<p>I just finished Geometry, and was wondering if I should teach myself Calculus with a book, then take it at a CC over the summer. Do I need precalc first? I have had Algebra 2, also.</p>
<p>You probably do need precalculus. My daughter just finished precalc and is starting on calc. Precalculus was very difficult with a lot of trigonometry but also a lot of functions and things that just are not covered in geometry or algebra 2.</p>
<p>Yes, you need trig and/or precalc first. check with your cc prereqs for calculus as well.</p>
<p>My kids use Saxon Advanced Math for trig/precalc; you could definitely work thru that on your own.</p>
<p>Our ccs don’t offer calc in the summer either, so look into that too.</p>
<p>Thanks for the answers. 
My Geometry course had Trig. It was I guess two for one. lol</p>
<p>The CC says a prerequisite is two years high school algebra, and finite math. So, it looks like I may have to get instructor permission. I took Stats from the person who teaches Calc, so I might get approved. :)</p>
<p>My son had trig in his geometry program too but it wasn’t as in-depth as he got later in pre-calc. I would definitely suggest pre-calc before calc… but of course you can try calc and see how it goes, I guess.</p>
<p>Why don’t you grab a precal book and look at the problems in it to determine whether or not the trig that you had in geometry is comparable to trig in precalc. I would guess that it wasn’t.</p>
<p>BTW, you can learn the main ideas in calc on your own without trigonometry.</p>
<p>I schooled myself and studied calculus after a brief brushup on algebra and trig. You’ll have to be very, very comfortable with algebra and trigonometric identities to do well. The more difficult parts of calculus almost always stem from tricky algebraic manipulations. The concepts are generally intuitive.</p>
<p>For calculus I would recommend one of James Stewart’s books. You can also try something by Tom Apostol. His textbooks are very, very thorough and more proof-based.</p>
<p>Spivak and Salas/Hille are also good proof-based courses but the typical calculus 1 university program is more emphatic on applications than theory so you’d need to add applications if you’re going to take that approach. Apostol also teaches calculus in historical order instead of the order used in university programs.</p>
<p>I was homeschooled until college and did my last two years of high school math at a community college. I went algebra (CC) -> trig (CC) -> calc (4-year college) and survived, and my four-year school was a BIG step up in difficulty from community college. So I’d say you’ll probably be fine going from the geometry/trig class to community college calc. </p>
<p>Also, if the prof teaching the course knows you, he will probably only approve you if he thinks you can do it, so that’s a plus :)</p>
<p>There’s also [MIT</a> OpenCourseWare | Mathematics | 18.01 Single Variable Calculus, Fall 2006 | Home](<a href=“http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Mathematics/18-01Fall-2006/CourseHome/index.htm]MIT”>http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Mathematics/18-01Fall-2006/CourseHome/index.htm)</p>