Teach Yourself Calculus?

[MaenadsDance]

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Anybody here have any tips for refreshing your knowledge of calculus? I took a math course that covered topics in calculus several years ago, but was quite ill at the time and ended up with a B-. I finished up the year-long course this past spring semester with an A, but I still feel very shaky on the fundamentals, and I'll be taking calculus-based physics this coming year. I've arranged for a study group with some other students, and was wondering whether anyone had any advice for good books to work our way through? I just got "Calculus for Dummies" in the mail and was disappointed to see that it doesn't include any practice problems!! It looks like a good enough book otherwise, but nobody ever learned math without doing hundreds of practice problems, right?

(TL;DR - I go to St John's College, and we have a great books program. What this means for mathematics, of which we do four years, is that when we study Calculus we study it by reading Newton and Liebniz. I did very well with the second half of the math course because it was largely geometry, which I'm very good at; however, I barely survived the physics course I took concurrently, which involved taking a lot of partial derivatives and things like that when we were doing the wave equation, electromagnetism, etc etc. I got an A in the course, but imho I didn't really deserve it and I'd like to be on steadier footing this coming semester when we read Einstein and Heisenberg, which is why I'm trying do some review now.)

 

[Brooke3]

Give this a shot:

http://www.khanacademy.org/#calculus

 

[MaenadsDance]

Thanks for the link!!

 

[jsp132]

do you still have your notes also?

what got me through calculus also was doing as many problems as possible

helps our teacher gave us pages and pages of problems though to do

i also supplemented that by ^ watching the khan videos of some concepts and derivations I didn't understand properly

 

[MaenadsDance]

I'm afraid I didn't keep my old notes. The Khan Academy lectures look really great, but I should probably find a way to do tons of practice problems.

 

[Immediatist]

Thanks for the great link, Brooke3! As someone who hasn't done any Calculus for the better half of a decade, this resource looks like it'll be really useful for me as I re-teach myself over the next month or so.

MaenadsDance, Schaum's 3,000 Solved Problems in Calculus is an excellent resource from what I've read, both on these forums and in other locations.

 

[BatemanMD]

ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/

What is MIT OpenCourseWare?

MIT OpenCourseWare is a free publication of MIT course materials that reflects almost all the undergraduate and graduate subjects taught at MIT.

 

[RNwantDO]

Here is a different link.

http://www.math.uakron.edu/~dpstory/e-calculus.html

 

[kraskadva]

Calculus for Dummies should have an accompanying workbook (sold separately 🙄) with practice problems. If you're going to buy those books (I do, they're great review) don't bother with the regular book, just buy the workbook. Has all the info and the practice problems.

Why are you trying to brush up on it though? By which, I mean, what is your end goal with Calc? Is it for Sr Yr science or for Med School? You won't really need it for the Lab (only Jr Lab, which you're done with now). It could potentially come in useful in retaking Physics in Post-bac, but most people advise taking non-calc-based Physics as a MS pre-req. And the SJC calc course is accepted as a MS pre-req, so you don't need to re-take it for itself.

 

[phltz]

(TL;DR - I go to St John's College, and we have a great books program. What this means for mathematics, of which we do four years, is that when we study Calculus we study it by reading Newton and Liebniz. I did very well with the second half of the math course because it was largely geometry, which I'm very good at; however, I barely survived the physics course I took concurrently, which involved taking a lot of partial derivatives and things like that when we were doing the wave equation, electromagnetism, etc etc. I got an A in the course, but imho I didn't really deserve it and I'd like to be on steadier footing this coming semester when we read Einstein and Heisenberg, which is why I'm trying do some review now.)

My advice is to ignore most of what Newton had to say, and to pay closer attention to Liebniz.

 

[MaenadsDance]

Calculus for Dummies should have an accompanying workbook (sold separately 🙄) with practice problems. If you're going to buy those books (I do, they're great review) don't bother with the regular book, just buy the workbook. Has all the info and the practice problems.

Why are you trying to brush up on it though? By which, I mean, what is your end goal with Calc? Is it for Sr Yr science or for Med School? You won't really need it for the Lab (only Jr Lab, which you're done with now). It could potentially come in useful in retaking Physics in Post-bac, but most people advise taking non-calc-based Physics as a MS pre-req. And the SJC calc course is accepted as a MS pre-req, so you don't need to re-take it for itself.

