<p>i did well enough on the math placement test at my school to place in calc 1. i have never taken a pre calc class. im currently in trig this year and have been breezing through it. are any new concepts thought in pre calc?</p>
<p>Most high schools/community colleges have pre-calc and trig as one class… In high school those names are generally interchangeable.</p>
<p>See… in my precal high school class, I didn’t even need the credit so basically it was just a blow off class. I slept everyday or did something else or skipped to go to my CS class. In the end, that didn’t hurt me in any way. I learned all the math I really needed from SAT and ACT prep tests, physics classes, and the beginning of my calculus class (the teacher gave us some simple overview homeworks in the first week or so). If I ever needed anything more than that, the internet is full of resources. I also did pretty much the same thing with my Algebra I and II and Geometry classes as they didn’t interest me and neither did making good grades in high school much at the time. In my experience, precal was a lot of stuff that I never really needed to know, and if I ever did need to know, I could just look some stuff up on it and see how to do it if I needed to know in order to do a problem. Using it a few times in a problem helps me to remember it.</p>
<p>I say go ahead and do Calc. 1… if you’re comfortable enough in your ability to self-study some concepts that you may not know of and may need in the future. If you’re not so sure, just sit in or even take a summer class, it can only help your GPA anyway.</p>
<p>refresh some trig and the unit circle, eh, I barely took the class and did good in calculus. my favorite thing learned was the unit circle, everything else was kinda learned in the first weeks of calculus.</p>
<p>I had a very similar experience to hadsed in high school–I never did homework and generally put no effort into any class. However, I took up to pre-calc in high school which was combined with trig. 8 years later, I was out of the Navy and going back to school. My first semester I took trig and got an easy A. Everything seemed to click and I got right into the flow of things. In my community college we are required to take trig then pre-calc in order to get into Calc 1. Well I really needed to have Calc 2 done by Spring so I took the challenge test to get into Calc 1 for the Fall semester. I took a couple weeks and did some self-study, which proved to be quite helpful, and passed the test with ease. I received A’s in both Calc 1 and Calc 2. I found that the trig class was essential to my success and that I did not miss much from skipping precalc. Ultimately, I have been able to self-study all I’ve needed to know with relative ease. </p>
<p>With all that said, I would suggest you familiarize yourself with the properties of logs, especially natural logs.</p>
<p>My experience in Calculus is the Calculus was easy but it was the algebra that made it hard.</p>
<p>I don’t know how much alegbra is covered in your pre-calc class, but you will want to be skilled at Algebra before attempting calculus.</p>
<p>You’ll have time to learn anything you use in the course of the normal presentation.</p>
<p>I don’t even remember what counts as “precal”. I want to say… trig, analytic geometry, complex numbers, maybe some matrix stuff, systems of equations and inequalities, stuff like that.</p>
<p>Most errors in calculus came from algebraic mistakes.</p>
<p>dfsadfasdfasg gag</p>
<p>As preparation goes, high school classes on average won’t help you very much. Calc is conceptual, most stuff before it is taught in a memorizational/computational way. Just get good at the basics, and you’ll do fine (unless you suck at grasping concepts. Then you’re screwed.)</p>
<p>From a previous thread: </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/uc-transfers/755908-skipping-pre-calc-take-calculus.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/uc-transfers/755908-skipping-pre-calc-take-calculus.html</a></p>
<p>"
I’m not a genius, but the last class I took before calculus was high school geometry, and that was around 3-4 years before I started community college. In my junior year in high school, I was home schooled, which let me “pass” the rest of the classes up to cal 1, though I wouldn’t call copying out of the back of the book passing. I got a C in geometry, and an A in cal 1. I think the main reasons were:</p>
<ol>
<li>My level of interest increased substantially</li>
<li>Relating to number 1, I study to understand the concepts. Memorization is a last resort!
