The Four Stages Of Studying For a Calculus Exam
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The Four Stages Of Studying For a Calculus Exam

There are highs and lows, but mainly lows.

Jessica Hornyak
Mar 07, 2017
University of Florida
27
The Four Stages Of Studying For a Calculus Exam
Salon

Calculus exams are always a thing of magic - but not like the Disney-Princess kind of magic, it's more like black magic. Equations, series, and integrals appear that you swear can't even exist. Studying for a Calculus Exam has highs and lows, mainly lows... okay, only lows.

1. Believing you have a chance

You plan out your study schedule and feel super confident about your abilities. It's just a math exam right? You should be fine, you got an A in pre-Algebra, you're a math wizard.

2. Memorizing formulas, rules, and identities

This is what you think the simple part of studying will be. However, you then realize you need to know 26 different equations for each question, oh wait make that 27. Unfortunately, the Pythagorean Theorem isn't applicable to a diverging series.

3. Realizing you know nothing

This is the moment where you flip through your notes and realize that you might as well be learning how to fly. So unless you're Peter Pan, you're out of luck here.

4. Panic

This is the moment when you convince yourself you'd do society a favor by dropping Calculus. The numbers are behaving like variables and the variables are behaving like numbers and the world is in chaos. Everything you thought you knew at this point has been continuously disproved and now you wonder if 2+2 even really exists.

Sometimes Calculus clicks, but mostly it doesn't. Calculus exams can be daunting and even life changing. However, I promise you don't need to know how to find an interval of convergence in order to pay your bills. It's just a nice party trick. Keep watching YouTube videos on Calculus concepts the day of the exam, I promise it might help you get at least 3 right.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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