Should i take this Calculus course or is it too risky?

[Oomair]

ok I am planning on taking a calculus and Anaylytic Gemometry 1 course at a community college during the summer and its 31 days long, 4 days a week, eah day being 4 hours in the classroom learning the material

so do you guys think the professor might teach the course real fast and how rigorous does the course get? and have any of guys taken calc class this fas, if so tell me how it went for you in terms of difficulty and amount of studying you have to do daily

 

[G01]

Its probably going to be a lot of work packed into those 31 days, since the professor is going to cover 15 weeks worth of material in 4 weeks.(It will be a full semester's material in that month or close to it, guaranteed.)

What level of math are you at, and how proficient are you with it? Do you have experience with taking college courses, or are you still in high school? These are things everyone here is going to need to know in order to give you a somewhat reliable answer.

 

[kdinser]

I did that with calc II, it's rough, but doable. I would get the book a couple weeks ahead of time and just start reading and working problems. Get ahead and stay ahead.

 

[Oomair]

well i just got done taking precalculus in high school and i got an A in there

i have never taken AP or college courses and this course might be my first one

BTW i have a passion for math and science, so I am willing to try and work hard in this class

 

[mattmns]

If the class is offered and other people take it, then I don't see why you can't do the same. If you have plenty of free time and dedication then you should do fine.

 

[proton]

at a community college, most of the professors are easy and lenient, but occassionally there'll be a difficult and challenging one. check ratemyprofessors.com and the lower the rating they have, the more likely they are good. Since you seem motivated, you should do just fine as long as you really try. However, since its only a month long, you may forget what you learn after you're done with the course so you can always self-study what you forgot

 

[mathwonk]

i agree, it is hard but possible, if you devote the whole 4 weeks to that course and nothing else. do NOT take a second course.

 

[symbolipoint]

Learning Calculus+Analytic Geometry effectively (such as to have pre-requisite knowledge for the next course) IS NOT a matter of studying for a set number of hours: It is a matter of studying for enough weeks or enough months, regularly, even daily. If you try to push that course into only 4 or 6 weeks, then either you will not learn effectively, or you are a genius and will learn it effectively. Maybe you are brilliant in learning Mathematics - only YOU know yourself well enough to determine this.

 

[mathwonk]

symbolipoint may be right, but i think it must be possible if they are teac hing the course that way. I think immersion learning actually ha some advantages. We almost never teach highly concentrated courses at UGA because many department members feel math cannot be learned quickly. But several people have taught either "boot camp" calculus or number theory in under 3 weeks and had good success with it.

I don't see what you have to lose. Life is short. If the summer goes by and you have not taken the course you will know even less than if you take it.

professional mathematicians always learn under exactly those circumstances. I.e. we go to very short meetings, usually one week or less, and get many hours of instruction per day. Then we go home and follow it up by our own study. But the concise introductory lectures are very valuable as an aid to our later study. So I suggest this could work very well, if you prepare for it in advance, then take it, then restudy it afterwards.

In fact if you do that you will probably know much more than an average student in a standard course.

 

[TMFKAN64]

Well, the risk is money and time. I think the OP has to ask "Am I really ready to do this?" If the answer is yes, then I'd agree, go for it!

But why waste the time and money if you aren't likely to succeed? Wouldn't it be better to do something that would help you succeed in this course *next* summer?

 

[Mandanesss]

i think it's perfectly fine to take calc during the summer. last summer i took organic chemistry 1 and it was also a month long course. i immersed myself in it and dedicated that month to it and i did extremely well. if you are willing to completely saturate yourself in calc and wouldn't mind spending all day doing it, than you can do it. i'll be taking calc 3 this summer, too!

 

[leright]

i think it's perfectly fine to take calc during the summer. last summer i took organic chemistry 1 and it was also a month long course. i immersed myself in it and dedicated that month to it and i did extremely well. if you are willing to completely saturate yourself in calc and wouldn't mind spending all day doing it, than you can do it. i'll be taking calc 3 this summer, too!

I can't imagine taking a month long ochem course.

I took a 2 month summer calculus course (8 weeks) and it wasn't too bad.

 

[mathwonk]

I only went to summer school once. I took intensive Slavic, (first year Russian), and a semester worth of abstract algebra. i got an A in Slavic and a B+ in algebra.

But the algebra course prepared me better for the next algebra course than the Russian course did for second year Russian. I.e. I think it takes longer to learn a language than a math course.I also had a wonderful semester, with plenty of time left over to enjoy the summer.

Another detail: the Dean called me in, as a weak student, and told me i was foolish to take these courses together over the summer and i was going to fail. This ****'ed me off so much i made sure i did well. If that A-H had not said that, I probably would have done my usual half ***'ed job and gotten a couple of D's.

 

[pakmingki]

im doing calc 3 thiss summer and doing some second year math at college next year.

 

[m@y]

I did Calc 1&2 in similar 4 week courses while working full time. I found it easier to stay focused on the material in the summer courses and when it came time to write exams the furthest material learned was only 4 weeks old.

 

[Serbian.matematika]

I only went to summer school once. I took intensive Slavic, (first year Russian), and a semester worth of abstract algebra. i got an A in Slavic and a B+ in algebra.

But the algebra course prepared me better for the next algebra course than the Russian course did for second year Russian. I.e. I think it takes longer to learn a language than a math course.


I also had a wonderful semester, with plenty of time left over to enjoy the summer.

Another detail: the Dean called me in, as a weak student, and told me i was foolish to take these courses together over the summer and i was going to fail. This ****'ed me off so much i made sure i did well. If that A-H had not said that, I probably would have done my usual half ***'ed job and gotten a couple of D's.

you are right!