I'm trying to brush up on it in part for Senior Lab and in part because I'd actually like to know calculus. I believe they've revised the curriculum for senior year several times in the past five years or so, and what I've heard from people who were seniors this past year is that calculus is really necessary for the first semester physics sequences. I don't want a repeat of this year, where I barely managed to ace Junior Lab because I had a decent understanding of the concepts but very little understanding of the underlying math.

I also feel like I short-changed myself educationally by not really learning calculus the first time around at St John's, and would like to get a decent grasp on the subject for its own sake -- I love geometry, I can tolerate algebra, so I should learn calculus because it's useful and interesting and would be good for me!

I'll probably end up taking algebra-based physics when I finish up at St John's because I doubt I'll be able to get my calculus good enough on my own to master a calculus-based physics course.

 

[kraskadva]

I'm trying to brush up on it in part for Senior Lab and in part because I'd actually like to know calculus. I believe they've revised the curriculum for senior year several times in the past five years or so, and what I've heard from people who were seniors this past year is that calculus is really necessary for the first semester physics sequences. I don't want a repeat of this year, where I barely managed to ace Junior Lab because I had a decent understanding of the concepts but very little understanding of the underlying math.

That may be, it's been almost 6 years since I graduated, so they certainly may have changed some things. When I was there we only needed it for Jr Lab, the quantum stuff Sr year didn't use much math at all.

I also feel like I short-changed myself educationally by not really learning calculus the first time around at St John's, and would like to get a decent grasp on the subject for its own sake -- I love geometry, I can tolerate algebra, so I should learn calculus because it's useful and interesting and would be good for me!

Rock out with it then 😀 No better reason to learn something than because you enjoy it. Don't know how good the Math Asst.s will be next year, but I always found they were pretty under-worked and always had time to help out. You could do some informal studying with them.

That said, I did pretty well in Calc there, but at this point all I really remember of it is some pictures of graphs and that I thought Newton had unreasonable postulates- though I can't remember what they were or why I thought they were unreasonable. And I definitely don't intend to ever re-take it. Personal choice though...

 

[drdan83]

If you have a solid understanding of Algebra and also Trig, I don't see why you can't buy a textbook and just work through it.

Also check out mathtutordvd.com

These DVD's worked for me.

Khan Academy is good but I can't stand the guys voice.

 

[TriagePreMed]

If you have money to spend, the courses from teach12.com are the most elite.

 

[bidiboom]

In Facebook find the page "Matematik Mantik".. Its owner and one of the admins is "Cem Ksh", who is excellent in both theory and solutions, and a very supportive type of person.. you can ask any kind of questions about math.. its a page in Turkish, but if you write in English, he goes on with you in English as well..

 

[StudyShy]

I third/fourth Khan!

 

[kcin]

I haven't used the Khan stuff, but I second the suggestion of just buying a good textbook and working through stuff. As long as you have a solid grasp of algebra most of them are very readable & have good explanations. Anything you don't understand can be found online, and I also second the recommendation for Schaum's outline if you're looking to practice problems.

 

[Dominion]

Anybody here have any tips for refreshing your knowledge of calculus? I took a math course that covered topics in calculus several years ago, but was quite ill at the time and ended up with a B-. I finished up the year-long course this past spring semester with an A, but I still feel very shaky on the fundamentals, and I'll be taking calculus-based physics this coming year. I've arranged for a study group with some other students, and was wondering whether anyone had any advice for good books to work our way through? I just got "Calculus for Dummies" in the mail and was disappointed to see that it doesn't include any practice problems!! It looks like a good enough book otherwise, but nobody ever learned math without doing hundreds of practice problems, right?

(TL;DR - I go to St John's College, and we have a great books program. What this means for mathematics, of which we do four years, is that when we study Calculus we study it by reading Newton and Liebniz. I did very well with the second half of the math course because it was largely geometry, which I'm very good at; however, I barely survived the physics course I took concurrently, which involved taking a lot of partial derivatives and things like that when we were doing the wave equation, electromagnetism, etc etc. I got an A in the course, but imho I didn't really deserve it and I'd like to be on steadier footing this coming semester when we read Einstein and Heisenberg, which is why I'm trying do some review now.)

