Re: Calculus I: What to expect?

Go to class every day. Read the material before class so that you'll
have some questions in mind during the lecture. If the lecture doesn't
answer these questions, then ask your instructor after class.

Plan to spend two hours outside of class studying the material for
every hour that you spend in class. Most of this time will be spent
solving problems. Some of it should also be spent reviewing material
and writing your own summary notes.

Do the homework, all of it (yes, even the really hard problem at the
end of the assignment), every time that it is assigned, even if it
doesn't count towards your grade. It's likely that you won't be
assigned enough homework because grading homework is a lot of work and
your instructor is already overworked. If you can do all of the
homework in a hour, then spend another hour doing other (more
difficult) problems from your book.

Many homework and exam questions will ask you to perform a computation
and produce an answer. Each calclulus problem typically requires the
solution of two or three algebra and/or trig problems. If you can't
solve three algebra problems in a row consistently, then you won't be
able to solve calculus problems consistently. Furthermore, if your
solution is messy or disorganized then you're likely to make a mistake
in putting the pieces together.

For some reason, few students put sufficient effort into checking
their solutions. This is particularly important on exams, but it's
also important on homework. You should get in the habbit of checking
your solutions- don't just finish a problem and move on to the next
one without reviewing your solution.

If you've got access to a graphing calculator or a symbolic
computation program like Maple or Mathematica, you can use it to check
your answers to problems. Unfortunately, I've seen a lot of students
with a $200 calculator and no clue how to use it. Learn how to use
these tools!

Also, it's likely that you're being graded on the quality of your
solution (a series of sentences that convinces the reader that the
answer is what you say it is) rather than the answer itself. Realize
that your instructor is not psychic and can only grade what you wrote
down on paper, not what was in your head but not written down. Watch
how your instructor writes solutions on the board. Give at least this
much detail in your own solutions.

After you get your graded homework or exam back, go over it and make
sure that you understand your mistakes. If you don't understand your
mistake (or the grader just crossed everything out and didn't give you
any useful information), then talk to your instructor and find out
what was wrong.

If you don't understand a homework problem then take some time to
figure it out. It's OK to spend 10 minutes or more thinking about a
problem and trying different approaches. If you still can't get it,
then go see your instructor or TA or a tutor to get help. Start the
conversation with something like "I tried solving this problem by
doing x, but I got to step y, and then I couldn't figure out what to
do next." Don't start the conversation with "How do I solve problem
27?"

Form a study group with other students and meet on a regular basis.
When you get stuck on a problem, discuss it with your study group and
try to solve the problem together. Instead of thinking of the other
students as competing with you, think of them as team mates in
learning.

If you do start to do badly in the course then get in touch with your
instructor and have a serious talk about what you should do. In many
cases, the smart move is to just drop the course rather than failing
it.


--
Brian Borchers borchers@xxxxxxx
Department of Mathematics http://www.nmt.edu/~borchers/
New Mexico Tech Phone: 505-835-5813
Socorro, NM 87801 FAX: 505-835-5366
.

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