<p>Hey guys. I’m a env. eng. major taking a precalc class right now. I made an 84 on the first test and just blew a test with a 64…logarithms screwed me…I made a 4.0 in high school(school was too easy). I’m wondering if this is a bad sign as far as engineering curriculum goes?</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>Drop out and kill urself obviously</p>
<p>If you cannot do logs in pre calc what will you do when you throw derivatives or intergrals plus trig with log functions?</p>
<p>Keep practicing. I guess.</p>
<p>oh yes it is since pre calc is a sign of how you learn math. you need to give up your major and do something else. maybe philosophy</p>
<p>for real though: its not that big of a deal. its just pre calc. just finish strong in the class and move on to calc. you’ll be fine</p>
<p>Okay. Be chill everyone. Why are you guys so harsh toward him.</p>
<p>@ triathlonrunner:</p>
<p>Look. Not everyone is born with IQ 180. Most students have to practice, and this is why textbook still exists. Because students need problems to work with / on.</p>
<p>Most math teachers will tell students that math is very mechanical. You have to practice.
When the smart people look at the book, and see one example, they are actually practicing.
Some people just have to practice more.</p>
<p>If log screwed you up (and I find this relatively true, because logarithm can be quite confusing), open the textbok and do the problems.</p>
<p>Don’t ever skip any easy problem. Do them. And do them with patient.</p>
<p>In calculus, you will find yourself doing a lot of problems just to practice. Knowing the rules do not mean you will solve every problem. In fact, let us face the truth here. Your professor will give problems that are doable. But some of them can be very tricky. They might have appear in your textbook problem sections. </p>
<p>There might be tricky problems that require some thoughts and tricks that you might not remember (maybe some simplifications?) from college algebra, pre-calculus, for example, double angles, half-angle. Oh geesh. I never remembered those until I did some problems and realized that I need them. </p>
<p>So keep your hope. Do the problems. It is not a bad sign of engineering. Don’t think everyone has a big brain on earth. What matter is your effort and the result. You have to be a determine person in order to become a good engineer. </p>
<p>Similarly, physics,chemistry, english writing, business, public speaking aren’t for everyone. Some people can do very well only by reading the theorem and formulas. Some people never opened textbook, and they can get A+. </p>
<p>Keep your hope. Use whatever resource is aviaiable to you.
Google search things like pre-calculus pdf</p>
<p>I always use google to search things.
Paul’s note can be helpful.
[Pauls</a> Online Notes : Algebra](<a href=“http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/Classes/Alg/Alg.aspx]Pauls”>http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/Classes/Alg/Alg.aspx)</p>
<p>Keep searching.</p>
<p>Thanks to the good replies. When I’m in class I get it, but normally when I do my homework, I get stuck on some because they are a bit more complicated than what we did in class. I felt really good before I took the test because I spent the good part of the last two days studying. When I got to the test I simply blanked and could not figure out wth to do. I guess I’ll just keep at it. Thanks again.</p>
<p>@ trithlonrunner</p>
<p>I had a cal exam today, and I had the same story as you.
I just stuck as finding x and y. I know how to do everything. I did 4 out of 6 in about 15 mins. </p>
<p>I was actually getting a right answer, but because I hated to work with the ugly substitution (the function was extremely ugly), and with so many fractions, i decided to do it a different way. guess what. i screwed up that problem.</p>
<p>last night i was doing some problems and i thought those ugly functions wouldn’t appear (at least they are doable, so i just didn’t bother to try any of them). </p>
<p>now i am regret. personally i lack of confidence. so i have to practice a lot to get comfortable with them. i am not stupid. it’s just how i am.</p>
<p>so don’t feel sad. 
