Pre-Calc advice

megannarich

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Dec 15, 2014
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I took Math 1,2,3, 4 and AP Stats in High school. Made over 100% in Math 3 and 4 which covered a tad bit of trig. However, I am an engineering major and jumped into Calc 1 my freshman year of college and failed. now i need to decide to take Pre-calc, trig or change my major... I need all A's this semester though to bring my GPA back up and keep my scholarship. Opinions on how hard pre-calc is?? I love math, well i did before i took Calc and i really put a lot of effort into it but could not test well..
 
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I took Math 1,2,3, 4 and AP Stats in High school. Made over 100% in Math 3 and 4 which covered a tad bit of trig. However, I am an engineering major and jumped into Calc 1 my freshman year of college and failed. now i need to decide to take Pre-calc, trig or change my major... I need all A's this semester though to bring my GPA back up and keep my scholarship. Opinions on how hard pre-calc is?? I love math, well i did before i took Calc and i really put a lot of effort into it but could not test well..

Google "pre calculus tutorial", get an overview, work a few problems, ask specific questions here if necessary, form your own opinion ...that would not be difficult.
 
I took Math 1,2,3, 4 and AP Stats in High school. Made over 100% in Math 3 and 4 which covered a tad bit of trig. However, I am an engineering major and jumped into Calc 1 my freshman year of college and failed. now i need to decide to take Pre-calc, trig or change my major... I need all A's this semester though to bring my GPA back up and keep my scholarship. Opinions on how hard pre-calc is?? I love math, well i did before i took Calc and i really put a lot of effort into it but could not test well..

Precalc is not hard. The thing with precal you have to keep in mind is it should really be called "Intermediate Algebra and Trigonometry"... "Precal" is sort of deceiving... It's simply a foundation for Calculus and other math courses that come later. There is no actual calculus in it. To succeed in calculus you really have to pay attention to the trig "identities", the "unit circle" and logs/natural logs in precal. This stuff is only used as the basis for various Calculus problems. While they are far from difficult topics, they do require some memorization. And if you get a teacher who will not let you use a calculator in later Calculus courses, you have to know the trig stuff and logarithm topics off the top of your head and you need to be quick at it (for exams).

IMO Calculus I is easier than precalc.. BUT only if you know all the precalc stuff backwards and forwards and are fast with the mechanics of them. Also you need to have a little knowledge of geometry to take on calculus topics such as "related rates" and "Optimization". If you know all those geometry and trig topics, then Calc I is an absolute breeze.

Another thing is don't get complacent with your Algebra Knowlegde. The Algebra in Calculus I and especially Calc II is often times nothing you've ever really done before in previous classes (even though you do subconsciously know the theorems). While some of it is very simple algebra, there are some times you look at a calc II problem and shake your head in disgust when you get to the algebra portion of the problem solving. Stuff like Partial fractions and finding volume of solids is so simple from a calculus perspective, the actual algebra is the thing that makes it difficult if you are not quick with it.

I'm older (50) an I just went to College 4 years ago for the first time, I never took algebra or pre algebra in jr high or highschool. So I went from taking algebra for the first time 4 years ago to just Taking Calculus II this last semester. So not having any prior knowledge of math I have a fresh perspective... I can tell you......... Algebra and Trigonometry are the key to success in low level calculus courses. In calc II you need to also be able to memorize lots of stuff and be sort of a mind reader... Integrals are easy to solve but only if you are intuitive to be able to know what strategy to utilize to attack the problems.

Like I stated previously I just took Call II this past semester. The class started out with 30 students, there were 12 left in the class the last month. That's how hard it was. I took calc I with a few of the people that dropped out of Calc II and they aced Calc I. I think it depends on the instructor too. The person I had for Calc II was very knowledgeable but didn't really have a strategy to explain how to attack problems. I had to study lots from other books and utilize message boards (like here) to get a better grasp on detailed topics. I took Algebra, Pre-Calc, Linear Algebra, Stats, Discrete Math, , Intro to proofs, Calc I. When I finally got to Calc II, I was very overwhelmed. At first I thought I was just dumb... But after witnessing more than half the class drop out (and who knows how many that stayed in the class failed??), I realized Calc II is just hard for lots of students... So be prepared. It's alot of topics in short amount of time. The easiest is series but it's at the end so you are just burnt from the other 2.5 months of class.

Stick with it, it's not hard. I think the teachers inadvertently make hard because they forget what it's like to be a average undergrad student. You have to realize teachers just regurgitate the same info year after year... It's tough for them not to get complacent. They forget how to explain stuff in layman's terms. Math is especially tough because to be a professor you have to have a PhD, and that requires a ton of very high level math courses and it takes many years. So to them.. stuff like Calculus and Precal is a joke and they probably forgot what it was like to be a calc student.They don't realize it's the first time we have ever seen it. So they grow impatient and subsequently are not detailed, and we suffer.
 
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