Shane.Trammell

dude will you do my homework too?

gsl-se addict

If you need help with something, I would be glad to help.



The thing is, if he just copies the work but doesn't really understand it, it will not help him much. I tried to expain the process clearly so that he can see how to go about doing it. For those of you that are not in college yet, you will find that in most college courses, homework accounts for only a small percentage of the overall grade (typically 10-25%) with the majority of the grade coming from tests and projects. The reason is because during the test, the professor knows that you are really doing the work and not just copying someone else's work. Homework is really just practice using examples to learn the process.



The key is being able to understand the process. Once you fully understand what is going on, the problems just sort of fall into place.

rfreeman27

I love matricies, they cut down on work time by like 100%.

-=RX-7 KID=-

Thanks for all the help kent. I'm a freshmen in college. I'm really bad at math, its my worst subject. I have to re-take algebra because we were not allowed to use anything but a 4 function calc on our placement tests. In HS we were told to use calcs and even supplied with Ti-86s. I myself had a Ti-89 since 9'th grade, talk about making everything easy. A Ti-89 is like a windows based calc theres not much it cant do, at least in all the math classes i had to take. i had algerbra, geo, trig, and calc. Now i'm back to using a 4 function in college and i cant do ****. So i have to struggle through algerbra, prep for business calc, and business calc all with a 4 function calc. So any one still in HS that thinks they can get arounf everyhting by using a Ti-89 make sure your college will allow you to do the same.

gsl-se addict

No problem, man. I used a TI-80 in HS and a TI-85 since near the beginning of college (almost 10 years). It has suited me well and has done everything that I needed it to do (won't do symbolic calculus and stuff like the TI-89 can though). I use it mainly for graphing and some matrix algebra and searching for roots to an equation. I can see how many classes won't allow a TI-89. It is just so powerful, that you don't really need to know how to do the work. People rely too much on calculators. The best math students that I know (couple of Korean guys and a Chinese guy that I work with) almost never use a calculator and the only calculator they do use is a simple scientific calculator with no graphing or anything. They were brought up doing all the work hand and they are much better than I am at math because of it.



Just keep at it and you will pick it up. It just takes time working with the problems to really start to know how to do them. Try to do everything by hand, especially homework (not rushed like during a test) and you will get a much better understanding of the problem.



I struggled a bit in college calc also. Calc in HS was fine and the calculus in my college physics classes I could do, but I would have trouble with the Calculus classes that I had to take. I think mostly because I had no one to ask question about the stuff. The calc in physics I could do fine because I tend to think of things in a physical way. For instance, integrating rocket fuel burn rate to determine the amount of fuel used. In this case, you can look at the number to see if it physically makes sense. In calc though, it would be integrate sin^3(x)*sec(x) or something from one point to another. You would get a number, but it would be hard to tell if the answer makes sense unless you plotted the function, looked at the curve and see if the area under the curve is about what you calculated.



Good luck in your math classes. I am sure that you will do fine. Just try to keep a positive attitude about it and keep trying to learn it without the use of a calculator. If you need help figuring something out, shoot me a PM. I will answer the best that I can and try to help you understand how to do it. Did you understand the problems that I did on this page? Is the difficulty that you’re having figuring out what the equations are or are you just having a hard time solving the equations? Some people have a hard time with word problems. They have a hard time extracting the relevant information and putting it into equation form.



Kent

-=RX-7 KID=-

Yeah not being able to use a calc is whats really killing me. I dont have any more of a problem with word problems then i do with basic math, well not that much more. Its all hard to me, just math concepts in general it takes me a long time to get it. I did great in phyics in HS too, more or less because it made sense to me, you just plug numbers into equations and get answers. I understand the problems after i saw them broke down of course, but doesnt everyone? Its when it comes to looking at that on a test next week that i'll draw a blank and forget everyhting. It just hurts so bad having to go back and re-learn everything. Plus no offense to you or anyone else but i really hate math. so sitting down to re-learn it kills me. I would be ok in college if they would let us use a Ti-83 - Ti-86 even but a 4 function is droping me back past 6'th grade. Its so ******* dumb for a college to remove those tools. I'm going to have a Ti-89 at my desk when i'm working in real life, why souldnt i have one in college. Of all places i would have exspected colleges to be open minded to good things like Ti-89s, hell when you pay 12k a year a ******* Ti-89 should come in the mail with your acceptence letter.

some " higher education " can we say transfer papers?

gsl-se addict

I know what you mean. I don't like math classes much, but I need to use the tools learned from them on a daily basis. I like applying the math to physics and engineering problems, though. It sounds like you are a business major, so some of what you are doing may not help in the real world, but it is always nice to know just in case. I really think that you would like math better if you started doing better at it. You may not love it, but at least you probably won't hate it so much. Most people hate the things that they are not good at and love the things that they are good at.



If you want help with some example problems or some tips for studying for your test, let me know. I would be happy to help you out.



I may be moving to the Pittsburg area in a couple months if that is where I decide to work (Westinghouse or Bettis). I may ask you some questions about the area to see what it's like seeing how I have never been on the east coast.



I see your point about the calculators. It is like having closed book exams. In the real world, you are not going to do an engineering problem just off the top of your head with no references. It is nice to be able to do the basic calculations by hand for estimation purposes, though. The TI-86 to 88 are a big help for a lot of things, but once you get a handle on it, they are not that much of a benefit. If you are good doing the math by hand, it is usualy faster than punching it into a calculator (there are exceptions though).



I looked back at some of my old homework from my 1st and 2nd years of college last night. I can't believe how sloppy and unorganized my work was then. You can tell from the work that I didn't really understand it. Some of the operations I tried to do weren't even valid. Mostly because in HS you could just put down an answer and not show work and all would be okay. I took me the first couple years in college to learn how to do things the right way. My point is that I really hated math classes back then because I had a hard time understanding it. Now that I do understand, it is no problem and I don't mind doing it. The same thing may happen with you. It sounds like you have potential for doing well in math as you have taken some advanced math in HS. I think that you just need to relearn without the assistance of the calc, and you will do great. I know it is not fun, but there are a lot of thing in college and in life that are not fun, but we have to do them anyway.



Anyway, I am here to help as much as I can. I would be happy to pass on tips and any information that I have learned through experience in college, so that you and others won't have to learn the hard way like I did.



Kent