I had just taken my Calculus final and found out to much woe that I got 20% on my exam.

I have tried doing problems and memorizing important blurbs in my book and such but everytime I memorize one detail, I seem to forget the one before it.


How much am I really supposed to dedicate to learning calculus? This is the second time that I have failed this class and I have gone to office hours and did additional learning and tutoring.


Any tips while I prepare to take this class again for the third time?


And I have a history of doing very poorly in Math as I've failed Algebra 4 times, Geometry twice, and Algebra 2 twice. But I do well in English and Art.

Here's three words that I think will help you get to grips with calculus, practice practice practice

Some people just "get" maths, get told something once and are experts from then on. For us mere mortals however, the only way is to keep practising, I have seen many people just give up when taking maths at college, they just look at the questions and think that they will never be able to do that. However, I've seen much less able people get stuck in and come out with really good results.

There may be something wrong with the way you revise, some people learn by just reading but a lot of people have to repeat questions again and again.

Maybe speak to your tutor, see what their thoughts are?

Hope this helps

Oh just to add, you are a member of the best mathematics forum on the web. Anytime you get stuck on something, help is only a click away

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Craig

It is necessary to learn/memorize the fundamentals.
Knowing how to integrate a specific value is of little importance, but knowing how the integration works is critical to your overall understanding.

It is easy to take the derivitive of a few specific values, but it is more important to know what that actually does.

"You do good in English."
"You do well in English."
You might know what those two sentences mean and what was actually meant. Knowing makes all the difference.

Practice is the best method. But you need to practice with something that helps you understand the reason behind the operations.

My practice was not "what's the answer" but "why is that the answer."

Actors, generally, practice or reherse before going onto the stage to perform.

I know that's not much help.
Practice is a good method to learning.

Memorising is the mistake, try understanding first, then the rest will be easier.

CB

This exactly. All of my fellow students from previous Calculus classes would go straight to memorizing. Luckily (at least with calculus, not so much with linear algebra), I understood the topics pretty much instantly.

When there is something I don't understand, I'll usually read the section and the notes over and over and try to put it into my own words/computations/etc. Sometimes I feel textbooks, and even professors, can get pretty pedantic and don't realize we're not graduate/PhD level students (yet).

So the best way to "master" calculus is to interpret ideas in a way that will make sense to you so that you won't have to end up just memorizing definitions and theorems. More often than not I kinda ignore the wording of many theorems and put it into terms that I understand.


Edit: Also, if you're better with English and Art, maybe that is a path you should pursue. Everyone has different talents/abilities/etc.

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Everything under the sun is in tune, but the sun is eclipsed by the moon.

I agree entirely. I could never remember how to integrate sines and cosines, but my general understanding of the subject meant that I would only loose a couple of marks when I claimed that .

Persionally I find that practice is most important - doing lots of examples, and try to work out where I am going wrong. This helps me to understand the subject much better, and also allows me to see where I need to focus my attention. Do you (mr Cheese) have many examples that you can practice on? I have a large book (the name eludes me) that is full of calculus examples, so I would perhaps advise on asking you tutor for lots more examples, or perhaps trying to find a book of them.

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On an entirely different topic - Swlabr, your signature is nonsense...


On the topic at hand, the easiest way is to really understand what it is you are learning, and why.

What's the point in learning how to find a derivative or integral, or to solve a Differential Equation, if you don't have any idea why you're doing it..?

If you don't have any deep understanding, then you're just using a meaningless procedure...

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Two things are infinite - The Universe and Human Stupidity. Though I'm not too sure about the universe...

Sure, I know that and you know that, but the average school pupil with a pencil and paper and an ability to check the last digit/type it into a pocket calculator is going to have a tough time proving it...(the slightly brighter pupil who checks for divisibility by 3, on the other hand, should do fine...)

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I know of a method and it may just work to your advantage.
When you are in class concentrate and try to understand the concepts.
Once you are home study your notes thoroughly. Then do the examples your teacher has used to explain the concepts.Do them again and again.

Now comes the most important part.When you sit down to do unsolved questions,remember to shut down all your books,notes solved examples etc.You must try to work out the solutions yourself without taking any help.If you take help in whatever form then you are spoiling your power to think and analyze which is ultimately harmful

I think the answer is that different techniques work for different people... If the resources are available I'll always opt to learn the theory through doing problems with detailed solutions - I think as long as you're understanding why each line of the solution follows from the last and not just memorizing what's written you can learn the theory as thoroughly that way as by just reading the textbook. Well, as long as there are enough questions to cover ALL the theory... << that method worked well for me in my last year of highschool, because those resources were very readily available... at college/university it's not so much, I've had to learn a lot by just reading, reading, reading...

Really liked this, totally agree.