So I'm taking my first calculus class. It seems too easy. Should I be worried and expect it to get a lot harder, the way trig did last semester? College kids, chime in.

 

Calc starts out pretty easy but then it continues to suck worse and worse as the year progesses. But then again, it will always depend on the teacher.

 

wait till u get to 3rd year stuff, by that time u will know the whole greek alphabet.



By 4th year you will need to know it as well as you add and subtract

 

Hmm, so it sounds like it's going to suck later. My teacher is a TA doing his first gig. He only has tuturing experience and is nervous in front of the class. I try to listen to the lectures but he's always down on himself so I keep my nose in the book most of the time. I've been getting As in math so far and have learned to just trust the book. My Trig teacher was pretty limp with her teaching skillz too.

 

**** man I had the WORST Calc I teacher in the history of calculus...the class average was a 70...and that's what I got, a ******* D! So because of that, my GPA is currently 2.3 at Georgia Tech. Not bad considering the school...hehe.



Anyways, Calc II is so much better, I have a B right now with just my final exam ahead of me...we've been concentrating mostly on linear algebra, which is a breeze.

 

every class in college depends on the prof and whether or not they curve at the end.



IMO, i didn't mind calculus. i did well in all 3 semesters (9 hours), and did well in Differential Equations also, with A's in all 4 classes. but, i had good teachers that knew thier crap and could speak english.



just do all the homework, whether it's graded or not, take all old exams you can find, and you should be fine.

 

Thanks. Now I just need to join the FSAE team so I can talk them into letting me drive that beast of a go kart they have. With all the time they spend on that car, they spend about 1% of it actually dialing it in with track time before the competition. Argh. I tell them that seat time and setup / tires wins autocrosses but they are engineers, not pro race teams, so they haven't seen the local VW GTI beat FDs (excellent drivers / tires on each car).

 

You need to convince them to make some Carbon Intake manifolds for us.

 

So true! I took a full year of Calc in HS and did quite well at it, but in the engineering program at Va. Tech, I struggled with Calculus. I was also pretty strong in math, with a 750 SAT. I'm sure the alcohol had nothing to do with it.



Some profs take a very practical problem-solving approach to teaching Calculus, (which I liked) and others will throw so much theory at you that your brain will blow a fuse (I hate when that happens).



Good luck to you. If you work hard at it, you will succeed!

 

Yeah it's the theory that my Calc I teacher wouldn't stop with...and she didn't use the book at all, so it was hard to get outside help from other sources.



I'm joining FSAE next year...our car has a carbon fiber intake manifold.