You do realize that your TL;DR (Too Long; Didn't Read) is almost as long as your first part? Just wanted to point that out 😛

I have a buddy who is extremely gifted, he's triple majored in Math, physics, and some sort of engineering and working on his masters in Math and some sub-specialty of physics. Anyways besides signing on as my personal bit...I mean calculus tutor he told me that if you can cover the algebra topics and the pre-calc and calc topics on khan academy you are ahead of the game as far as MOST calculus students.

I'm not sure what other books you could use to prepare with but might want to look into a practice problems book.

 

[PamEganNP]

Anybody here have any tips for refreshing your knowledge of calculus? I took a math course that covered topics in calculus several years ago, but was quite ill at the time and ended up with a B-. I finished up the year-long course this past spring semester with an A, but I still feel very shaky on the fundamentals, and I'll be taking calculus-based physics this coming year. I've arranged for a study group with some other students, and was wondering whether anyone had any advice for good books to work our way through? I just got "Calculus for Dummies" in the mail and was disappointed to see that it doesn't include any practice problems!! It looks like a good enough book otherwise, but nobody ever learned math without doing hundreds of practice problems, right?

(TL;DR - I go to St John's College, and we have a great books program. What this means for mathematics, of which we do four years, is that when we study Calculus we study it by reading Newton and Liebniz. I did very well with the second half of the math course because it was largely geometry, which I'm very good at; however, I barely survived the physics course I took concurrently, which involved taking a lot of partial derivatives and things like that when we were doing the wave equation, electromagnetism, etc etc. I got an A in the course, but imho I didn't really deserve it and I'd like to be on steadier footing this coming semester when we read Einstein and Heisenberg, which is why I'm trying do some review now.)

One of my sons has found online resources to be particularly helpful. He believes the material is easier to understand than traditional educational texts, but says it's just as thorough in terms of the understanding one can glean from well-sourced materials on the web. One of the reasons for this may be that much of it is written or at least edited by professional writers/editors.

 

[Nate9862]

I'm taking a 10-week summer calculus I course, and this was after reteaching myself everything from multiplication tables through pre-calculus; i started this adventure in January, shortly after I got out of the Marines. Suprisingly... we didn't do too much analytic geometry in the gun-club...

So, I taught myself pre-cal using pre-calculus demystified. Great book, very good on fundamentals, and comes with sufficient practice problems. For my summer 10-week course, we use thinkwell.com. Let me tell you what, after you get past the dorkyness of professor Edward Burger, you learn a lot. The best part about this program, he speaks to you like a normal human being, not like a graduate math student. Yeah, he's a total nerd, and uses play doh, pieces of cereal, and motorized race cars, but I know how to take complex derivatives, anti-derivatives, completely understand definite and indefinite integrals, etc. It cost a bit. 12 month subscription for $150, but it's absolutely worth the money.

My girlfriend is using pre-calculus right now so she can clep it and start on calculus (same thing I did) and I am kicking myself for not using the program to learn pre-calculus. I cannot say enough good things about it. There are printable notes, plenty of practice problems, quizzes, and tests, and the calculus program covers all topics in Calc I, Calc II, and some vector calculus. Believe me, when I take calc II in the fall, i'll be laughing at the 100$ book I am going to have to buy and I'm going to continue using my subscription to thinkwell to learn multi-var calc. I was shaky with pre-calc when I started this course, but when he goes through a problem online, he goes through EVERY piece of it. You're never left wondering, "how did he get that.... from this?" Because he explains ALL of it, even the algebraic concepts some of us aren't that familiar with.

 

[soambitious]

I'm 100% math self taught up to Calculus I.

What I do is look up the college course, find the materials required for the course, and buy/study the book. I never learn through lecture, so its a waste of time for me.

I also use khan academy and youtube/google concepts I don't fully understand. Khan academy has practice problems as well as the book at the end of every chapter.

 

[chidoman]

.

 

[JESSFALLING]

Give this a shot:

http://www.khanacademy.org/#calculus

👍 You'll learn everything you need to know here. Buy a workbook like Schaums for practice questions too though! I also really like the Calculus Lifesaver....it's a pretty nice book.