Calculus / Is machine gewehr an idiot?

[machine gewehr]

As some of you may know,I'm studying CSE.This is my last semester,if I pass 4 classes and complete my project I'll graduate.

This is however my 8th year.Long story...

In our study,we have 2 calculus classes,Calculus I and II.

I passed calculus I last year (7th year) at TAKE 14.Yes,I failed calculus I 13 times and barely passed last year.

Now I'm taking calculus II,which makes calculus I look like a walk in the park in a sunny day.

I passed all other classes that requires anyhting from calculus I,almost all of them with good grades.But when it comes to calculus,I simply fail.

I wrote programs that can calculate derivative/integral of a given input years ago,piece of cake.

But when it comes in the form of calculus on the paper,I lose it.I do study,I think I know the stuff and I take the exam only to fail once more...

Next friday I'll have the 1st midterm.I'm trying to study but I'm feeling like I'm choking when I do.

Any tips on how to study? Am I an idiot? How can it be? I'm smart,I know I am...but...why? just why do I fail so miserably? Man if I fail this class it's going to cost me another semester,wasted time of aproximately 8 months and I'm 27,I really really need to graduate this semester,enough is enough...

[Jimbob Jones]

Which bits are you stuck on?

Do you do Simpsons/Trapesium/Mid Ordinate rules as part of the syllabus? If so, they're a super easy way of picking up marks.

[Ziltoid]

Damn eh, 14 times? Get a good math buddy/tutor to help you through.

[machine gewehr]

Originally Posted by Jimbob Jones

Which bits are you stuck on?

Do you do Simpsons/Trapesium/Mid Ordinate rules as part of the syllabus? If so, they're a super easy way of picking up marks.

Don't think we got those.

topics upto the midterm are:

Hyperbolic Functions
Integration by Parts * *
Trigonometric Integrals
Trigonometric Substitutions***
Integration of Rational Functions by Partial Fractions*
Improper Integrals
Sequences
Infinite Series
Integral Test
Comparison Tests
The Ratio and Root Tests
Alternating Series, Absolute and Conditional Convergence

I should say,10 out of the 14 attempts I didn't attend classes and did not study.Half the time I didn't even go to exams.This is how much I hate this class...

When I'm taking notes in the classroom,I write the date to the right top of the paper and write the course name to the top left.
Like:

Analysis Of Algorithms 11.10.11
Probability 9.10.11

When it comes to calculus,I write

Fender 7.7.11

Yes,I can not stand the sight of the word while studying so I changed the name of the course to Fender.A very old tip one of my friend's mother gave me years ago.

Perhaps I should change the name to Sadowsky for additional motivation.

[i_got_a_mohawk]

CSE is a Centre for Sports & Exercise to me, what is it to you?

14 attempts tho? Damn! We get 2, 3 with legit reason, then it's out the door!


You are failing because you aren't working at it. You said youself how much you hate the class, how you skip it, don't show for exams etc. That was the answer to that question.

Anything mathematical, you need to sit down and keep doing until it sinks in. No quick way about it I'm afraid. You're also cutting it close timewise are you not?

+1 to the "get a tutor" idea.

[machine gewehr]

Originally Posted by i_got_a_mohawk

CSE is a Centre for Sports & Exercise to me, what is it to you?

14 attempts tho? Damn! We get 2, 3 with legit reason, then it's out the door!


You are failing because you aren't working at it. You said youself how much you hate the class, how you skip it, don't show for exams etc. That was the answer to that question.

Anything mathematical, you need to sit down and keep doing until it sinks in. No quick way about it I'm afraid. You're also cutting it close timewise are you not?

+1 to the "get a tutor" idea.

CSE is as Computer Science and Engineering.

I was not working on it as I said but now I really work hard.

I guess I need a tutor,which I hate by the way.I'm too old for this stuff.It's too late to arrange a tutor for the midterm that's on friday.

Guess I'll study my @** off and see how it goes...

[Ziltoid]

It's not too late to get a tutor, maybe for this exam but not for your final.

[i_got_a_mohawk]

Originally Posted by machine gewehr

CSE is as Computer Science and Engineering.

I was not working on it as I said but now I really work hard.

I guess I need a tutor,which I hate by the way.I'm too old for this stuff.It's too late to arrange a tutor for the midterm that's on friday.

Guess I'll study my @** off and see how it goes...

As said, Math is something you really need to build up slowly and over time.

