How Best To Study Calculus

[Pages:3]How Best To Study Calculus

Most people don't know that they need to study math differently that other subjects, like History or English. Here are some suggestions that might help you this semester:

In general, do not fill your brain with useless special cases. It is MUCH easier to remember the general rule and then apply it to special cases. Unfortunately, Mathematics textbooks are filled with special cases. So you will need to weed out what is a special case from what you REALLY need to learn. I will help you as you go along in this class.

Consider learning math like you would learn a foreign language. I know, I know, you are already thinking it IS like a foreign language, right? Well, you are correct! Math has a language of its own and learning it is more like learning a foreign language than you might think. If there are words you don't understand, look them up in a math dictionary. Look up terms or concepts online. See how other books and teachers teach the same concept. If you are going to spend a substantial amount time learning calculus this semester, you may as well do it right!

Use reference materials, help labs and other students liberally (but ethically). Email me often with questions. If you skip material that you don't understand, it will come back and bite you, I guarantee it. Math builds on itself. (This is one big difference between Math and History or English.) So if you miss one small concept, you will miss the next one that builds on it and on and on it goes. It's kind of like driving a car, going somewhere with directions. If you miss the first turn, the rest of the instructions will not make sense and you will never find your destination. So, get help often. I would rather answer the same question 100 times than have even one person miss something.

If you are nervous about taking calculus, you are perfectly normal! Most people are nervous. I mean, look at the name of the class CALCULUS. Even the name is scary. However, you can do it. Most of the problems you will have understanding this material are not that the material is difficult. It's that you have decided in your mind that it is difficult. Convince yourself that

you can do this, that you will do well in this class. Don't let the past, other people or anything tell you you can't!

For some extra help, get the book How To Ace Calculus (for Calculus 1) or How To Ace The Rest of Calculus (for Calculus 2 and 3). These are good books on condensing the concepts down to what you need to know and presenting ideas in a readable form. I have read them and found them helpful. You may be able to find them at a local library. I know you can get them at for about $10. You will find a link to them at .

Book NOT to get: I do not recommend books that have the word dummy or idiot in the title. You are not dumb or an idiot. Don't put that message in your brain. I also do not recommend books that talk about making calculus easy. It's not easy, but it is understandable and you can ace it if you decide to.

Another website that might be helpful is . This is a new website that I am building to give hints, tricks and techniques about learning calculus. If you want to keep up-to-date on changes to that website, there an associated blog that you can subscribe to where I post updates to my website.

The best way to learn calculus is ... are you ready for the secret? ... do you REALLY want to know? ... okay, I will tell you. The best way to learn calculus is to practice, practice, practice. I will give you plenty of practice problems from the book. If you want more, let me know and I will find more for you.

Another key to doing well in calculus is to decide to learn the material. Now that sounds kind of obvious but think about it. Are you in the class to just get through it so that you can get on with your life? If so, you need to rethink that. Decide to learn the material. Don't just do the minimum and try to figure out the problems I give you, so that you can get a good grade. If you focus on the grade, you won't do as well as if you focus on learning the material. If you learn the material, the grade will be there. If you focus

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How Best To Study Calculus

on the grade, you may not learn the material and, I guarantee you, your grade will be lower. Now, come on, I'm not that naive. I know you think the goal is the grade. But just try it, okay? What do you have to lose?

Oh, another thing. Cramming for exams in this class doesn't work! Oh, it might have when you were in high school or maybe with algebra. But it won't work here. I have found a lot of similarities between studying calculus and training for a marathon.

MARATHON OR CALCULUS?

The graph below is a visual representation of what preparing well for a calculus exam looks like. The horizontal axis is time and the vertical axis is intensity of preparation or how much time you spend preparing.

calculus is a lot like preparing for a marathon. Some people just work a little bit until right before the exam and then they cram and expect to do well. This works when all you have to do memorize equations or something boring like that. Not so with calculus. You need to train.

Imagine a marathon runner waiting until the week before the marathon and running 50 miles a day to cram in the training. It doesn't work, does it? (And it's kind of silly to think that he can do well!) It's the same with calculus. If you have prepared, done the homework, worked practice problems, worked the practice exam problems, then you can relax, come into the exam with no stress and do great on the exam. Sounds good, doesn't it?

DON'T THINK IT WILL WORK FOR YOU? TRY IT. WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO LOSE?

Basically, the raw data, which I downloaded from the Internet, shows how many miles you need to train to prepare for running a marathon. However, studying

PRACTICE EXAM

HOMEWORK AND PRACTICE PROBLEMS

EXAM

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Work on calculus 6 days a week and take one full day off to rest your brain. If you can, take the day off from all school, work and responsibilities. Go jet skiing. Lay out in the park and get a tan. Watch movies. It's not about what you do. It's about what you don't do on that day. Again, I do this (on Saturdays). I know it works.

Allow larger blocks of time periodically during the week to work on this course. A minimum of 1.5 hours will work. However, 2-3 hours at a time is best. You need to study 6 days a week. I suggest you take one day off to relax and refresh yourself. Even though you are not working on calculus, your mind is still working without you knowing it. So rest is very important. If you workout or do weight training, you know what I mean. Your mind works the same way. If you can't study every day, plan ahead to the next time you can study so that you get the homework and exams done before the time they are due.

Keep Up And Stay Connected Keep up on your homework, your studying and your exams. If you don't, you will fall too far behind to catch up. Don't skip any work and if you don't understand something don't skip it! This is critically important to your success in this class.

Ask for help often. Unlike other types of courses, math builds on itself. If you don't understand something, chances are that you will need it later to understand something else. If you get lost early, you will be struggling later.

Also, keep in touch with me. Email me as much as you would like and I will answer you as best I can. I will usually answer your email within 24 hours except for Friday afternoon after 2pm and all day Saturday, then you can expect an answer by Sunday at noon. I want to help you. But if I don't hear from you, I will assume you understand the material. Asking questions, keeping in contact and asking for help are even more important in an online course.

Additionally, I have worked very hard to make sure all the documentation, worksheets, homework assignments and all material in this course is accurate and correct. If you find something that you think is wrong, inconsistent or confusing, contact me immediately. If you do this, it is a win-win for you. If you are correct and something needs to be changed, you get the benefit of knowing the correction and, if the mistake is in a homework problem, your score will be higher. If you are incorrect and you need some clarification, then I will explain the correct way to do something and you will learn how to do it correctly for the exam.

Finally, connect with someone else in the class either directly or via email. Work together and learn from each other. You are not alone (unless you choose to be). You have a lot of help and there are other students out there that feel the same way you do. So stay connected.

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