<p>So I've been watching some lectures on the MITopencourseware site in order to prepare for my classes in the fall, since we have not been given information on any textbooks we need to get for the course.</p>
<p>Anyone else doing the same / has done it for a class before?</p>
<p>Did it help? Or is it a waste of time, since the curriculum / material differ among different schools / professors? Or perhaps it's a waste of time because the lectures aren't enough in that homework / problem sets are as important in learning the material?</p>
<p>Same question. I started to watch but it seems like a wast of time without the textbook.</p>
<p>Sent from my LS670 using CC App</p>
<p>I self learned physics from MIT iTunes lessons. The professor is eccentric and informative. I highly recommend it. I’ll be doing Chem this summer.</p>
<p>Oh yea. Just got done with trigonometry, just started on Calc I. I’ve set a personal goal of learning Calc I-III in 40 days (which is about the amount of time until the semester starts). My resources are Swokowski’s Calculus 5th edition, Gilbert Strang’s calculus text in PDF, Gilbert Strang’s OCW lectures, khanacademy videos, and intmath.com. </p>
<p>I am wanting to declare a math major this year, so in preparation I am also doing an online course from Carnegie Mellon’s Open Learning Initiative (OLI) in Logic and Proofs. It’s an absolutely awesome course and I recommend checking it out. I’m hoping I will find some time to watch the MIT lectures on computer science, but it’s way below calculus and logic on my priority list and I am taking intro CS in the fall anyways.</p>
<p>You have so few remaining free summers that I would suggest just enjoying it.</p>
<p>I agree too, don’t get stress out in the courses, you should just enjoy your last 4 summer in traveling abroad , have fun with friends etc. You will be given enough time to learn those materials anyways.</p>
<p>Honestly, I find that reading a book and working exercises works a lot better than watching OCW lectures. Just saying. Probably the most enthusing part about the OCW is to see that the material you’re learning at Podunk U isn’t so very different from the material at e.g. MIT.</p>
<p>I’m to be a Computer Science major and I’ve begun learning basic UNIX commands from an iPod/iPhone app, but that’s about it.
I’m just browsing to know what to expect and learning about the environment of the major I am going to be in. Once you put me in college, I will be like go on full speed…right now I am just taking time to rest my brain, but organize and plan my schedules for the coming semesters and years as well as how I plan to live in college.</p>
<p>Yeah I took AP Calc AB, so I really feel like I should review Calc 1 (I got a 5 but I feel like I’ve forgotten everything now!)…this always happens with math. I believe they do review in the beginning of most math classes, right?</p>
<p>Most likely the only thing I’ll do this summer is UNIX commands and relearn my katakana and hiragana alphabets first since I have to take Japanese.</p>
<p>I agree that you should take this time to relax more instead. Build up energy so you don’t burn out! I feel like I can hardly keep from worrying about college, but there is going to be plenty of time for studying there and with better structure . I’m a person who likes to make good grades and get pride from that, so once the school system comes into play I can apply myself</p>
<p>Ugh. I think what will make you great in college and a great engineer/tech person, and a way more interesting person is to have a life. Seriously. Go socialize and build up your emotional intelligence! Expand the right side of your brain by taking up an art class. Build some non-brain muscle by playing a sport. Make a difference in the world and become a better person, with character, by helping those less advantaged. </p>
<p>What are you trying to achieve exactly? Good god, get off the computer and studying in the summer!! Listen, we are a family of PhD scientists, we’ve been in school our whole lives and our world evolves around higher education. But there is NO WAY I’d let my kids, if in your situation, spend their summer doing this.</p>
<p>Hmm, what about the simple fact that someone can easily do both? One can have a steady dose of both enjoying themselves by doing outside activities and spending a part of their day with intellectual pursuits.</p>
<p>And what about those who get more pleasure from learning new concepts than pretty much anything else? Is there something wrong with enjoying learning? When I was in HS I used to get my curiosity fix by experimenting with drugs, now I get my fix from studying math, science, philosophy, and literature. It may not seem like a big deal to some of you, but to someone like me, these new concepts I’m learning trip me out and make me feel “high” in a very real way.</p>
<p>Inmotion12, if you seriously hope to master calc 1-3 in 40 days, as you say, then you simply don’t have time for outside activities.</p>
<p>I use [Khan</a> Academy](<a href=“http://www.khanacademy.org%5DKhan”>http://www.khanacademy.org) as well as other sources (they are virtually unlimited on the internet) to learn the material, and I bought a book that consists solely of practice problems to go along with the lecture. Works great 
I wish I could’ve self studied all of high school…there was so much bull****. Self-learning makes so much more sense :/</p>
<p>6 hours a day * 40 days = 240 hours to learn it. No time lost listening to lectures, no time lost in transit, no time lost doing practice exercises, quizzes, and exams that I don’t feel are important. I fully expect to be able to complete it and still have many hours open for other activities every day.</p>
<p>You’re going to have to cover 2+ sections per day on top of roughly 20 problems per section. I fully expect you to try admirably and fail. Good luck though.</p>
<p>I use the MITOcw videos quite a bit… I’ve found them to be quite helpful. I’m married and back in school, I don’t have time to ‘travel or hang out with friends’. I try to stay ahead as much as possible.</p>
<p>And Inmotion12, don’t listen to anyone else, if you want to study, then study.</p>
<p>That being said, if I were Vegas, I’d set odds against you ;)</p>
<p>@Inmotion12: with that kind of attitude, you should be thankful if you learn anything, ever.</p>