I hate Calculus
I have never hated a math course as much as I hate Calculus. I am utterly failing in this class, like I have no chance of passing this semester. I don't understand any of the material and even when I go over it multiple times I still sit there not knowing anything. I'm a junior in high school and an F for both semesters of math is going to look really bad. Other than this year I've only ever had trouble with math in Algebra I and Algebra II. Even then I was able to bring up an F to an A by the end of the first semester. I honestly thought I would be able to keep up in this course but I was so wrong. My foundations in Pre-cal were too weak for me to even attempt to learn anything. My Pre-cal teacher was the worst teacher ever. He never even taught us and just wrote on the board without ever actually teaching us the material. His tests were a joke too. Every single damn test was just the unit circle and nothing else. No parametric functions, limits, and other prerequisites to Calculus. The worst part is that my poor performance in this class is affecting my performance in others. I just feel so stupid at this point and the stress from it is demoralizing me. This is going to severely damage my chances at entering a good university and even graduating from high school. It's already half way through the first semester and I see no hope for me at all. I just really needed to get this off my chest. /Rant
Has anyone else failed Calculus? I'm just completely lost on what to do and now I don't even want to try because the homework only makes me feel stupid. I might be overreacting but I feel like my hopes for a higher education is just gone. I have never failed this badly before. I should have done what my classmates did and just taken AP Stats. Too late now Q.Q
TLDR: Miserably failing Calculus and I feel like an idiot. Should have taken AP Stats instead.
36 Comments • Newest first
[quote=zippinbolts]okai. So that means you have made a formal start on it.
Do you understand this?
Lim(x->c) if and only if
for every epsilon greater than 0 no matter how small
there exists a delta greater than 0 such that
x is within delta units of c, but x =/= c
then f(x) is withing epsilon units of L?
that definition is critical.[/quote]
You completely lost me lol. Oh boy.
. _____ . I HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM.
Calculus is more formulas whereas statistics is more word problems and finding the percentage of samples and populations and etc etc.
I haven't failed my class yet but I feel like i will
[quote=zippinbolts]Do you recognize this: Lim(x->c) (f(x)-f(c)/(x-c) as formula?[/quote]
I recognize the formula but I don't know what it's used for.
@vyr3d Yeah I've been trying to refer to my old notebook but it's all just notes. It helped a little but I'm missing a big chunk of knowledge so it doesn't do much. Thanks though, I'll try finding ways to understand the material. I haven't given up but it is stressing me out. I just need someone to sit down with me and teach me what I need to know.
EDIT: Thanks everyone for your help. I feel a lot better and I feel a bit more motivated. I'll try everything you've told me and just hope for the best.
[quote=zippinbolts]Well, derivates is one of the 4 biggies in calc. So what kind of derivatives are you on?[/quote]
We're applying it to rates of change. Velocity, speed, acceleration, etc. We only started derivatives like a week ago so we're not that far in.
[quote=zippinbolts]@Obscene: My public school needs it.
I guess unit circle moaning won't help you. What are you doing in calc ATM?[/quote]
We're on derivatives which I heard is like basically everything in Calculus.
I feel the same way but with gr12 Physics. I heard Calculus is easy and is just like gr11 physics (well my course is called Calculus and Vectors).
You're taking Calculus as Junior and whining about how hard it is. You're part of the 1% of high school students who take Calculus. Either drop down to a normal level class, or deal with the difficult class that you signed up for. Calculus is not a requirement to graduate high school anywhere.
[quote=zippinbolts]@Vengful: I don't see how it takes weeks though. Was this a year of pre-calc or a semester?[/quote]
It was most of the year of Pre-Cal. I don't know why he did that but he did and everyone in that class left without knowing anything about Pre-Cal.
@LowWillpower A good chunk was the circle it self and the points on the circle, along with its angles. Another good portion was sine/cosine/tangent and then he added secant/cosecant/cotangent. Lastly, he made us graph the sin/cos/tan/sec/csc/cot. I really don't know how he wasted so much time on it.
[quote=vengfulboi]Nothing. My teacher gave us the unit circle in pieces and made us study it for weeks. We had a test on it and then he gave us another part of the unit circle. This happened till the end of the year. He also did the same thing with the 12 basic functions but only for the first few months. The rest was unit circle.[/quote]
But like what kind of material on he unit circle could have possibly occupied that many chunks? It just describes sin and cos basically.
[quote=LowWillpower]Give some examples on what you could have learned about the unit circle that took more then a week...[/quote]
Nothing. My teacher gave us the unit circle in pieces and made us study it for weeks. We had a test on it and then he gave us another part of the unit circle. This happened till the end of the year. He also did the same thing with the 12 basic functions but only for the first few months. The rest was unit circle.
I'd say a good approach would be first going through all the rules mentioned in your textbook and practice it until it's basically a habit for you. You should get to the point at which you no longer have to look up references for a certain rule and it comes out naturally. And in order to do that, it's best to apply it in many situations in many practice problems.
Afterwards, you should try to grasp the conceptual meaning of derivatives and integrals and limits, since that will help you in absorbing new material that can be thrown at you.
[quote=vengfulboi]I'm not exaggerating. He skimmed over the rest of the material and only gave us tests on the unit circle. The entire year was just him giving us segments of the unit circle and at the end combining it all together for a final exam.[/quote]
Give some examples on what you could have learned about the unit circle that took more then a week...
