Many college students found calculus as a challenging subject. However, high school students found calculus as a fine subject. The reason why is because college calculus wants students to do calculus in a complicated way while high school calculus wants students to do calculus in a simple way. College calculus does not like students doing calculus in a simple way.
Does that mean my high school calculus teacher is wrong in teaching me the simple way instead of the complicated way? The answer is no. It is still right that your high school calculus taught you the simple way. The simple way makes you enjoy calculus before you go to college. It gives you an idea of what calculus is like in the simplest terms. If you can do high school calculus, then you will not have to do a lot of work for it.
How do I know this? I took calculus at high school. My calculus teacher taught me the simple way. My sisters took calculus at college. They did not take it at high school. My sisters found calculus to be very challenging. I found it funny that calculus was not bad for me. One day, I needed some practice on calculus problems. I used their college textbook as a resource, but when I checked the answer to the problem, the answer in the textbook wanted the answer in a different form. I was shocked and I left my answer in the form that my teacher wanted. My sisters told me later on that college calculus wanted students to do the complicated way instead of the simple way.
If you do not understand what the simple way and complicated way are in calculus, then I will give you an example. I was doing an antiderivative problem. My high school professor wanted this simple form like x2 + x + C. The college textbook wants the complicated form like 2/3(1/3x + ¼ + C). How can I get the simplest form into that complicated form? I really do not know!
Luckily, my major does not require me to take calculus as a math requirement. It can be any math class in my college. I took a simple one called mathematics of money and that class was more beneficial than calculus. I am glad that I took calculus at high school and I enjoyed learning it. This does not mean that calculus is my favorite subject.
If calculus is mandatory for your major or minor, then just take it and try your best. Try to get a good calculus professor who is kind, helpful, and erudite. If needed, find a tutor that can help you as well. Just keep practicing calculus problems and you will do well in the class. Look up calculus videos that only do calculus in a complicated way. Do your homework and follow the syllabus.
If calculus is not mandatory for your major or minor, then take a simple math class. You do not need to know calculus unless you want to try it out. Some college students might want to take calculus because they have never taken it at high school before. If you took calculus at high school, then you do not need to take the class again at college. Taking it again in college can ruin your perspective of high school calculus. You can take the college money class that I took because it will teach you about money and the big role that it plays in real life.
If you have a friend or family member that is currently at high school, encourage him or her to take an AP Calculus AB or AP Calculus BC class. The AP calculus classes will teach calculus in a simple way. If your friend or family member scores a four or five on the AP exam, then he or she will get college credits for college calculus. This means that he or she does not need to take calculus at college. Taking calculus off the requirements can lessen the stress that he or she will face when he or she does college calculus. It can also get him or her to start with calculus two or three instead of calculus one if his or major or minor requires them to do different types of calculus. This will fasten his or her pace in college by conserving their time. Why should your friend or family member learn the calculus that he or she does not need or have already learned?
If you are doing college calculus, then I wish you the best of luck. I hope that this article will help you. If not, then enjoy your alternative math class.
