get 10/10 on the quiz." Yes, well, I did them in 10 minutes, turned it in and she told me they were all right, and she said they were supposedly "harder" than the ones on the quiz, but the quiz looked nothing like what she'd given us except for one problem. It's like she's leading us on and completely turns around the tables.

She says to practice the homework and you'll succeed in the class. Well, I did the homework last time, but I was rushed. This time I definitely have more room to get my homework done and understand what I'm doing.

She basically regurgitates everything said in the book except she switches the numbers around and gives other example problems.

A quick response (time is short nowadays) ...

Mathematical ability is a bit like a muscle. The more you use it the stronger it gets. So the more exercises you do the better you get. It's hard work and boring sometimes, but get into the right swing and it's therapeutic. And then, suddenly, you find you can do what you're doing with no problem.

Which leads to another analogy: it's a bit like riding a bike or learning to waterski. You can't do it and can't do it (without stabilizers or a second ski) and then suddenly you're up, and the next time you try you wonder how you ever thought it was difficult.

It's worth ploughing through the tedium for the rush of happy-brain-chemicals you get when you suddenly get it.

Sleep, yes, always a good idea (yawn). Night-night, all ...

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Thanks. I've been working my 'math muscles' a bit lately. I've mostly been focusing on the algebra portion of Pre-Calculus because that's where I guess it's the most demanding for me. It's gotten pretty easy since last week since I'm remembering a lot of what I've learned and all the theorems/methods. Pretty sure I got an A on the quiz I took today that covered the last few sections of the chapter, which she told us were the most complex. It's pretty cool because a lot of it is becoming intuitive, yet she demands we show our work to show something as simple as the domain being the set of all real numbers x. You can tell right off the bat just by looking at the denominator...I don't know why she does this.

Anyway, I'm confident I'll do well on the next test. It's next Wednesday, so I've got plenty of time to work problems. Probably going to do that most of tomorrow.