let’s work hard together…</p>
<p>i feel you jwxie…this is the first class i actually really have to work at, which i did, but obviously not well enough…good luck though</p>
<p>Don’t give up man but if you find yourself hating math or struggling in it to a point where you are constantly lost, switch to another major. Just work at it, I know people who (much older then most college students) who started off in College Algebra and worked their way up in math classes until they got past the Calculus they needed.</p>
<p>Its up to you, work hard and if that fails talk to someone and then make a decsion. College shouldn’t be about killing yourself on work, I did this at UT Austin my first semster for my Astronomy class and that got me nowhere. I realized (too late) that astronomy wasn’t my thing so I pass/failed the class and actually got a C.</p>
<p>Good Luck man, hope everything works out :)</p>
<p>Thanks man…I have to take this class plus 3 or 4 more maths…I’ll pretty much need the first Calculus for anything I"d switch to anyways so I guess we’ll see…As far as engineering goes, what is the lowest GPA that most companies will hire at??</p>
<p>^1.7, or the minimum GPA required to graduate (I’ve heard from different people 1.7 and 2.0 here, so I don’t know). </p>
<p>Honestly, you really ought to aim for a 3.0+, because that seems to be a common cut-off, but even if you don’t make that there are plenty of jobs out there.</p>
<p>As for the pre-calc. Everyone has to learn it… Just study harder.</p>
<p>^I’m not sure about a GPA but if you have a “poor” GPA but are able to land an internship and actually APPLY what you learned to the real world nobody, as far as I know, well give a damn if you hd a 2.0 GPA. There are people I know who had 3.5+ GPAs but struggled to apply what they learned on the job and now have no job.</p>
<p>When you discuss GPA, consider two things, which varies from school to school.</p>
<p>In our school we have GPA and QPA. GPA is the grade point average of all courses that you take in college. QPA is the quality point average of courses only defined in your major. This mean if you are an eletrical engineering, only courses under eletrical engineering count into the QPA caclulation.</p>
<p>In our school, QPA below certain points (scale of 0-4) is dead. I don’t remember the exact number - probably 2.5. </p>
<p>For GPA, it’s pretty much the same for all schools that below 2.0 you probably can get kicked out.</p>
<p>So if you have 1.7, you probably wouldn’t be able to continue in your engineering study.</p>
<p>1.7 is too low.
Again, the minimum varies from school to school.</p>
<p>Anything below 3.0 is pretty risky. If you want to get into a good graduate program, GPA below 3.0 is pretty dangerous. But other things can lift up your chance.</p>
<p>Yea lot of the people I talk to say that the non-engineering classes are the ones I’ll do well in and bring up a lower grade from a harder class. I’m just thinking if I’m not doing great in this class, will I be making really low grades in harder math classes. My goal is at least a 3.0 but I’m not going to die to get a 4.0.</p>
<p>They bring you up. But credits count.
You can still get close to 4.0 yes, with other classes.</p>
<p>Look, if you screw up once, keep trying hard.
Getting 3.5 is already amazing… I give up trying 3.8 lmao</p>
<p>If you can get 3.5 at least, and spend enough getting an internship, research program, and do well in GRE, you can still get into very top graduate programs. Employers want you to apply them outside classrooms.</p>
<p>Do you have a study partner or group? I’d highly recommend finding or becoming part of one if you aren’t already. Having another person clarify concepts you don’t understand may be beneficial and you can also learn or solidify knowledge by explaining concepts you understand to that person. Besides that, invest more study time, ask questions in class, visit your professor(s), etc. Learning is an individual experience in a collective setting.</p>
<p>Another thing, like jwxie mentioned, internships, REUs, and other practical endeavors are very important for technical careers. The practical experience may be hugely beneficial in certain situations.</p>
<p>Note: specific to your pre-calc class, it might help if you think of logarithms as the inverse of exponents. An exponent makes something bigger while the logarithm “returns” it to its original state. Continue practicing, practicing, practicing as many problems as you find and try to break down each step you do so you can understand how those steps work and how the bigger system works.</p>
<p>Okay for the next month we’re doing trig…is this way harder than the algebra we’ve been doing?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This, in my opinion, is definitely more challenging. You have to memorize the trig identities and the unit circle. Not the end of the world, but I did experience some pain and misery learning that. That being said, I now <em>love</em> trig and mastered the identities to the point that it’s all second nature.</p>
<p>Pay close attention to this part, as calculus is chock full of trig (not to take away from algebra by any means, as that is used a whole lot more).</p>
<p>One last tip: remember the acronym SOH-CAH-TOA which stands for Sine = Opposite over Hypotenuse, Cosine = Adjacent over Hypotenuse, and Tangent = Opposite over Adjacent. This will become clear to you when you begin working with right triangles.</p>
<p>Take these with you
[MATH</a> 1B: PRE-CALCULUS ( Course Code: 44034 )](<a href=“http://math.uci.edu/~jzlei/math1b/syllabus.html]MATH”>http://math.uci.edu/~jzlei/math1b/syllabus.html)
[Pauls</a> Online Notes : Algebra](<a href=“http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/Classes/Alg/Alg.aspx]Pauls”>http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/Classes/Alg/Alg.aspx)</p>
<p>I have some more but i think they are in my laptop
next time</p>