- #1
in the rye
- 83
- 6
Hey everyone,
First of all, let me start out by saying that I am not enjoying this class, not because I'm not doing well, but frankly because I find it boring. It's not that I'm not challenged, I am. The material can be meticulous. But, it just seems like a lot of algebraic manipulations and tricks rather than theorems like in Calculus 1.
We had our first test which covered integrals through improper integrals (which was my favorite section). I made a 94 on it. The mistake I made was a stupid one, and I caught my error at the end of the test but didn't have enough time to correct it.
Will this course pick up like Calc. 1? I don't mean in difficulty, but rather the depth content itself. I feel like in Calculus 1 I was learning all this cool material, and analyzing things that I've never thought of before. Now I just feel like I'm doing intermediate algebra on crack to solve an integral. Which, is relatively frustrating because we have CAS systems that solve them, and integral tables. Of which, my book covered and we were required to learn, but aren't allowed to be used on a test (amplifying my frustration even more). Conceptually this class seems like a breeze so far. It's more of learning methods for different integrals you encounter, and without constantly reviewing I'll forget them. I get that it's an exercise of the mind, and that it's the thought process behind them, but honestly this all just reminds me of trigonometry proofs (manipulating expressions to resemble something you want -- which ironically was my favorite part of trig). Except instead of 1-2 sections devoted to the idea, an entire chapter.
How did you all study for this class? I have really short term memory, but hate repetition, so I've yet to find a good balance. Previously, I'd work every odd problem in the book, but I've found for this class that it's really tedious and repetitious. So, instead of practicing over and over, I've been watching KhanAcademy, MIT, and PatrickJMT and working about half of our homework assignment before the lecture on it, then the other half after lecture. All said and done this takes me roughly 4-6 hours additional every week to learn the material before class and work the homework problems. I feel like it may be better to spend this time WORKING additional problems, rather than doing this. But, I don't know if my time could be better spent.
It just sucks that the joy I used to have in learning math is slowly depleting. I feel really burned out and we're only 5 weeks in.
Also, sorry for the novella of a post. I just feel discouraged right now because I used to be excited about this stuff. And being in engineering I have a feeling that feeling burnout at this stage is not good.
First of all, let me start out by saying that I am not enjoying this class, not because I'm not doing well, but frankly because I find it boring. It's not that I'm not challenged, I am. The material can be meticulous. But, it just seems like a lot of algebraic manipulations and tricks rather than theorems like in Calculus 1.
We had our first test which covered integrals through improper integrals (which was my favorite section). I made a 94 on it. The mistake I made was a stupid one, and I caught my error at the end of the test but didn't have enough time to correct it.
Will this course pick up like Calc. 1? I don't mean in difficulty, but rather the depth content itself. I feel like in Calculus 1 I was learning all this cool material, and analyzing things that I've never thought of before. Now I just feel like I'm doing intermediate algebra on crack to solve an integral. Which, is relatively frustrating because we have CAS systems that solve them, and integral tables. Of which, my book covered and we were required to learn, but aren't allowed to be used on a test (amplifying my frustration even more). Conceptually this class seems like a breeze so far. It's more of learning methods for different integrals you encounter, and without constantly reviewing I'll forget them. I get that it's an exercise of the mind, and that it's the thought process behind them, but honestly this all just reminds me of trigonometry proofs (manipulating expressions to resemble something you want -- which ironically was my favorite part of trig). Except instead of 1-2 sections devoted to the idea, an entire chapter.
How did you all study for this class? I have really short term memory, but hate repetition, so I've yet to find a good balance. Previously, I'd work every odd problem in the book, but I've found for this class that it's really tedious and repetitious. So, instead of practicing over and over, I've been watching KhanAcademy, MIT, and PatrickJMT and working about half of our homework assignment before the lecture on it, then the other half after lecture. All said and done this takes me roughly 4-6 hours additional every week to learn the material before class and work the homework problems. I feel like it may be better to spend this time WORKING additional problems, rather than doing this. But, I don't know if my time could be better spent.
It just sucks that the joy I used to have in learning math is slowly depleting. I feel really burned out and we're only 5 weeks in.
Also, sorry for the novella of a post. I just feel discouraged right now because I used to be excited about this stuff. And being in engineering I have a feeling that feeling burnout at this stage is not good.