<p>at my school, pre-calc is actually harder than calc. i skipped pre-calc, but my friends who took it in college and then took calc 1 the next semester all said pre-calc was pointlessly hard. so don’t give up! we need more env engs :)</p>
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<p>That will depend on how well you understood the previous algebra material. The good thing about trig is that once you learn a few key concepts you’ll be able to perform satisfactorily throughout the rest of the course. Imo, the basic concepts one must understand are the unit circle, trig identities, trig graphs, and trig functions. The rest becomes clear with practice.</p>
<p>Logarithms are all about rote memorization. You just need to make sure you study, write out problems and practice, practice, practice. </p>
<p>My guess is there’s a disconnect between your learning style and the way the material is being presented to you. I have been lucky to take most of my lower-division classes online cause it really helps to be able to learn in your own way at your own pace. Take a self-assessment on learning style then try to tailor your courses for yourself based on that.</p>
<p>I also think that math is an unpopular subject because mathematicians are generally terrible at communicating their knowledge to the general public. When reading a math book I constantly have to remind myself that it’s easier than it appears and that actually helps me a lot. When reading text I try to simplify in my mind what the author is conveying because they usually make that crap way too complicated.</p>
<p>Thanks for that Enginox. I am learning trig right now so that is really good to know. So far it seems incredibly easy. Am I wrong in thinking that like logarithms, it’s basically just a matter of memorizing the rules and formulas? Geometry came very naturally to me, does that mean trig should as well?</p>
<p>It’s important to memorize and understand the rules. One must know what, when, where, how, and, why a rule may apply. Many of us do not realize that spoken languages are full of rules that become second nature because we have been practicing said languages for our entire lives. The written form of those languages packs new rules that can’t be properly expressed in a verbal manner. Think of Oxford commas, capitalizing certain letters, etc. How does one properly express that in a verbal manner?</p>
<p>Mathematics, similar to English, is a language and the faster one begins practicing it in a “linguistic”, logical manner, the better one becomes at Mathematics.</p>
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<p>Many people are terrible in communicating their knowledge to other people, especially if there are language and cultural barriers. Translating from French to English is not that difficult because both languages are very similar; however, translating from Japanese to English is more difficult due to the cultural, linguistic, etc. barriers present (you’ve probably seen hilarious Japanese to English translation attempts).</p>
<p>Mathematicians face similar translational difficulties. Mathematicians see the world in a mathematical way and it is difficult to communicate mathematical ideas when others do not see think mathematically. It takes 2 to communicate; if the general public is not willing to think mathematically there’s little the mathematicians can do.</p>
<p>This ties back to the language thing. If you start seeing the world mathematically, it becomes much easier to learn Mathematics. If I throw a baseball, does it trace a parabola or a line? My front door is rectangular, does Pythagora’s theorem apply to it? Start thinking that way and you’ll be on your way. It has certainly helped me a lot and has made me realize that the more I learn Mathematics the less I know of it.</p>
<p>When I took Precalc in 10th grade I failed the class. I retook it in 11th grade and I passed it with a solid B. I have taken calc 1, calc 2, calc based physics and have gotten a B or better in all of them. Just because you do poorly in one math class doesn’t mean that you can’t be a good engineering student. I am going into my secod year with a solid 3.6 GPA. Math may not come naturally to me but with hard work and passion I an doing reasonably well in my math based classes. Except chemistry. Chemistry is a subject I really don’t like. I find chemistry harder than Physics because of how unlikable it is. Physics and calc are awesome though!</p>
<p>To continue with Enginox’s discussion,</p>
<p>It’s odd for people to find biology incomprehensible, right? Well, this is because biology is tangible, and we are so familiar with who and what biology is about.</p>
<p>Physics is difficult to understand too. But recent decades educators make chemistry and physics more understandable by phrasing everything into words. But these words may not contain the beauty of mathematics. </p>
<p>Physics and mathematics are suppose to be together. It was together many centuries ago. </p>
<p>The reason that mathematics is so unnatural to average people is because nobody would look at things mathematically, as Enginox suggested earlier.</p>
<p>My professor once said, “put things in context”. Double integrals do not give volume of a solid in calculus. But if the result of double integrals is positive, we MAY interpret it as the volume of the solid. But double integrals is just a limit as n goes to infinity of the long double (or single) summation of areas times z=f(x,y).</p>
<p>Double integrals give a mathematical object. When you look at things at different context, their existences and definitions vary.</p>
<p>Look. If I just tell you this is the theorem and formula, you will be like “***”?
If you happen to have a good professor who can really put theorems into his own words, and when you just give a bit of thought and patience, you will become more happy with math, even though you still wouldn’t look at your computer as function of 2x^2+y-3z^2</p>
<p>My professor for the summer calculus 3 writes a lot on the board. But thanks to him. The textbook we use do not communicate with students. Their theorems and examples are so hard for most people to understand.</p>
<p>Enginox:</p>
<p>keep working hard! the harder you work on Pre-Calc, the easier Calc will be! Seriously, once you get pre-calc down, the rest is a breeze. you can do it, dude. we’ve all been in this spot one time or another, and we managed to break free.</p>
<p>good luck :)</p>
<p>What exactly is calculus as stupid as that sounds? What will it involve more of from this class…trig or algebra?</p>
<p>Calculus is:</p>
<p>Limits
Derivitives
Integrals</p>
<p>Noob like question here. Trig, geometry, and college level algebra have all been pretty easy for me to learn so far. How hard is learning calculus relative to the lower level math courses? If I spent 4-6 hours a week studying for college algebra and trig courses, how much time should I expect to spend in Calculus I and II?</p>
<p>Calc 1 was easier than trig and algebra for me. Calc 2 was harder than all three though.</p>
<p>I spent 3-4 hours a week studying.</p>
<p>For calc 2 I spent 5 hours a week studying.</p>
<p>I got a solid B in both classes.</p>
<p>alchemist, that’s really encouraging. Trig and algebra are really easy to me. Why is calc 2 harder?</p>
<p>Calc 2 is harder because it is almost all focused on solving difficult integrals. Calc 2 is not cohesive instead it is more like a grab bag of random
topics. This makes it hard because every week you are learning a somewhat new concept instead of building upon what you already learned. One week you are doing differential equations and the next week you are solving sequences and series. There is also a fair amount of memorization needed for calc 2. But if you stay on top and study smart then there should be no reason why you will not get an A or B in the class.</p>