What can I expect in Calc and how can I prepare for it?

[Weave]

Hi everyone I have question on the following:

I am currently a freshman in college and am taking Precalc my first semester,
I find it really easy-having an A in the Class- I was wondering what can expect in Calc and any words of wisdom?

Thanks

 

[Mattara]

Hi everyone I have question on the following:

I am currently a freshman in college and am taking Precalc my first semester,
I find it really easy-having an A in the Class- I was wondering what can expect in Calc and any words of wisdom?Should I worry?

Thanks

You shouldn't worry so much about the actual calculus treatment of problems, but more on why it works.

chroot's posts in this thread are very interesting.

You could always work ahead or try out new things to some extent with calculus. You don't need to be a master before you start any other calculus courses, but a good understanding is...well good :)

http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/resources/Strang/strangtext.htm
http://books.slashdot.org/books/04/03/04/028253.shtml
http://www.math.wisc.edu.nyud.net:8090/~keisler/calc.html
http://www.lightandmatter.com/calc/

 

[mr_coffee]

I hanv't taken pre-calc since high school but I don't remember learning much in pre-calc other than graphing without a calculator, it seemed more like algebra 3 than calc.

 

[Weave]

Thanks guys

I don't know why, but I hear people saying calculus is hard so it just gets me worried, because I would like to get an A in it.

 

[mr_coffee]

I thought calculus was easier than pre-calc but everyone is different. Just do the homework assigned and you should be fine. I always thought it was more of a mind set than anything, if you think your going to get an A or try your hardest to get that A a lot of the times you do. But if you go into a course thinking your going to be lost and its going to be hard your already starting off in a negative mind set that doesn't help anything.

 

[mattmns]

Work hard and you should get an A in every course you take.

 

[UCFEng06]

Im also a freshman in college. I remember hearing the same horror stories about how hard Calculus is and, I must admit, it got me worried. Now I'm halfway through the semester and I feel Calculus is not as challenging as I was lead to believe. That is not to say that I am breezing through it, but I make sure to set aside plenty of time during the day to do homework problems and fully understand their solutions. The hard work pays off and currently I have an A in the class. Basically, just do all the assigned homework (Do more if you think you need the practice) and you will be fine.

 

[Bitter]

Also, a lot of problems with Calc is that people have poor algebra skills. They can do the calc easily enough, but they miss up on the algebra sets. At least, that is my experience.