<p>I'm asking because I usually have to put a lot of after-school effort into my math courses -- meaning that I'll often stay after with my teachers to pick up on concepts that I missed in class. My plan is to struggle through calc and then be done with math forever; will there be places for me to go if I need help with specific problems?</p>
<p>Also, I know that professors hold open office hours, but are they usually pretty friendly and receptive to questioning (providing I don't look at my homework for five minutes, say "I don't get it," and ask them to do my homework for me)?</p>
<p>There are plenty of tutoring services available and office hours are always available. Regarding math courses, generally, a professor is very receptive and friendly to answering any questions you have even if it's "I don't get this entire section" (and even if you get a professor who isn't too happy to answer your questions, TAs are extremely eager to help and will). For example, last semester in my math course, I had trouble with about 3 topics in a section (all 2 days before the final exam) and my professor was kind enough to go through the entire section from the basics so that I could understand the concepts. As long as you don't leave it to the last 24 hours before the finals, people are happy to help you.</p>
<p>Additionally, there are several tutoring services like the Math Support Center and the Center for Learning and Teaching. Also, if you are an engineer, you can take an Academic Excellence Workshop (AEW) for the course where some of the upperclassmen who generally did pretty well in the course provide you with challenging problems to stretch your mind and then explain the problems (They also give a lot of practice prelims and other practice problems as well). You can also get in touch with the Engineering Learning Initiatives where you can fill out a form and within 24 hours, they will return a list of people who are currently tutoring the particular subject. If you aren't an engineer, there are "double 0" classes (i.e. Math 012 or Math 001) which provides the same help an AEW provides in Engineering Math courses, but are for other majors other than engineers.</p>
<p>if you want help in homework, then it's the TAs you want to go to, not the professors. if you need help in understanding concepts, then go to the professor.</p>
<p>Anyone can take an AEW. Most people, however, choose not to take it although they do realize that they are very helpful. The sessions are 2 hours per week and attendance is mandatory (only allowed 3 absences) so it is at times difficult for people to accomodate into their busy schedule. If you're really motivated to do well in the course or know ahead of time that you are going to struggle in the course, then I would highly recommend it. Otherwise, you will see it as a burden more than anything else. It is definitely very helpful when it comes to giving extra practice (practice prelims and challenging problems which will help prepare for prelims well ahead of time), but if you're going to the class just to fulfill attendance requirements, you shouldn't be taking the class. Also, you should be willing to work in groups during the session. Generally, the problems given are very difficult and you will make a lot more progress bouncing ideas off of each other.</p>
<p>I took 2 AEWs -- 1 in the Fall for Math 192 and 1 in the Spring for CS 100M. Both were set up very differently since the facilitators were different people. The fall one expected more background knowledge before the session to work on the problems while the spring one was more to clear up any misunderstandings and then doing the problems. It really depends on who your facilitators are and how they lead the class. </p>
<p>If you're considering it, I would suggest you try it out and see. If you feel that it isn't helping you, drop it. There is no harm in dropping a class as long as it is before the drop date.</p>
<p>There's no shortage of help if you're willing to take the time to find it. The problem lies not with students being unable to find help in a particular subject, but rather with their lack of motivation to seek such aid.</p>
<p>If you need help with something, there are countless resources available to you.</p>