<p>I'm currently a freshman in my second semester of school. I started out as a B.S. chemistry major but I am in the process switching to B.S. in chemical engineering. I've never had a problem in my math and chem courses in high school (I got A's/A-'s every time and got a 5 on the AP Calc AB exam and passed the IB HL chem exam pretty well). Last semester I got a B+ in my first general chem course (could have been higher, I admit I didn't try as hard initially on my early lab reports which caused me to miss the A cutoff by just a bit) and I got a B in math.</p>
<p>But my math course last semester was very hard. I took an honors Calc course and I started struggling after about two months into the course. I had study sessions with friends in the class, did my homework, went to office hours, etc but I got a D on my second calc midterm and an F on my third calc midterm, and I just managed a B with the curve as my final grade. And it was a very generous curve.</p>
<p>Now I'm taking the second half of the course this semester (multivariable) and I barely know what's going on. I've failed both quizzes so far. I left my lecture crying today. My professor moves too fast for me and I've never seen some of the information before. I can't switch into a different math because of my math sequence and the classes offered at the times I can take them are full. I have my first calc midterm in about a week and I'm stressing out. My friends in the class and in other sections of the class try to help me, but I have trouble applying concepts on quizzes and exams because I never had a firm foundation with these topics. I'm working on getting a private tutor to help me not fail the course because my next math course (differential eqs) and my chosen math elective (linear algebra) depend on me passing this class with at least a C-.</p>
<p>I have no problem at all in chemistry. It comes naturally to me. And I'm not that worried about my upcoming physics courses. But math is becoming very difficult for me. Can I still become a chemical engineer? I'm passionate about chemistry and I like solving problems/designing things and it's what I want to do, but math is stressing me out and ruining my GPA. What kind of math does a chemical engineer actually use, and how much?</p>
<p>I guess that what’s happening with you is normal,you just need to know that the time you spent studying at high school isn’t enough for college,get the tutor and increase studying hours and everything will be OK.
don’t let this silly problem discourage you from being Che.</p>
<p>Yasser thank you. I know it’s silly but it’s worrying me. My friend used a tutor last semester and she recommended him to me, so I’ll probably go with him to start reviewing the first three weeks’ material and for the rest of the semester.</p>
<p>Aerokid1491 I can’t reply to your message because I don’t have enough posts apparently but this is what I would send if I could:</p>
<p>Thank you! That is something I definitely would be interested in. We have practice homework problems (that are for us to do ourselves and are not graded and we don’t turn in) in addition to the normal graded homework problems, so I would definitely appreciate if you could help me with the nongraded practice problems.</p>
<p>No problem. I will send you a message with my email so you can send them to me. Just know you have hope! I know people who struggled at first but if you work hard enough, you can definitely do great.</p>
<p>Calculus AB in high school covers material at only half the pace of a college math course, so that is why the pace in college feels fast for you.</p>
<p>Do you know anyone doing better in your math course whom you can ask questions from? Of course, you can also ask for help from the instructors of the course (faculty, TA).</p>
<p>Why take the honors class? Is it a requirement? Ask the professor if you can switch to a non honors class. The pace and difficulty should be lesser while still learning the same topics.</p>
<p>As a simple sidenote: don’t expect the teacher to give you everything you need. You cannot control when you blank out, when your teacher has an incomprehensible accent, when you can’t see the board, when you’re not in the mood for a lecture, when you just can’t move at the same pace as everyone else, you get the idea. Learn the stuff on your own. Use the book, use Khan Academy, use whatever else you have to. But do not rely on the teacher.
One week is not a particularly long stretch of time, but spend at least 2 days relearning the calculus you don’t understand from 1/2.</p>
<p>I talked to my professor today during her office hours and she gave me a few tips as to how to actually remember the math and how to be able to apply the concepts to material on quizzes and midterms. Most of her tips included rewriting the notes over again after reading part of a section, and when working sample problems to try to change a variable or number to see how it changed the solution to look at the process and get the overall picture. Any other suggestions?</p>
<p>I never said I expected the teacher to give me everything I needed. Yes I did find several of our topics and future topics on Khan Academy which I used last semester and will watch when we get to those topics in class.</p>
<p>I have about a week left to switch into another math class without receiving a withdrawn mark on my transcript, and my professor said that if I study for and take the midterm and still have problems after that, that she would allow me to switch into a different math if there was one available.</p>