<p>Hey everybody. I'm taking Calculus I this Fall and I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to prepare for and do well in the class. Long story short, I took 4 years of math in middle/high school and made it up to precalc/trig. I didn't really do well in my later courses mostly because, at the time, I was very uninterested and unmotivated to do any of the work. A while later, I retook the pre-calc class online and found that I actually enjoyed the material quite a bit. Maybe teaching it to myself sparked an interest or something but I became motivated to learn actual Calculus. I retook pre-calc a while ago, however, and to be honest I'm worried that not all the vital information stuck until now. How can I get prepare and what topics should I brush up on to be entirely ready to do well in the class?</p>
<p>I would either watch videos (MIT or otherwise) or pick up an AP study book and leaf through it.</p>
<p>In terms of brushing up on things, I would probably focus on Trigonometry although in my class it was just a few classes and that’s pretty much it. Maybe also make sure you’re good with graphing (both on the calculator and on paper). Thinking your answer is wrong (derivative at a point) because your graph is out of whack can mess with you, lol.</p>
<p>Other than that though, I felt it was mostly new material.</p>
<p>I agree, it may be best to focus on basic trigonometry, as much else won’t help you much in calculus. Calculus is much different, and easier, than pre-calc or any math class you’ve had until now, in my opinion.</p>
<p>It’s honestly not that hard though, but the first couple weeks will be a little hard. The hardest part of Calculus 1 is the first unit (I’m sure many people here could second this opinion.)</p>
<p>I think it would be useful to go over a few fundamental types of functions and roughly how they behave.</p>
<p>y = a<em>x + b
y = a(x - b)^2 + c
y = a</em>sin(b<em>x) + c
y = a</em>log(b*x) + c
y = a/(x-b) + c
etc</p>
<p>What does changing a, b, and c do to those equations?</p>
<p>Search my posting history for very good advice on this. :-D</p>
<p>Seriously, I’ve written so many essays on this very subject on this forum so many times I get sick of rewriting it and now just tell people to search my posting history.</p>
<p>Make sure your algebra and trig skills are sharp. </p>
<p>Calculus I is 90% algebra/trig and 10% calculus.</p>
<p>Learn identities.</p>
<p>Thanks, everybody! I think I’m going to review the algebra and trig with the MIT videos.</p>
<p>Try these placement tests to see how well you know the prerequisite math:</p>
<p>[Calculus</a> Diagnostic Placement Exam | Department of Mathematics at University of California Berkeley](<a href=“http://math.berkeley.edu/courses/choosing/placement-exam]Calculus”>http://math.berkeley.edu/courses/choosing/placement-exam)
[Placement</a> Test](<a href=“http://math.tntech.edu/e-math/placement/]Placement”>http://math.tntech.edu/e-math/placement/)</p>
<p>If these placement tests reveal any gaps or weak areas in your knowledge, emphasize those topics for your self-study.</p>
<p>As a tutor for integral calculus, I want to say the most common reason students fail calculus is because their algebra skills are incredibly unrefined. Calculus students that come ask me for help typically claim they’ve never heard of factoring or they cannot solve a binomial equation like 5x = 7.</p>
<p>I’m glad to help them out, but if you’ve just been taking math classes and going through the motions just to pass your lower-level classes without making any connections to what you’ve been learning, passing calculus is going to be extremely difficult.</p>
<p>Things you absolutely NEED to know for calculus:</p>
<p>::Basic math like 2+2, 6/3, 4857*384
::Solving basic equations (Example: 2x + 9 = 4)
::Factoring
::Factoring techniques, like using the quadratic formula
::Using the rational zero theorem to find zeros
::Synthetic Division and Long Division
::How to graph an equation.
::The 6 trig identities, as well as the Pythagorean Trig Identity and how to manipulate the Pythagorean Trig identity to yield any identity you might need.</p>
<p>It’s not a long list of information, but you have to be comfortable enough with all of those techniques to be able to use them, even if you don’t want to.</p>