<p>What do you do when you have that feeling? I don't want to go to college and end up failing.</p>
<p>Well for me I've been in a Precalc class for the last two semesters and was basically learning Algrebra 1. I transfered out now, but does it really matter anymore? I barely understand what my teacher is teaching me now. My Trig teacher said its never too late to learn, but I'm just not feeling up to it anymore.</p>
<p>What is PreCalc suppose to teach you anyways? What is Calculus really?</p>
<p>Precalc is supposed to teach trig (more than just finding sides of triangles) and also some more “advanced algebra” which is to say slightly more advanced than Algebra 2 (when you see Algebra in context of college classes that’s different). We also did some disjoint topics in our precalc class, like imaginary numbers, matrix arithmetic (you’ll have to wait till Linear Algebra to see the point of it), and logic.</p>
<p>The big ideas of Calculus are differentiation and integration (finding the slope of a curve and the area under a curve). They generally like to throw trig there, and often times you have to manipulate it into something else in order to integrate it.</p>
<p>Calculus is awesome. They may not teach you it’s function but it is still important. It may seem a bit derivative with respect to trigonometry, but only up to a limit. It is absolutely integral that you know the formulas as well.</p>
<p>My math class is a babysitting service with numbers. I’m in regular algebra II, I’m one of 5 sophomores and the rest of the class are juniors. I don’t like it, and when I fool around it’s like sub-standard, but I’m still noticed cause I’m funny. Anyway, I feel I’ve learned a lot, but I knew much of what I was taught before high school especially in history class, though I still seem to fail AP World Tests like the rest of my class. ;o</p>
<p>This year, I have felt that I haven’t really learned that much to be honest-at least not from teachers. like I haven’t learned much in AP Chem, Honors Spanish 4, or AP US History. Kind of like just reading the textbook and figuring it out on your own, my friends feel the same way. Math is the only subject that we have learned stuff from the teacher, but her tests set you up for failure lol. When we ask her for real-world applications of concepts, she tells us we will never do any of this beyond a few college classes. Woo hoo! lol</p>
<p>I don’t think I’ve learned anything in high school…except Japanese.</p>
<p>I hate math and think it is pointless. Same with science. Then again, I am a humanities/anthropology major. The only thing worthwhile I learned in high school was how to correctly format a paper and how to do research for said paper (trust me, this becomes ridiculously valuable in college).</p>
<p>I don’t feel like I’ve learned anything in high school. I learned some math and Japanese, but I mostly forgot. I can easily ace tests with the information I learned in middle school + excellent test-taking skills.</p>
<p>^ It’s different when you start taking essay tests. Teachers will actually READ what you write lol.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Lol, I laughed.</p>
<p>I feel like I’ve learned a lot during my high school lifetime, but not always because of my high school. I did a lot of self studying, which I think probably prepared me more for college. Not to bash my high school’s academics - I just think there are more effective ways for me to learn. My 11th grade and current English teachers taught me a good few valuable lessons with respect to literature and poetry exposition though, so it’s not like high school was completely invaluable.</p>
<p>At it’s most fundamental level, calculus is the study of change (often with respect to time) and acts as a bridge to mathematical analysis (a branch of pure mathematics). The derivative, for example, is simply the change of one variable with respect to another (that is, the slope at every point), while the integral determines the area underneath a given slope. Calculus draws heavily on the concept of infinity, which gives rise to limits and series, which lead to integrals. You can use these very fundamental concepts to determine things such as the volume of a function rotated around an axis, the rate of change at any given moment in time of a certain event, and other numerous things. It heavily influences physics, as well as a few topics in chemistry and other sciences.</p>
<p>^I agree, I have learned a plethora of subjects and content in high school, but not exactly from teachers at my school or anything like that. I had learned more “new concepts” last year (soph year) than my this year in high school though. I guess we all do quite a lot of self-studying</p>
<p>agreed. i have learned more about my self than i have about any thing we studied in school. & i hate that my school is so numbers-focused & point-grubbing & prestige-seeking. & all the asian kids always competing for the #1 spot, & it’s just like…not even worth it at all.</p>
<p>I know I’ve learned some things during high school, but I know for sure I haven’t learned a thing in my AP English class this. My teacher sucks so hard. She’s a really sweet woman, but she can’t teach! I’m seriously thinking about not taking the AP test because I’m fairly sure I wouldn’t get anything above a 3. My teacher also neglected to mention that the registration deadline for the AP test was last week and now I have to pay extra money!</p>
<p>AeroEngineer
When ever I read the back of my precalc book I start seeing things that seem like they should be in physics like average velocity or instantaneous velocity.</p>
<p>When do we ever use geometry again? From your comments we’ll use it to determine are and volume, but how does know the aera between two slopes help in the physical world?</p>
<p>How do we even apply this stuff? Trig I can understand, but calculus is gonna be a big challenge. I looked onto an AP book once, and saw that half of the prereqs I never learned like tangent lines.</p>
<p>The amount of stuff I don’t know is crazy.</p>
<p>I think I’ve learned the most (for life) in english class</p>
<p>That’s funny. I think I learned the least (for life) in English class. Total waste of time. On the other hand, Biology and Honors Trig/Pre-Cal were the classes I learned most from.</p>
<p>I may not have learned much academically as I supposed I should have but I’ve learnt that H.S. is full of B.S. and in the end you just need to find out where you belong. other then that, i didn’t learn much except that I pretty much suck in AP calc. but whatever.</p>
<p>Loved calc, hated pre-calc. It’s agonizingly tedious and a surefire way to kill your enthusiasm for math.</p>