<p>Hey, so my first semester in college went fine. I made pretty decent grades, with the exception of one course, Calc I which I earned a C in. I was disappointed but figured that since I know which areas I need to fix second semester (doing all the homework in a timely manner, going to the free tutoring center, etc) I could turn it around in Calc II. </p>
<p>However; a few days ago my professor emailed the class warning us that if we are to succeed in Calc II, we should have earned at least a B in the class. She stated that if we had anything lower than that, we should expect it to be very difficult, which I interpret to mean, you're lucky if you get a D second semester. I've been reworking some of the problem sets, since I want to succeed, but worry about my prospects for next semester. Does anyone have any other tips as to how to use this Winter Break to better position myself for success in Calc II?</p>
<p>Calculus II was very difficult for me. I had received a 4 on the AP Calc AB exam before I took it. Part of it was that my professor was not good. However, many math professors aren’t good and the material itself is difficult. What helped me was going through the textbook before each class and teaching myself, so that when we learned it in class it just “rang a bell” and wasn’t something new I was learning. If you’re taking it for sure, I would go through the chapters in the textbook and start learning the sections, so at least you don’t fall behind the class.</p>
<p>Calculus II builds on and expands the concepts learned in calculus I so you should make sure you really understand what you learned in calc I and continue practicing.</p>
<p>Make a big stack of flashcards of basic derivatives/integrals/trig identities and memorize the crap out of it. Study ahead and look over concepts like trig substitution, partial fraction decomposition and whatever else is found in the first section of your planned class’ syllabus. I did some informal tutoring when I took Calc 2, and the most obvious difficulty most people had was simply not knowing what the derivative of secant theta was, or something silly like that. You should be able to do u-subs in your head, or you’re gonna be in a world of hurt. </p>
<p>Oh, and don’t worry - Calc 2’s difficulty is so overrated. If you put in the time, you’ll do fine.</p>
<p>I had to drop Cal II this past semester - I’m a grad student, so I didn’t need the course, but I found it difficult. Cal I was far easier for me, but I took it 10 years ago and so getting up to speed took up valuable time that I should’ve been learning the Cal II concepts. So I agree with your professor; Cal II requires a strong foundation in Cal I. You have to remember all the little rules for differentiation like chain rule and such; you’ll be adding about a zillion new concepts that are just the reverse of, or build upon, the Cal I concepts (since Cal II is integration which is just the inverse of differentiation).</p>
<p>Partial fraction decomposition, ugh. It was easy once I got a grasp on it, but it took so long for me to understand what was going on.</p>
<p>get the “Calculus Problem Solver” book (I think thats the title). It is like a SAT prep book for calculus. BTW they have these for many other subjects. This book has thousands of worked problems. What I suggest is working thru the problems on the areas covered in your Calc I class so you can improve your skills. And improve you will. Learning calculus is more like learning spanish than learning history. In spanish if you read thru the vocabulary once you don’t know it; you need practice, lots of it. Same with calculus. That you passed the class shows you can learn it. A rule of thumb in many technical classes like this is that you need to spend 3 hours outside of class for every hour in it, so you should have been spending 9 hours a week doing homework, practicing from books like the one I mentioned, etc.</p>
<p>Make sure you understand all of derivation and the bit of integration you covered (if you did). Not just enough to get by, but understand why things are happening. A lot of students also struggle because of poor Algebra skills-- if that’s case, review things like factoring and solving equations and all of those things.</p>
<p>Definitely go to tutoring. When you get into class, I have a two-day rule with math and science. If the professor goes over something (say, u-substitution) in class on Tuesday and you don’t understand it, take Tuesday evening and review it and try a little more by yourself/use the internet/whatever. If it still doesn’t make sense, try to see if the prof says anything on Wednesday about it. If after class on Wednesday, you still don’t understand what was covered on Tuesday, you need to use every resource you have (office hours, tutoring, I don’t care), because you should understand the concept within two days. You don’t have to be perfect at it, but you should be able to follow the notes from class and explain them step by step.</p>
<p>This may sound harsh, but the problem with math (and calc especially) is that it is culmulative. If you don’t understand Tuesday’s lesson, you probably won’t get Wednesday’s lesson, or Thursday’s, and by Friday, you’ll be a week behind.</p>
<p>With Calc II, only about 1/3 to 1/2 of the class will be integration, which is the opposite of derivatives. The other parts will be assorted things to prepare students for Calc III. With those topics, a strong grasp of algebra is ESSENTIAL.</p>
<p>One other thing you can do is get another take on Calc I. ItunesU has calculus courses available for free download, so you can review the material if there were concepts that weren’t clear. </p>
<p>What I think is true for many people, though, is the concepts make sense in the abstract. They just need to spend time wrestling with solving real problems.</p>