SO this has been an issue for months but I’m finally about to give up. I was absent last week where my class went over a new topic. I came back to class and received my work and no explanation. So I asked my teacher only to be turned away and told to ask my classmates. But as smart as they think they are they don’t explain well and get upset when I do not understand. So I’m on my own. I contact a tutor and spend $150 on a 3 hour session, only to finish one packet but not understand a single bit of information because he talk too fast and his notes are all over the place. The work is “done” but I don’t understand it. Tomorrow I ave to give my teacher a separate assignment but my tutor did not respond when I asked for his help and I need to turn it in to get the take home test - my one chance at a possible A - My classmates don’t help and my tutors don’t answer. So I look up ow to do it online and in the book and nothing is like the work she gave us. So what do I do? I cry, tears are going everywhere because again I am reminded I hate this class. I hate the no explanations. I hate when I talked to her months ago one on one she told me to do it myself basically and I have to put in work to pass, she can’t help me. I even complained to the AP coordinator (my english teacher) and she told me to form a study group. Wow how miserably that failed with classmates that are my friends but leave me hanging when I need help with schoolwork. So now I officially give up. My counselor told me I need this class to graduate but now the second quarter’s ending and I have a 51% overall in the class. Another girl in the class actually stopped showing up and has a flat zero because she was getting depressed. I push myself to get through it but I’m tired of spending money, busting my butt to never be even glanced at in class or addresses. I know she feels like I’m a waste of space in class by her attitude. I’ve never been a math person because I had substitutes in my Algebra 1 and Pre-Calculus classes the whole school year. Basically we got grades for turning in work despite it being wrong. The struggles of having a history teacher substitute a math class. I told my teacher this and she just said oh well. What’s sad is the year before I talked to the principal about using another teacher because through the whole ap calc history with her being her, nobody ever passed that test. At a certain point you have to evaluate the teacher. She is even making me question my lifelong dream of being a computer software engineer. I cannot deal with this stress. I literally want to cry and huddle in a corner when I have to go to her class. Sometimes I think maybe I should just give up and skip like my other classmate but I’m too much of a coward. So in conclusion, I’m failing and miserable. This is the only class. I have straight As in all my others and it hurts that I even have to think about this but I might as well get myself prepared for summer school because my heart can’t take anymore. I give up…
true name is true
try some (free…) outside sources like khanacademy
I have but they don’t go into depth like the actual work in school
Use InstaEDU. I used it during midterms. There’s hella tutors on there for every subject. Just put in a credit card and do a trial with 2 free hours! Live lessons or written lessons.
And KhanAcademy is really useful! (As said above)
Khan academy didn’t help much but Instaedu was a big help. I actually finished my homework and understand
Very glad you found a solution. Perhaps you learned something much more important than Calculus from this situation. Excuses and complaints don’t solve problems. There are lots of resources to help you succeed, focus your energy on finding the ones that work for you. Good luck
Purchase Barron’s or Princeton’s review book and do some practice problems. Also watch patrickjmt’s CALC YouTube videos.
In the middle of first quarter I had a solid C+ (our math grades are 90% tests and 10% homework that is never collected). When I started using those 3 resources I listed above, (I don’t write in the review books so I can use them for the Ap exam) I was able to get my first quarter grade up to a 90.78%.
Second quarter I just used the review books to do practice problems before the test and ended up with a 95% for the quarter but ended up getting a 94.5 for the semester after getting a perfect on the final. What I’m trying to say is, you can’t always depend on others to help you out sometimes you have to take the initiative to find outside resources that suit your learning style. Yes in an ideal world your classmates would be able to explain things to you and your teacher would actually bother to help you, but we don’t live in an ideal world bucko. Also don’t spend that much on a tutor it’s definitely not worth it.
Sorry for the lack of punctuation (I’m on my phone)
OK, this is coming from a high school math teacher.
First and foremost, you have a right to expect a teacher to answer your questions… in the right time and place. Did you ask to go over the notes in class or in extra help? I can absolutely understand a teacher saying “Not now, I’m not reteaching that lesson now and wasting the time of every kid who was there… see me for extra help.” But if you did so, then you have a right to expect that your teacher would go over the material with you. If your teacher won’t, knock on every door in the math department. (Every teacher in the department should be capable of helping you with Calc I. Whether or not you know that teacher doesn’t matter. I’ve had plenty of kids stop by extra help and say “I’ve heard you give good extra help, can you work with me?”)
OK, second: if that doesn’t work: you need to talk to the Math Department Chair. You should be able to figure out who that is from your school’s website. Again, extra help is part of the job description.
Third: If your tutor “talks too fast and his notes are all over the place” you need a new tutor. You’re wasting some serious money on a tutor who isn’t or isn’t able to help you. Find a new tutor.
Lastly, I personally am not a fan of Khan Academy; I find the videos way too dry. (Though, in the interests of full disclosure, I haven’t seen more than a handful of them.) But LOTS AND LOTS of teachers are recording their own videos and posting them on school websites. Try educreations and teachertube for starters, then start asking (here, on CC if you want) of Calc teacher with a good video library. (Sorry, I haven’t taught Calc since 2000, my stuff won’t help you.)
I hope you can find your way through this. It stinks having a teacher-- particularly in math-- who you feel isn’t doing his or her job. (I swear that my freshman math teacher was teaching only to avoid going to Vietnam… in those days, teaching was a deferment from service. I didn’t learn a thing that year. But don’t let that keep you from following your dream. In 5 years of high school math, I had only one math teacher I would call “good.” )But I found my way, and have been teaching math since 1980. You’ll find your way too. Just don’t give up, and don’t let these circumstances convince you that this is about YOU… if the story really reads the way you tell it, this is about poor teaching, not poor learning.
I second patrickjmt! He is a math God! I’m also currently in Calculus, too.
He’s really helped me.
Khan Academy, Paul Lamar’s Math Notes, and Prof. Leonard (on YouTube) are great resources. I find textbooks and notes too confusing but they break it down very well (esp. Prof. Leonard).