I am Struggling in Calculus II, any Tips?

[sheldonrocks97]

I have a very hard teacher for my Calculus II class and I think I might not pass. Don't get me wrong, he's a great teacher, but he demands a lot of work to get a good grade. I currently have a 65.2% and to get a C we need a 64% (he grades on a curve). I feel like my head is just above water and if I do badly on the final next month I won't pass the class. We are working on conic sections and are going to start Taylor Series next week.

On the two exams we had I got a 58 on the first one and a 46 on the second one. We have one exam left to take before the final.

There is a lot of pressure, because I am 16 and I will graduate with my an AS in Engineering, an AS in Physics, and an AA in Math at the same time as I get my HS diploma. If I don't pass this class, it won't happen. Any advice or tips to help me pass this class would be awesome!

 

[ModestyKing]

I would suggest, over the weekend, going to a place like Khan Academy on Friday night, going through his solid of revolution and sequences/series sections. And maybe go back to his videos on Integration, both indefinite and definite, to get a better feel for it.

Solid of Revolution: https://www.khanacademy.org/math/calculus/solid_revolution_topic

Sequences and Series: https://www.khanacademy.org/math/calculus/sequences_series_approx_calc
You may not need to watch all the videos, but it may be preferable to do so. Spend Friday and Saturday doing that. Spend Sunday taking practice quizzes, doing textbook problems, and going back to the videos and/or read the textbook sections in order to understand them and do them. Just watching videos won't help, it'll be the second time through, when you're using them to learn how to solve specific problems you're having problems with, that you'll really get them more.

Also, props on you! Three Associate's degrees and 16!

 

[verty]

That you are going to have a final soon and that the series content is being taught now suggests to me that integration has now been covered. The final will be full of differentiation and integration problems, probably 70-80% of it, so my strategy would be to use the time until the final to learn and master those topics. There are resources available like MIT's course (here), also see the other versions of 18.01, there are many supplementary problems available to practice on.

This is where my focus would be, doing everything possible to learn how to differentiate and integrate for the final. If you can get 70%+ on the final, it'll pull up the mark.

Oh wait, perhaps it is only integration? I guess differentiation was in calc I? I would still revise it though, you'll need to know differentiation very well to be any good at integration.