-> 3. I studied a bunch of online math books (Trig for dummies, mathtv, thinkwell calculus)</li>
<li>Did all of the practice problems that were optionally assigned in calculus 1.</li>
</ol>
<p>I went into diff. calculus with a strong understanding of the trig functions and how to convert them, the basic Pythagoras stuff (And how to extrapolate more), a strong foundation of algebraic basics from highschool and mathtv, and about a month head start on everyone else (Thinkwell).</p>
<p>As long as you put in the time, have an interest in the material, have a solid foundation in the basics, have a good head start, and a teacher who doesn’t torpedo her student’s grades, you’ll get an A.</p>
<p>Here’s a tip: Study groups work best once you’ve already learned as much as you can on your own. Study like mad at home, then come to the study group/office hours with specific questions.</p>
<p>P.S.</p>
<p>I learned one, and only one thing from my first english class: Use ratemyprofessor! I’ve been stuggeling to stay above 3.7 ever since she murdered my grade. Don’t make the same mistake; especially not with math.</p>
<p>"</p>
<p>so basically pre calc is a waste of time as long as you have a good understanding of trig and algebra(my favorite)? does calc use alot of in depth trig identities or is it the basics? im still not quite sure what you do in calc.</p>
<p>Be able to derive double angle formulas and the like (those are used a lot), be good with triangles. Just get very solid with the basics, and you’ll be ahead of the game. I didn’t have formal training, and it seemed like most of the competition was just spit out by the system anyway. If you’re astute, you’ll learn what’s necessary in 1/4 of the time yourself.</p>
<p>As for what calculus actually is, I recommend again getting your hands on thinkwell calculus. It will teach you, to about 40%-70% depth, most of the topics covered in both differential and integral calculus.</p>
<p>If you’d like a generalization now:</p>
<p>Differential Calculus (cal 1): Looking at a system and finding how it changes instantaneously. Shrinking everything you’ve learned in math down to an infintecimal level, so you can use it in real life situations (or abstractions), that change frequently.</p>
<p>Integral Calculus (cal 2): Same thing but in reverse. Look at how something is changing, and from that, derive the thing that’s changing. Uses the same process but in reverse. Requires intuition to be good at (or if you’re asian…I’ll get back to you on that). Most easily understood as finding position from velocity, or velocity from acceleration. Many cool applications (being able to find the areas or volumes of funky shapes by adding up small pieces of their volume).</p>
<p>Newton invented calculus so that he could then invent physics (glorious ■■■■■■■, wasn’t he?). It’s where math starts seeming very powerful, and rightfully it should. Everything from the industrial revolution onward has been made possible by calculus.</p>
<p>Generally, the subjects covered in a Precalculus (or College Algebra + Trig) are advanced Algebra and Eucledian (plane) Trigonometry. Complex fractions, logarithms, conics, matrices, systems of equations, trigonometric ratios, and the unit circle are among the main concepts covered.</p>
<p>If your school placed you on Calc I and you are currently performing excellently in your Trig class there is no need to take Precalculus (because you are technically taking Precalculus now). Simply make sure your Algebra skills are sharpened and learn your Sines and Cosines. On many occasions, students who fail a Calculus class do so due to poor algebra skills.</p>
<p>What are poor Algebra skills? Can someone please enlighten me?</p>
<p>^Not knowing rules of exponents, order of operations, properties of logarithms, etc.</p>
<p>^Not being able to solve equations, inequalities, and systems of these; not being able to reduce expressions to “simplest” terms (when such simplification is obvious, anyway).</p>
<p>Well my high school days were more than 20 years ago and my last math class in high school was analytic geometry. Sometimes I wonder if I should have taken pre-calculus first as a fall-term freshman. It would not have have hurt my 4-year schedule since I still would had Calculus I before Physics I (fall-term sophomore).</p>
<p>If you are ok with trig then go for Calc1. Just make sure you know your identities fairly well. I agree with Purdue EE that most mistakes in Calc occurr in the algebra.</p>