<p>I have an acquaintance who is majoring in Aerospace Engineering here at Iowa State and he retook Calculus I this last semester after failing it the first time. </p>
<p>Based on what I heard about the Final Exam being very hard, I am afraid he might have finished with a D again although I have not confirmed it with him yet.</p>
<p>What blows my mind is that he is not an idiot, he has already completed Classical Physics I and II, he took Mechanics and he did just OK. I know he has what it takes to be an Engineer but if he failed Calculus I again. Is it fair to assume that he is weeded out and does not have what it takes to be an Engineer?</p>
<p>I have told him many times to NEVER give up but he was very discouraged after Spring Break. I would hate to see this kid change majors because of one course and I know he has no interest in anything but AE. </p>
<p>He did 2 hours of tutoring every week since January and he was never absent because I know the person who was tutoring him. Thoughts on this?</p>
<p>My philosophy on the matter is that if you were accepted by that particular engineering school, then you have what it takes to at least get a B- in all the courses there.</p>
<p>I do agree that some people pick up subject matter quicker than others, so not everyone can get an A probably no matter how hard they work. But I think if you fail an undergraduate course, no matter what the course, you’re just plain lazy.</p>
<p>Think about it. Calc I is a huge course. Tons of incompetent, lazy, drunk, and stoned 17 year olds experiencing their first taste of freedom take Calc I. Not to mention anybody who was really good at Math passed out of Calc I via AP. So, the curve is huge. To pass the course, you probably only need a 55 average.</p>
<p>Sounds like he’s probably “pseudostudying.” It’s a term coined by Cal Newport. He’s a CS prof at Georgetown with a PhD from MIT. Tell him to hunt down his blog (which CC’s stupid site rules won’t allow me to link) and then read and follow religiously “How to Become a Straight A Student.” It’ll change his life. Here’s a link not to his blog, but to his home page. [Cal</a> Newport – Author: So Good They Can’t Ignore You, How to Be a High School Superstar, How to Become a Straight-A Student, How to Win at College](<a href=“http://calnewport.com/]Cal”>http://calnewport.com/)</p>
<p>As previously suggested, it’s probably not a lack of effort, but a lack of efficiency that is really holding him back. Calc I is not all that difficult - it’s occasionally tricky, but anyone that can reach that level of math is capable of doing it. But something is clearly wrong in the way that said acquaintance is learning the material that keeps him from doing well. A few things to consider:
Does he actually understand the material?
Does he do his homework?
Does he consistently overestimate his own performance on the exam?
Does he do practice problems?
Does he suffer from a mental block such as depression or stress?
(My guess: Yes, Yes, Yes, No, Yes)
Identify the problem, and it’s not all that hard to fix it. As for weeding out, sometimes the weed-out classes are a way of showing that you need to make changes to avoid future troubles.</p>
<p>Passing out of Calc I via AP credits is not really an indication of how good one is at math, but the kind of high school they went to. I know a lot of fools who passed the Calc I AP exam and I know a lot of very intelligent people who didn’t or didn’t take it.</p>
<p>Otherwise, I agree with the lot here who are saying your friend is probably just studying a lot but poorly for one reason or another. The idea of a weed out class is a myth, albeit a popular one.</p>
<p>Calc AP test is a perfect indication of how well you know math, basic Calculus in particular. It test basic Calculus. So does Calc I. No cultural or gender bias. Just Calculus problems.</p>
<p>What does it matter if it’s your fault or not that your high school was bad in preparing you for it?</p>
<p>If you went through 4 years of high school and you couldn’t speak English, the fact remains that you can’t speak English.</p>
<p>I couldn’t disagree more. I took the AP Calculus exam in high school and I got a 5 on it and to be honest, looking back now, I really didn’t know calculus all that well. I was decent at math and good at recognizing patterns, but I wasn’t really all that good at the actual calculus. If you asked me what a derivative was, I probably would have told you it is the slope of a line, which is not a good answer. I could calculate the volume of bodies of revolution using integrals but I certainly couldn’t have told you why that actually worked. Despite this, I got a 5 on the exam. The AP Calculus exam does not test your understanding of calculus, it tests your ability to solve calculus problems. Those two concepts are not the same thing.</p>