Look into getting a tutor for the time that's left.

Practice papers, repeating lots of similar examples etc. Only way to do it IMO.

[RosieB]

My son had an awful time getting through calculus, too. His last professor told him that he didn't have to understand it, he just had to know how to do it. Not sure about that myself, but a tutor can definitely help. It's never to late to ask for help. Talking to the professor about where you are with this can sometimes get you advice, retakes or extra credit ops, too.

[i_got_a_mohawk]

Originally Posted by RosieB

My son had an awful time getting through calculus, too. His last professor told him that he didn't have to understand it, he just had to know how to do it. Not sure about that myself, but a tutor can definitely help. It's never to late to ask for help. Talking to the professor about where you are with this can sometimes get you advice, retakes or extra credit ops, too.

Bah, I HATE that approach. But sadly we live in times where all that matters is passing the exams and getting the bits of paper, as opposed to knowing what is actually going on.

[RosieB]

I_got_a_mohawk - he hated that approach, too. That's partly why he changed his major (unfortunately after getting through 4 calc classes he no longer needs!) He just couldn't stand not understanding.

[champbassist]

I'm a CSE student too. Almost all of the topics you listed were in our 2nd semester Engineering Maths course as well. I could advise you to practice like crazy, get a standard book that the profs recommend and get the question papers from the previous years' examinations if you can. Yet, as you've already been down this road umpteen times, I figure you already know all of these, so the only advice I can (apart from the above) is that take help without hesitating from your profs, friends and if you feel, from TBers here There are some really neat lectures on Youtube that you could check out as well.

[Hawaii Islander]

Two killers in calculus have nothing to do with the calculus itself. One, fractions and their various forms. Getting all of the fractions in the correct form in the equation drove me nuts. Two, Converting trig functions to their appropriate form is another key area. My calculus professor and a classmate of mine walked me through these two things and it helped a lot. Good luck!

[Chebass88]

Here are some solid tips to help you get through calculus.

1. It is not impossible, by any stretch of the imagination or definition.

2. Memorize, memorize, memorize. There are probably about 10-20 common integrals and derivatives you should just know. "Waking up in the middle of the night & knowing it". Examples include but are not limited to:

d(e^x) = e^x * dx
d(sin(x)) = cos(x)dx
etc.

In addition, there are formulas for various problems - integration by parts has its own formula. Memorize it.
int(u dv) = u*v - int(v * du)

HOW TO MEMORIZE?
I recommed 3x5 cards, with the terms on one side and the definitions on the other. For example: "Integration by parts", with the above formula on the opposite side.

3. While it might not be mathematically perfect, you can think of an integral as a reverse derivative. A derivative is a limit. This helped me understand it.

4. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. (Get the idea?). Do problems on the material, and make sure you understand EVERY LITTLE STEP. Do not proceed until you know the problem. The harder you work on your own, the easier the exams will be. There is also a VERY good possibility the professor will use an example from the text (which you would have studied, of course...), or one of the homework problems.

When reading through a section in the text, they ALWAYS provide examples. In order to make the book a reasonable length, they skip some intermediate steps, which is dangerous to a student. Write in the margins, write on separate papers, but understand the examples.

5. Calculus is where you get to learn how to do algebra, and how to do it REALLY well. Don't worry, you'll learn calculus REALLY well when you take differential equations. Algebra is tedious. Be very careful, and do no more than one action per line in a handwritten exam. Missing a minus or plus sign can mean a nice & tidy solution or a ridiculously awful solution.

6. Do the exams identically to how you do the homework / practice problems. If this means using 3 pages of algebra, use 3 pages of algebra.

7. Get a different textbook. Almost all undergraduate math textbooks are identical, but perhaps a different author presents it in a better way. I HIGHLY recommend using Thomas & Finney's Calculus. If you have trouble with "integration by parts" (for example), use the index / table of contents to skip to that part & see how they present it.

HINT: After doing this with a few textbooks - you'll begin to realize they are pretty much the same...

I'll post more comments in another post.

