Questions on first year undergrad math courses

[oinky]

It's the middle of the semester of my first year and I'm finding this math course extremely difficult. The course is essentially teaching real analysis and they labeled the course honors calculus. I am finding the professor is not teaching the material well which made me find some supplementary books: Calculus, M Spivak and Understanding Analysis , S Abbott . I guess what I mean to ask is: is it really supposed to be this difficult or should I just not be taking this course, or is it the professor? If it is considered really difficult is there something I can do to help me understand it better? I've been reading quite a bit but when I go to the exercises I sometimes don't know where to start. A big problem is when I understand the questions and know the answers but can't turn my thoughts into a proof. Any thoughts appreciated thank you.

 

[gmax137]

I'm not sure what kind of answers you expect to get. How can we (strangers from the interwebz) say anything about the quality of your professor??

Did you do well in calculus in high school? Did you even take calculus in high school? If not, you're probably in the wrong class.

Edit - sorry if that sounds harsh. Welcome to PF, you can get a lot of help here if you can ask specific questions. Maybe take one of the exercises giving you trouble, and work your way through it in a separate thread here.

 

[Bong_Nebula]

If you're worried that you aren't cut out for STEM or something, I wouldn't sweat it too much. It sounds like you've been benefiting from the use of an actual analysis textbook, and so I would guess that it's just a lot for a freshman without experience in upper level math classes to digest.

 

[micromass]

Yes, analysis is supposed to be difficult. It's probably the most difficult class many math majors take.