Pre calc compared to calculus ?

<p>I am at a two year community college right now, and I have this HORRENDOUS pre calc instructor who teaches completely different from the book. She is very bad who gives us very hard exams that is around 6 pages long with 20 questions having trick questions that isnt related to HW or any of her examples in class, it is not MC . We're on vectors right now, and she thinks it is the same material as calc III from one of the chapters, so she teaches us the calculus version because she is lazy since she teaches calc III (she is using her calc notes). I got a 85% on the first midterm and a 67% on the 2nd, and possible a 85% on the 3rd. I am coming into the final with a B-. I am an engineering major, I was wondering will I be prepared for Calculus1 next quarter?. I do not like to make excuses, but this class is pretty much terrible! Any advice?</p>

<p>I found calc 1 to be easier than preclac. I don’t think you should have any problem.</p>

<p>Don’t be surprised if Pre-Calculus seems harder than Calculus I and Calculus I seems harder than Calculus II.</p>

<p>Okay thanks a lot, because I took pre calc in high school and got an A, but it did not cover all the topics. I am just having an extremely difficult instructor who teaches us more advance topics when it isn’t in the book, that makes everything hard.</p>

<p>Are you guys freaking serious? I though calculus I was supposed to be waaay harder than precalc, which I find pretty easy.</p>

<p>For some reason precal was super easy for me. It was all algebra and trig which isn’t that bad. Calc one was a little tough but I advise to watch khans academy videos. It helped me get an A in precal, B in calc I and patrickjmt helped me get aB in calc II</p>

<p>Sent from my HTC HD2 using CC App</p>

<p>I’d say as far as the calc sequence went the difficulty was calc 1<precalc<calc 2<calc 3<diffeq. It varies by person though some people find calc 1 harder than precalc and some find calc 2 harder than calc 3. Maybe precalc seemed harder to me because it was the the first math class I took in 2 years, but iffeq was the only one I had to study for to get an A. Regardless you will be fine with calc one, but if your worried about not learning the precalc from the teacher than you could just do some self studying.</p>

<p>I thought there was ~2 topics in Calc I that were troublesome, everything else was pretty easy. I never took pre-calc(wish I had) and tested right into calc I. Don’t be like me and learn your trig, it has taken me over a year to fully catch up.</p>

<p>Yeah I still know quite a bit of trig, it’s not that I don’t self study, it is just that on her exams it is extremely long and at the same time she is extremely picky because I pretty much learn how to do the material by myself, and thus; I end up solving the problem based on the book and not her method. I come into the exam fully understanding the material, but I end up with a C or a B on them because she marks off stupid points for not doing it “her way”. Another thing is that she teaches us calculus stuff, for instance. We’re on 3d Vectors right now, and according the pre calculus book it is a ‘watered down version’ of one of the chapters for calc 3. She teaches us the calculus version when she isnt suppose to, at the same time she doesn’t even notice she is teaching us the harder version. Yeah sorry for my rambling it’s just I’m very frustrated with a B when I know i shouldn’t be.</p>

<p>I learn math by reading the book. If you know what you’re doing, you shouldn’t have trouble. If she tests you on things that you didn’t learn, then there is a problem.</p>

<p>Bad teachers happen, it’s too late to switch teachers now so your just going to have to make the best of it. If your learning everything you need to that’s the main thing because everything in math/engineering is cumulative so you will use most of the things you are learning again. The fact that you might have to work harder now will put you ahead in your future classes.</p>

<p>Yeah, bad teaches happen. Atleast i’m learning how to deal with it now, because it’ll happen again in the future. Alright guys thanks a lot for the advice! Finals are coming up and I need to ace this math final to raise my grade to a B+.</p>

<p>-Kevin</p>