I’m just wondering, what is the best way to teach yourself calculus for the purpose of testing out of it?
I need to knock it out of the way, and was doing the whole book study routine, but find it to be kind of stale especially without a teacher.
Does anyone have any experience perhaps with training software for Calculus or something else perhaps?
I’m planning on taking the CLEP for Calculus in June.
Thanks.
I myself did this in my senior year of high school. What I did was go through the book, which I borrowed from the library to learn the concepts. And then I got bored, stopped over winter break and lost momentum. What I ended up doing is I bought one of those test-prep books, and I went through and did every single problem in the book, checked my answers (this isn’t all at once, mind you) and if I didn’t get it right, figure out why I didn’t get it right. Of course, this is what worked for ME. Learning is exactly the same as bodybuilding in that what works is highly individual.
I was told by those who wanted to belittle my achievement (yeah… let’s call it that, lol) that you only really need a teacher to make you do the work, and that much is true for some. The most important thing really is to find your drive and just go for it and try not to miss a step.
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/courses/courses/index.htm
Online courses from MIT, I have heard VERY good things about these.
are you planning on not going into a math based field? if your smart enough to test out of it, you might as well go to the class and get credit for doing it, no? i had to take calc 1-3 at one college, then i transferred and had to take 1-3 all over again because my new college didnt acknowledge the other ones program. its really not that bad.
[quote]silverhydra wrote:
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/courses/courses/index.htm
Online courses from MIT, I have heard VERY good things about these.[/quote]
They’re fantastic.
The videos are available on youtube so you don’t have to deal with realmedia for most of them.
There’s a great book, entitled appropriately enough “Calculus the Easy Way.”
Thanks mostly to this book, I was able to do Calc III without ever taking Calc I or II (conveniently, while I was a prerequisite for II, III had no prerequisites, and my science courses required III without ever mentioning I or II.)
Not that I think that anyone really should do that, but it’s illustrative that the book works.
I have to admit that I worked extremely few of the problems. As Woody Woodpecker would say, “Working problems, phooey! I hate working problems. Tires me out.” Instead I just made sure I understood what the book was saying, and this book is exceptionally good at conveying understanding. As the OP said, one really should work problems.
I learned from Serge Lang, “A First Course in Calculus.” I have a soft spot for Lang, but some people swear by Spivak.
For test prep and large numbers of practice problems, Schaum’s Outlines are perfect.
Whether you’re taking it in school or reading it on your own, math is something you teach yourself. So just treat it as if it were a class (block time out every day, do the “homework.”)
Damn, Silverhydra, that MIT site is awesome. Of course, now my degree seems worthless, but regardless, thanks for the link!
Try and find someone who has completed Calc I-III to help you out and give you the “big picture”.
Most teachers are HORRIBLE at teaching calculus.
Are you doing the CLEP for calc I/II or just I?
Probably not the best place but if you post what you are working on I’m sure a couple of members would chime in and help.
contact one of the calc instructors at your college, ask for a course syllabus, buy the textbook corresponding to the class, bang out the homework problems yourself
[quote]silverhydra wrote:
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/courses/courses/index.htm
Online courses from MIT, I have heard VERY good things about these.[/quote]
Great link, I used it a lot during my physics classes. Had a lot of trouble trying to grasp relativity and used this as extra help. There’s tons of subjects there too.
As for calculus, I think the only barrier to learning it by yourself would be motivation. Unless you’re in love with math, cracking open the textbook on your own time to learn integration by parts would be tough (for me at least), haha.
[quote]power_bulker wrote:
[quote]silverhydra wrote:
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/courses/courses/index.htm
Online courses from MIT, I have heard VERY good things about these.[/quote]
Great link, I used it a lot during my physics classes. Had a lot of trouble trying to grasp relativity and used this as extra help. There’s tons of subjects there too.
As for calculus, I think the only barrier to learning it by yourself would be motivation. Unless you’re in love with math, cracking open the textbook on your own time to learn integration by parts would be tough (for me at least), haha. [/quote]
that is a great link, thanks for posting it. I don’t have calc till next fall semester, but its always nice to study a little beforehand. Plus theres just all sorts of other stuff there, my next week until classes start again finally has some use.
I would use mathxl.com if your text book is on there. It’s like $10-20 though. I’m sure you can youtube some lessons as well.
I haven’t had a chance to check it out myself, but I’ve heard good things about this book:
Also, this guy is pretty good at explaining things in an easy to grasp way:
Finally, there’s some good articles here, too:
This is the precalculus version but there is a calc version on their website.
Do you guys think this software is any good?