<p>To be fair, there are a lot of people who come out of college calculus classes with those same deficiencies. That isn’t unique to high school or the AP classes and exams.</p>
<p>I got a 5 as well as passed out of Calc I. I mean, it’s true. You could pass the AP or Calc I in college and still have deficiencies, but still, things are standardized according to tests.</p>
<p>If you pass the Calc AP exam or pass the exams in Calc I, you are believed to understand the material well enough.</p>
<p>My point was that Calc I is a bit easier because you don’t have to compete against curve setters who would be in the class if Advanced Placement did not exist. And I pretty much stand by it.</p>
<p>And I stand by the notion that those who pass out of calculus due to the AP exams are not necessarily going to be the curve-setters. Furthermore, just because something is standardized and believed to indicate one’s understanding of the material does not mean that it succeeds in that endeavor. Just take a poll of professors in STEM fields about their opinion of incoming students’ math skills and you will see that fact.</p>
<p>Oh I agree with you about the competency, at least partially. But as stated in one of the other threads, I believe success in engineering and math is largely a result of work ethic as opposed to innate intelligence. It’s my opinion of most endeavors of life.</p>
<p>So, if you believe that, then you would believe that most who were able to pass out of Calc I via AP would have been good students had they taken Calc I.</p>
<p>Of course, it varies school by school. In my undergrad, almost all my friends were in Calc II with me Fall of frosh year.</p>
<p>There is no curve for Calculus I here at Iowa State. I had already taken this course at another institution and passed without any major difficulties. Here, I really struggled and the Midterm and the Final were very hard.</p>
<p>I would not be surprised if Calculus I here is actually harder than at some of the more selective Engineering schools because admissions here are not very selective.</p>
<p>Our AE program is Top 20 but I think there is something wrong with the way they do things here. I watched some of the Calculus I lectures at MIT and honestly, there is no comparison!</p>
<p>The guy at MIT was a real professor- someone who really understood the concepts and explained it very well. </p>
<p>Our “professor” was an older lady-a part time faculty member who really struggled with the material</p>
<p>You can’t rely on the professor. It’s nice if they help out, but the fact of the matter is that you have to know how to teach yourself if you want to do well.</p>
<p>You need calculus to learn physics. I think he has what it takes if he did well on physics. Most working engineers don’t use calculus at all. If they have need to do some integral they can just use matlab. Calculus I is an easy A. One possibility is that your friend forgot trig and other basic math, if that’s the case he can use this dvd</p>
<p>This guy teaches the material well. He can watch the samples on youtube, If he does that and does problems from the book and practice from final exams he will be ok. MIT is a great source as well</p>
<p>Also like Neo said, you have to teach yourself 80% of your class material if you do engineering</p>
<p>I don’t know any quality educational institution where Calculus I is an easy A. Average Final Exam score for this last term was a 64, according to the instructor.</p>
<p>Calculus is not a terribly difficult subject, so with a quality professor, it shouldn’t be all that difficult. That’s the real trick, though. It is usually the new guys getting stuck teaching those classes with little experience.</p>
<p>It is pretty easy compared to calc II which in my opinion is much hard than one and three. I know the average is low, but I dont know why, the course really isn’t that bad at all especially compared to physics/eng classes.</p>
<p>Normally id say your friend must suck at algebra and or trig but Honestly, if your friend is getting that low of a grade in calc 1 its a conceptual problem and either he isn’t trying hard enough or just isn’t getting it OR it really just is algebra and trig and he’s just lazy.</p>
<p>I can’t for the life of me understand how someone can do that badly , like if you just suck that bad learn how to memorize the pattern for the problem but that doesn’t work if your algebra and trig sucks</p>