Fourth year of math

Sikorsky
Thu, 03 May 2012 13:11:15 +0000

If you have tamed the pre-calculus beast, you should have no problem. Understanding the concepts introduced in that class is much harder than grasping calculus. General single-variable calculus is in fact one of the easiest maths to understand. It makes sense to a lot of students who hate math leading up to it.



Actually, my experience as both a math student and a math teacher has been quite the opposite. A lot of students I have known have had trouble adjusting to calculus.

I think there is value in knowing the key concepts of calculus–especially the concepts in first-semester college calculus: instantaneous rate of change, area under the curve, etc. But if a student is not really ready to master them, I don’t see any value in his beating himself senseless trying. And I also think most people would derive more benefit from an elementary understanding of statistics than an elementary understanding of calculus.

As always, ymmv.