[quote=LowWillpower]The unit circle is useful to understand, but you are probably exaggerating how much he taught you about it. You sure it wasn't just a lot of trig?[/quote]
I'm not exaggerating. He skimmed over the rest of the material and only gave us tests on the unit circle. The entire year was just him giving us segments of the unit circle and at the end combining it all together for a final exam.
[quote=vengfulboi]He told us these exact words, "The unit circle is the foundation for everything in Calculus." The unit circle has never been mentioned in my class so far.[/quote]
The unit circle is useful to understand, but you are probably exaggerating how much he taught you about it. You sure it wasn't just a lot of trig?
Like I said about the text book, just cram it and do the examples, it should explain literally everything if you understand it.
[quote=zippinbolts]I want slay ur teacher. Half of the requisite material for precalc stems for vectors.[/quote]
He told us these exact words, "The unit circle is the foundation for everything in Calculus." The unit circle has never been mentioned in my class so far.
[quote=zippinbolts]Da heck did he teach you? Did you at least get into the special rules for Trig + vectors?[/quote]
Special rules for Trig? Vectors? Heavens no! The entire course was just the 12 basic functions and the unit circle.
@above A lot of people say that it's a good resource to use so I'm going to try it out.
Calculus is a very simple subject, once you've gone far in enough, you'll realize you're only basically doing two things: derivatives and integrals.
Did you try using khanacademy?
ap calculus is the easiest thing ever
free 5 on the ap exam
[quote=groceryshop]I find Calculus easy to comprehend ._. Just understand the rules, I guess.
(I never used the unit circle LOL. I was too lazy to memorize it. So I always did it the hard way by sketching a sine/cosine/tangent graph or by figuring it out through special triangle properties c[/quote]
I wish it was that simple for me. I have so little foundation from Pre-Cal that Calculus was just too overwhelming.
My teacher focused only on the unit circle. Literally, the final exam for that class was to draw the unit circle and the sine/cosine/tangent graphs.
My bro took calc and failed so I learned from his mistake and took the science path
Calculus is the easier part. Wait til you get to probability...
I find Calculus easy to comprehend because it's so straightforward. They give you formulas, and you plug stuff into these formulas.... ._. Just understand the rules, I guess.
(I never used the unit circle LOL. I was too lazy to memorize it. So I always did it the hard way by sketching a sine/cosine/tangent graph or by figuring it out through special triangle properties c
P.P.S I hate using the textbook. It's full of fancy words and notation and bs.
P.P.P.S If you don't remember how to do something, don't be afraid to ask. I mean. I took all my maths over the summer (Geometry, Alg 2, Math Analysis), so when school started, I forget everything), so I don't know anything. But I can still complete problems :L But it is true that Calc has alot of Algebra in it, so if you struggled in algebra, it's natural for you to struggle in calc; however, you should ask the teacher for help outside of class or something. Go to her during lunch, after school, before school.
[quote=bloodIsShed]try watching the [url=http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL98BEF0BE361ACD5F]Khan academy videos[/url]
the guy explains everything better than most teachers i've taken.[/quote]
My cousin actually recommended him to me. I never got around to watching his videos but I'll give it a try since a lot of people say it's really helpful.
@xIntegrity That was at the beginning of the school year. By the end of the first semester I got an A for both classes.
It's definitely a lot of work, but just do EXACTLY what your teacher does when he solves problems, and you should be fine. Although if your problem is limits, you might want to drop the course, as that's kind of the foundation for the whole course. Otherwise, if you know the notation and how to show the work properly, it's not actually that tough(though derivatives are a bit confusing at first for sure).
I'm in Calc AND Stats right now, btw.
try watching the [url=http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL98BEF0BE361ACD5F]Khan academy videos[/url]
the guy explains everything better than most teachers i've taken.
@Everyone telling me to get a tutor or look it up online: Whenever my grade in a math class began to drop I would try harder and google how to do the problems. Since I had a foundation from my previous year of math I was able to catch up, but it's different this year. My Pre-Cal teacher completely screwed me over and I entered Calculus AB without even being able to do the Prerequisite chapter. I'm going to keep trying to the end but Calculus will be my last priority if my grades in other classes begin to drop too.
Just go over examples in your textbook and try learning concepts through other means, such as Khan Academy.
Personally, I absolutely love Calculus. It's tied for my favorite class this year alongside my EMT class.
Maybe you can ask someone who understands the materials for some advice. Or you can try youtube. [b]Youtube is great[/b], search around until you find one that helps you. Find the ones that does an actual problem and guides you through it step by step. It will just be like your teacher is teaching it to you. I find those a lot more helpful than "reading" it up.
@areuserious I've been doing that but I learned so little in Pre-Cal that I can't even teach myself. Also all my friends took AP Stats instead and the one friend who took AP Calculus with me is also struggling.
@LowWillpower I'm completely lost and so behind in the class. I've failed every single quiz and test so far.
@Jrosen My parents never took Calculus or went to college for that matter.
get someone to tutor you.
[quote=Jrosen]Couldn't your parents help you[/quote]
Not everyone has parents who got an education...
Read through the text book, do examples in there. That's the best way to learn calculus IMO, me and my friend got way ahead in HS calc just by going that during class.
@ExpiredMilk: Don't worry I was on it.
Couldn't your parents help you
Just wait for all the basilers to take advantage of this thread to give themselves a self esteem boost by talking about how easy Calculus was.
OT: I'm a failure at math too. Had to retake Alg 1 in middle school.
Can you please put that in paragraphs?
im taking ap calculus right now
just try your best on the homework and ask friends for help if you need it
if you dont do the homework, you wont ever understand the lessons and then fail the tests and quizzes