I know that this question has been asked before, and I apologize for repeating it, but I wanted some advice that was more suited to my situation. I am a dual enrollment student who took Calculus 1 at a community college. I passed the class with a solid A, yet I feel that I did not properly learn the material. I understood the basic principles behind differentiation and integration, but I struggled to apply them to the homework/test problems. Some of the issue was that I took the class online and therefore was not actually taught by the professor. She would assign us approximately 20 questions a month for homework, but she recommended that we complete 100+ problems in the textbook to which she did not provide a solution.
I have been debating whether or not to retake Calculus 1 when I transfer to a university. If I go to a state university, my credits will transfer in without a problem and I won’t have to take a placement test. For any schools that require a placement test, should I just try and brush up on my Calculus over the summer and attempt to test out of Calc 1?
I suggest speaking with an academic advisor at your new school about your situation.
How did you get an A if you struggled to apply the concepts to homework and exams?
@boneh3ad The midterm and final, which carried the most weight, were comprised mostly of questions from previous module tests. As long as you reviewed the questions from the tests, you would receive a decent grade. I averaged a B, I think, for the module tests, and high As for the midterm and final.
I used the “study for the exams” method for most of the semester because I didn’t fully understand what was going on in the class. It took longer for things to click. (Unfortunately they usually clicked right after the tests/exams.) I am reviewing what I was supposed to have learned in class right now because I own the textbook, but I don’t know if I should just attempt Calc 2 or repeat Calc 1.
I think if you were able to pull a “solid A” then you know the material. I would not second guess yourself. Transfer the credits and roll into Calc 2.
Good luck.
I guess there’s also the slight chance that I understood the material better than I thought I did?
Why not find the old calculus 1 final exams for the universities you may later attend and try them to see how well you know the material by their standards?