I flunked Intermediate Algebra in high school, and was terrible at math until I took a class called Applied Calculus in college. No proofs. No derivations. Just straightforward examples of how to use math and calculus in the real world. It showed me there were actual uses for math, which I wasn’t getting from my previous math classes.
That changed my whole attitude towards math. Before Applied Calculus, I didn’t really spend a lot of time on my math classes because I hated it so much. After Applied Calculus, I was motivated enough to study. I ended up getting an undergrad degree in CS, and a graduate degree in Industrial Engineering.
I’m just mentioning it to show nobody’s doomed to be bad at math.
Changing the professor (with a different teaching style) and taking it over in the summer will probably not work.
What you needed to do was re-study Calculus 1 like mad, over the winter break, on your own, using either Khan Academy or some other online resource. Then you could retake the course in the coming semester. This way you could maintain continuity and the material would have been fresh in your mind.
What you need to realize is that college professors are not high school teachers. They are not going to tell you which and how many problems to solve to do well on the exam. You need to learn everything in the book. So you can independently solve any problem they give you. If you can’t solve a problem don’t wait to see the prof during office hours. They don’t have enough hours for you. Google the solution. Use the Internet.
The good news is that all good math students have failed math at some point and learned to learn math the right way - independently on their own. You can too.
While I agree that the internet can be a good way to clarify what kind of mistake you are making, or how to get started, one of my pet peeves is that many students “do” their assignments by looking up all the problems online without even attempting to do them. They write down a solution without any understanding of it and then wonder why they can’t do the exact same problems on the exams. Pretty much every textbook problem is available from free or paid online sites - albeit sometimes with the WRONG answers.
Newsflash: Writing down a solution verbatim does nothing for you outside of possibly getting you credit for that homework. And before people jump on this, professors should not have to make up their OWN problems for every topic. That’s one of the reasons we have textbooks. But some students will do everything in their power to avoid learning anything, and then complain about the professor.