I’m currently struggling in Calc 1. By struggling I mean I’m not performing at the level I thought I would be. Our unit consisted of 10 sections and I studied one section per day leading up to the test. I thought this would surely help me, but I ended up making a B- on the exam(77).
I often hear people say each subject requires different study techniques, so what are some techniques you use/ used while in engineering?
If you are studying for 10 straight days for a simple exam over one unit of calculus, that is a big red flag to me. It implies you never really understood the material in the first place. How are you studying? Are you just trying to memorize formulae and solution methods?
The professor gives recommended problem sets, which are the problems at the end of each section. I do those problems, as well study guides and homework. I guess you could say I’m trying to memorize formulas and solution methods, but that is what I’ve done for years, plug and chug. How do you go from knowing a problem to understanding a problem?
It’s a tough problem and something where the solution for everyone is different, but ultimately your goal needs to be to understand why those solution methods work rather than just the general pattern for solving problems that look a certain way. That means, for example, understanding what a derivative or integral actually means rather than just thinking of it as “the slope of a line” (not saying you do this, though a lot of people do). It’s really tough to give specific advice, though, since we don’t really know you or your learning style or what you struggle with.
On the other hand, a B- is not a terrible grade, particularly for someone who is still early in their studies and likely is still getting used to college.
I struggled too when I took calc 1. I think it’s because it requires a different way of thinking than was required for algebra/precalc type classes, but you’ll adapt to it soon enough. For me, all of the concepts of calc 1 made sense once I started taking physics 1, since pure math classes like to use really abstract terminology but with physics I could “see” what a limit/derivative/integral actually are and that’s when things really started to open up.
My best advice would be to work through examples step-by-step. You may get halfway through an example and not understand how or why it goes from one point to the next, but continue with the example until you get to the end. Then do another example problem (same topic), do the same thing. You should start to see patterns and eventually get those “ah-ha!” moments, and then you’ll understand how to solve those kinds of problems.
Don’t be afraid to explore outside of your textbook/lecture notes, actually I would highly encourage this. Check out the multitude of online resources for math (two that come to mind are “Paul’s Online Calculus Notes” and “Khan Academy”, which has videos with examples and explanations). There’s also YouTube, Schaum’s Outline workbooks, alternate textbooks, etc. Remember, your goal is to understand the concept, not the textbook.
Another option is to pick up the solutions manual to your textbook. This will give you access to step-by-step explanations of the problems in the back of each chapter, which you can use like the example problems that I mentioned above, so you’ll have many more examples to work through than just the 1-2 per topic that they give you in the chapter.
It’s good you have been studying. Keep it up. I agree, B- is not a terrible grade, especially if you have not had Calc in high school. Many students are repeating material they learned the first time in AP classes.