<p>Since Day 1 of my freshman year (this year) and before I knew my Pre-Calc class was going to suck. I had already taken Pre-Calc in High school and did pretty good in it (93), so after messing up on the placement test I couldn't believe I was downgraded from Calc to Pre-Calc. This class teaches practically the exact same material as last year, albeit much harder to follow along with and with much more information for the same credit I received last year. </p>
<p>A couple issues which I think have discouraged me in my pre-calc class is the fact that my professor blocks the board and what he teaches is right out of the textbook and I can't catch up with what he writes on the board. Some others can follow along, but I just can't seem to write at that pace; in high school however I had adequate time to copy everything down.</p>
<p>Shorthand notation is useful sometimes but even after that I find myself behind and I have to take my phone out to take a picture which may or may not be allowed by him.</p>
<p>I really think that this could spread to other classes in the future given the pace of everything increases. Whether "pace" refers to the speed of the lecture or the difficulty of the work, if I can't keep up I might just be in critical condition at the end of the semester, which is the opposite of how I wanted to end up. Not to mention my major is Civil Engineering so I know I may already be behind other students with my major.</p>
<p>What I'd like to know is if anybody has any advice on how I can either keep up or change how I approach these lectures or classes in the future. I once learned good math notation from a graduate of another college I took classes at but I've since forgotten. </p>