<p>Is it possible for me to self teach some college chemistry over the summer?</p>
<p>I had a really hard time in AP chem as a junior and would like to get a head start on it before I take it in college this fall. Should I look into a text book and read through that? Or are there better books out there? </p>
<p>Any help or advice would be appreciated.</p>
<p>Actually if not chemistry, I really would benefit if I learned some calculus over the next two months. I took pre-calc my senior year in HS and some good recommendations on books that teach basic calculus would help a lot. </p>
<p>You can find PDFs of textbooks online free usaually. Check Amazon and see what textbooks is most reccomended, or find out what your college uses and find that.</p>
<p>I’m doing the same thing, but with Calc III and Physics.</p>
<p>Oh ok thanks guys. QwertyKey let me know how your progress goes. I’d definitely be interested to see how you are teaching yourself and get some tips on that. </p>
<p>I’ll begin my hunt for a proper text book, are the PDFs online pretty useful to go by? I was thinking of maybe finding a whole book somewhere. Text books are pretty expensive though, i’ll call up my college and fine out what book to use/get, I could get that since i’d have to buy the book anyway.</p>
<p>Most people veg out between senior year and college. It’s great that you want to study, but I’d say you’re better off relaxing for a few months and taking it easy. You worked hard the last few summers with ECs or a job and you’ll work hard the next few summers with classes, jobs, internships, research, and other stuff. Take a break. This might be your only time to spend 3 months doing nothing before retirement.</p>
<p>Yes, its possible. I did it (never attended lecture, just read the book). The key, though, is to check different sources if your (first) source doesn’t hit home (on a particular topic).</p>
<p>The Calculus For Dummies book is quite good. When you get your textbook in the fall, you will have to match up some of the methods (for example they have something like The Sliced Meat method for integration, obviously there is no method actually called the sliced meat method). Actually…they might have the actual names of the stuff…regardless, the book explains everything very well. Much better than the calc book I used in high school.</p>
<p>I’m taking Calc I and Analytical Geometry this semester. My high school Calc class also included analytical geometry. Hopefully I can get an A, but have to be honest, I’m a little scared of this class, more so than any of my other classes. Have to go out and really attack that one.</p>
<p>With Calculus, you just have to really get down the derivative/integration rules (I think there are like 20 each), know your trig stuff (the Calc for Dummies book has all of Trig laid out on like half a page…lol), and then know how to use the methods, and you should be fine.</p>
<p>I got an A first semester in high school, and B second semester, and I slept in Calc everyday and was doing my homework in there late. It’s really not that hard if you understand it, and the Calc for Dummies book does a really good job covering some of the very minor things that can make it hard to understand.</p>
<p>Depends on where you are but, I know the late College courses are still accepting sign ups. Unfortunately Calc and Chem are pretty hard classes to get so late - you can try though. In addition, you can receive college credit (though there may be a big price to pay depending on where you go). Receiving credit is not a guarantee as some courses go off on too much of a tangent to be similar enough to your university courses, but they may if you ask who is in charge.</p>
<p>the calculus for dummies book… well I know someone who has it and I took a look through it a while ago, it seemed like it would be OK if you’re trying to get through AP or something, but i’d rather just use the stewart calculus book if I actually wanted to study. the dummies book had all kinds of stupid names for methods of calculating volumes of revolution, had some pretty misleading “facts,” and for some reason mentioned green’s theorem.</p>
<p>that said, i’d recommend not studying this summer, just waiting for the fall. I don’t think precalc is really necessary to take, and since you have you should already be plenty prepared. every calc1 course I know of starts off with a whole 1-3 weeks of going through functions, trig stuff, etc., so “precalc” should be taken care of. any other stuff precalc goes through you’ve already done in high school algebra or geometry… at most, that’s stuff that can be quickly reviewed when topics come up.</p>
<p>ur not gonna teach urself calculus…trust me…im in the same boat as u…i didn’t even take ap chem…and i gotta take chem in college…and im not worried…but ya i took calculus and no way ur gonna learn that urself its pretty tough…nothing like precalc</p>
<p>You can definitely teach yourself some calc I material. I learned limits and derivatives through a couple of internet tutorials. They’re not too hard.</p>
<p>It depends on the person. Not everyone can teach themselves calculus… Besides you need to chill before college. you are going to be stressed enough as it is first and second semester so you might as well save your energy.</p>
<p>I’d stick to textbooks. Get a copy of the text the calculus class at your university uses and read through that. Youtube videos, “Calculus for Dummies” and such are too gimmicky.</p>
<p>I think though that it’ll be tough to stay motivated. If you find that you probably aren’t going to get very far, just review your knowledge of the functions e, sin, cos, tan, log, and your high school algebra. You’ll be more prepared than 75% of the class.</p>