Chebass88

[Johnny Crab]

Went back to college at age 34 competing against "young guns" in a selective engineering school(electrical). The BEST physics teacher on the planet(Lab Schools teacher wins prestigious teaching award
http://www-news.uchicago.edu/citatio...derbes-ct.html ) happened to teach us also and clued us in on these useful gems:

Calculus Made Easy by Sylavnus P. Thompson(find older edition if you can)
Amazon.com: Calculus Made Easy (9780312185480): Silvanus P. Thompson, Martin Gardner: Books

Calculus Problem Solver
Amazon.com: Calculus Problem Solver (REA) (Problem Solvers) (9780878915057): The Staff of REA: Books

Schuams Calculus books
Amazon.com: Schuam's calculus: Books

I literally had to spend 4 hours per day for almost my entire first semester in the library working problems in all of the above books. Note that Dr. Derbes INSPIRES students to WANT TO learn and ENJOY math & physics.

The other things I did to help?
Looked through the library(card catalog is your friend), found the calc books, checked out as many OLDER ONES as I could that had examples worked out. Then work as many of the ones YOU have trouble with out until they are not trouble. Dr. Derbes would ask himself and you during deriving a formula "Is that legal?" with reference to some gymnastics in algebra made to massage equations into ones that could be solved. Doing the same helps and KNOWING algebra speeds you up there.

Before every test, I took a LARGE, yellow legal pad and made an outline of my notes AND outlined HOW to work specific problems. If formulas had to be memorized, I wrote them multiple times. During tests, I could see these pages in my mind and look up formulas with my memory. Avoiding ALL intoxicating substances during school helps this ability. I drank one beer during a semester and felt metally foggy for days.

You can do it if you want to.
Don't say you can't or call yourself an idiot. You might start believing it.

[DUC1098]

I actually did well in Calc 1&2, but don't ask me how. I am usually good in math, but I really didn't understand most of what was going on in Calculus. I had a really good teacher, so that was probably what made the difference.

I am trying to get back to school to work on my Bachelor's degree. I will end up retaking both of them so I hopefully understand how to use it, since I will need to take Calc. 3&4.

[Chebass88]

Midterm topics:

Hyperbolic Functions - there are definitions for these, just like any other function. They aren't particularly special - just another group of rules to follow.

Integration by Parts * * - Memorize the formula I mentioned above (it is also in your textbook). The key is in knowing how to pick which one is u & which one is v. One should be easily differentiated & the other easily integrated. I'd write it here, but I am too lazy to get my college textbook. This comes with experience.

Trigonometric Integrals - simple - these are a series of rules. Integral of sine(x) dx = -cosine (x) + C (constant of integration). Always. Memorize them. They never change, and having them in your long term memory helps SIGNIFICANTLY on exams.

Trigonometric Substitutions*** - again, these are a series of rules. sin²(x) + cos²(x) = 1, etc. Knowing these identities will make your life SIGNIFICANTLY easier. You can substitute in for a given trig function, and simplify the integral or then use integration by parts.


Integration of Rational Functions by Partial Fractions* - This is a good one. My best advice is PRACTICE, and follow each step in the examples as well as your lecture notes carefully.

Improper Integrals - wikipedia explains this nicely.

Sequences - This is a nice condensed way to write algebraic expressions.

Infinite Series - there are rules to use these, and it really is just an issue of learning the notation and how to move it around.

Integral Test & Comparison Tests, The Ratio and Root Tests
Alternating Series, Absolute and Conditional Convergence
** - same advice - study and work through them as best you can.

[Chebass88]

Even more advice on how to pass:

A. Prioritize your studying. If the exam will cover all of the topics previously mentioned - make sure you can do the easier stuff (integration, trig identities, etc.). I call them "easy" as they are mostly memorization. Get the easy points in the exam - Remember - you only need to pass, not understand everything. If you are staying in engineering, you will have PLENTY of opportunities to learn how to use infinite series after calculus. Some points are better than no points.

B. Do the "easiest" or most comfortable problems FIRST. Optimize the points you get. This allows for legible, clear answers for the ones you know.

C. A practical tip I've learned: A "Staedtler Mars plastic" eraser is PERFECT for doing math.

D. Practicing math can take up to 3 hours per night, with only one or two nights off per week. The more time you spend now, this makes Calc 3 easier (triple integrations, vector calculus, etc.), which makes differential equations easier, etc.

Let me know if this helps.

ian

[KeithBMI]

Calculus is hard as balls. It only gets harder. I almost have my degree in mechanical engineering. Everyday I wake up and say to myself, "How did I make it this far?"

[Chebass88]

Originally Posted by KeithBMI

Calculus is hard as balls. It only gets harder. I almost have my degree in mechanical engineering. Everyday I wake up and say to myself, "How did I make it this far?"

How do you eat an elephant?

One bite at a time...