<p>So here it is,..</p>
<p>Upon graduation from high school I entered the Univ. of Louisville's Speed School of Engineering. I quickly learned that my math skills were not up to par, and became extremely overwhelmed. I started making all the wrong decisions, and eventually dropped out.</p>
<p>My life has taken some crazy turns these past three years, and I am now able to attend school 100% free. I realized that I would be a fool not to take advantage of this, and have cleared past detractors from my life. I am now needing to quickly get my math skills up to at least proficiency in pre calculus, as I will need to take calc 1 in the fall semester. </p>
<p>Here is an overview of my upcoming class schedule (engr 101=calc)
<a href="https://sharepoint.louisville.edu/sites/ugap/flightplan/201213%20Flight%20Plans/Engineering-2012-BE-4year.pdf">https://sharepoint.louisville.edu/sites/ugap/flightplan/201213%20Flight%20Plans/Engineering-2012-BE-4year.pdf</a></p>
<p>A little background info; score of 26 on the act, 24 in math, little to no math practice in the past three years. Thanks in advance for any and all help!</p>
<p>Can you take a community college Pre-Calc class during the summer?</p>
<p>Either take Pre-Cal over the Summer or get a tutor for Calc I. </p>
<p>I transferred to Iowa State from another college after being away from school for 5 years. I got a B in Calc I at another school, went to Calc II and my first day at Iowa State and I was completely lost.</p>
<p>Ended up retaking Calc I at Iowa State and it was very rough-I barely passed it even with a tutor. Ended up taking Calculus II with a very good professor and really enjoyed it. </p>
<p>Now I am in Calc III with a horrible professor and really struggling. I don’t even know if I am going to pass Calc III. I have never had to retake any courses or got a D so far, but this class has been absolute hell.</p>
<p>If I were you, I would get a tutor for Calc I, II and III and Diff Eq- it will be rough but you will get through it if you apply yourself.</p>
<p>I highly recommend researching the teacher options available to you. A solid math teacher will give you the confidence as much as the tools you’ll need to succeed as an engineer. As well, there are literally thousands of practice problems for the lower level math (I also recommend only picking ones you have access to worked solutions for) . If you spend 10,000 hours doing them honestly, I’m pretty sure there is some behavioral science that says you’ll “get it” at some point (barring a learning disability).</p>
<p>Bro… YouTube. It saved my butt. Their is plenty of solid online youtube tutors (e.g. Khan Academy). I learned all of Calc 1 in 2 days :)</p>
<p>I was on the same boat as you. Here’s what saved me <a href=“https://www.khanacademy.org”>https://www.khanacademy.org</a>
It was featured on TED <a href=“Sal Khan: Let's use video to reinvent education | TED Talk”>http://www.ted.com/talks/salman_khan_let_s_use_video_to_reinvent_education</a></p>
<p>You create a free account and it tracks your progress through various subjects of your choosing. There are some game design ideas integrated into it granting you points for completed subjects and tests. </p>
<p>Each subject is divided into easy to digest sub sections and lessons. You can freely skip over the parts you feel confident about, rewind, pause, review previous subjects relevant to your current material.</p>
<p>Tests have various lvls of mastery which you work thru at 16 hr intervals so you brain has time to process the newly learned knowledge so it’s reinforced when you take the next lvl of the same subject hours later. It really integrates what we learned in recent years about how humans retain knowledge and applies it to learning math.</p>
<p>It think it’s really well designed and hopefully you’ll find it as useful as i did.</p>
<p>It would be ideal if you had the money to hire a tutor but if you don’t, here are a few options. If you need to go back to basic Algebra “yay math” is amazing. Khan academy, as previously mentioned, is great as well. Also consider the broad array of “MOOC’s” (massive open online courses) offered through coursera and many other sources. Find a class you are comfortable with and sharpen those rusty math skills. Best of luck.</p>
<p>Here at Iowa State, we have a very good tutoring program. Usually, they charge you 20 bucks/month. You get two one hour sessions/week usually with group of 2 to 4 students and they go over each section that is covered in class. </p>
<p>You don’t need to have any money upfront since it is charged directly to your U-Bill. I would imagine most large Engineering schools have something similar.</p>
<p>I’m not a big tutor person. I took Calc II after being away for like 5 or 6 years and used Paul’s Online Notes. It has everything from algebra way up past calc III, really helpful. I aced calc II, III, DiffEq. Just fill in the missing pieces and keep rolling hard, good luck. Google that and go check it out.</p>
<p>My daughter waltzed into the tutoring office at her school (large SEC flagship) and proclaimed herself to be a calculophobic. She was assigned a tutor (senior math major) for free for 1-2 hours a week… Lots of study sessions at the dorms, too. As a minimum I would take precalc in a community college and supplement with online. </p>
<p>I go to Speed School as well. Just starting my second Co-op this Summer. You should be enrolled in ENGR 190, not 101. 190 is a precalculus class for Speed School. Then in the spring you take ENGR 101 and continue on that way.</p>
<p><a href=“http://louisville.edu/speed/fundamentals/courses/engr-190-introductory-calculus.html”>http://louisville.edu/speed/fundamentals/courses/engr-190-introductory-calculus.html</a></p>
<p>but nice. Congrats on coming back to school. It’s the right choice. I’m 22 and have about a year and a half left for my Bioengineering undergrad. Seriously miss, if you can survive those first two years of calculus and even manage a C average in your math classes, you’re good to go. Speed school uses those calculus courses to weed people out. Especially Tyler and Ralsten. If you can take Crush, go with her. She’s very helpful.</p>
<p>If you can survive those Math Classes, there will be plenty of other easier less abstract science/math classes to boost your GPA. Statics is an easy A. </p>
<p>Just make sure to go to the Calculus S.I. sessions. The professors will sometimes have the exact same questions on the exam as the ones you go over in S.I.</p>
<p>p.s. - I also got a 26 on the ACT. and a 27 in the math section I believe. If I can do it, you can too.</p>
<p>GOOD LUCK!</p>