Is my professor making calculus much more difficult than it has to be?

[Fakhter]

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I'm understanding all the concepts in class. I even go home and do a bunch of practice problems to assure myself. However I've taken two exams and have failed both . His exams are all word problems, in other words you have to construct the problem before it can be solved. Which seems completely justifiable when compared to problems you will have to deal with in the real world. I still can't help but keep thinking he's making it way more difficult that it has to be. Has this ever happened to you guys?

 

[487806]

I'm understanding all the concepts in class. I even go home and do a bunch of practice problems to assure myself. However I've taken two exams and have failed both . His exams are all word problems, in other words you have to construct the problem before it can be solved. Which seems completely justifiable when compared to problems you will have to deal with in the real world. I still can't help but keep thinking he's making it way more difficult that it has to be. Has this ever happened to you guys?

Enjoy.

 

[Fakhter]

Enjoy.

Thanks a lot

 

[chillaxbro]

I'm understanding all the concepts in class. I even go home and do a bunch of practice problems to assure myself. However I've taken two exams and have failed both . His exams are all word problems, in other words you have to construct the problem before it can be solved. Which seems completely justifiable when compared to problems you will have to deal with in the real world. I still can't help but keep thinking he's making it way more difficult that it has to be. Has this ever happened to you guys?

This is the difference between knowing calculus and understanding it.

👍 to your professor

 

[jr93]

This is the difference between knowing calculus and understanding it.

👍 to your professor

Maybe, but in the end no one remembers that crap. I've been an engineer for 7.5 years so I've taken Calc 1-3 , Diff EQ, and I can do basic derivations and integrations...Anything else and I'd just look them up in the front cover of a calc book or on the internet. Not to mention, my job requires almost none of this. Math majors sometimes forget that they are the only ones that care about this stuff. With that being said though, OP, you need to adjust to the teacher. The concept of knowing how derivatives/integrals relate to things can help at many things in life, including the MCAT. Even when you don't know something, concepts help you step through things and maybe eliminate a couple wrong answers on tests like the MCAT. I don't know what your major is but I doubt calc 1 will be your hardest class.

 

[DAPI]

Enjoy.

😍 This saved me countless times in undergrad.

 

[dechristine]

What really helped me in calculus was making a step-by-step process about how to solve more complex problems. That way when you're given a word problem, all you have to do is identify what kind of problem your professor is writing (is it an optimization problem, a percent error problem, a work problem, etc.) and you're all set to go.

For example, a simple approach to finding percent error is:
1. Write out the given equation.
2. Take the natural log of both sides.
3. Take the derivative of both sides.

So now whenever I have a word problem involving percent error, I have a process that works every time.

Also, I completely sympathize with you on your calc professor making the tests harder than they need to be. On my first test, someone in the class scored a 26 (!) after scaling. However the final, which was written by another professor, was so easy compared to what I was used to. Have you talked to your professor about your exams? Usually they're able to point out some key mistakes that you make that you can catch next time.

 

[Kahreek]

if by that you mean your professor might be not fully competent at teaching you the maths, that can be the case.
Anyway go watch some videos at khan academy site.
best place to learn math online. It may clear many concepts.

But remember to get good you have to do lots of exercises.


You seem like you having difficult to come up with a function that translates what's written. That's actually the only part i find interesting about calculus, the following stuff is just boring.