<p>Guys, I have a question. Umm, I dropped Math after the 10th Grade, cause you dont need to take it here. I just need a general brush up of all high school math and maybe break into beginner Calculus. </p>
<p>Any suggestions on how I should proceed? Just go for tution, or borrow books from the library and self learn?</p>
<p>You want a crash course in beginner’s calculus? i’m confused…does beginner’s calculus include integration with substitution and by-parts and all that…i never did maths for engineering, but what level have we learnt for the ISC (with respect to what they’ll teach in american college)??</p>
<p>taemi – If it were any other subject, I could probably help. Molecular biology, though – well, let’s just say that biology makes me twitch. (Why not check college websites? Places like MIT/Caltech give pretty detailed course info, and usually include the books they’re using.)</p>
<p>Math-wise, your ISC knowledge (if it parallels CBSE) won’t be enough to get you placed out of calc classes (not rigourous enough/doesn’t deal with enough proofs – for example, have you ever heard of the epsilon-delta argument? :D), but should let you get through classes without difficulty.</p>
<p>dda – I’d suggest reading on your own if you’re at all comfortable with math – tuitions don’t always help. For calculus, I find that I like Thomas & Finney (nice and lucid); there’s also Apostol, but he’s a bit more advanced.</p>
<p>@taemi: That was more out of curiosity than anything else. (I have no idea of books for mol. bio. :))</p>
<p>@dda: Fascinating situation you’ve got there. 
Noldo might be more qualified to comment, but I’d suggest the following…</p>
<p>Brush up on your trig. Trig’s the key to calculus in a way. (At least to solving problems in calculus)</p>
<p>Start off with Differentiation, understand the concept, don’t just learn the formulae. (And trust me, there are lots of formulae.</p>
<p>As for the rest, well I’ll make a post later. I’ve got to get off now…</p>
<p>@taemi: ISC Calc is pretty much at Calculus II in most colleges. (Slightly higher really, as we do Differential Equations and stuff.)</p>
<p>Haha, thanks for all the advice guys. But just for a marker, the highest level of Math I know is maybe trig. Anything above that goes into ‘dangerzone’ for me!!</p>
<p>Shrivats – is ISC Calc similar in depth to CBSE Calc? Because I’ve found that although we tend to have a pretty good handle on integrating/differentiating by hand (pretty useless skills when you think about it – helloooo, TI-89!), there’s a lack of rigourous proof and proper development. (I went over most of calculus again recently, so I can say this. :p)</p>
<p>Oh, yeah, trig. dda, where exactly did you quit math? post-GCSE? If so – yes, brush up on trigonometry, a bit of coordinate geometry (just to get comfortable with it), make sure your algebra’s up to par; then start calculus very slowly, formal limit definition onwards. That should be enough to give you a basic understanding of it all, and once you have that Calc’s easy enough. :D</p>
<p>I’ve been telling all da juniors to join CC and visit TiT…</p>
<p>apart from the usual adcom blabber of passion, hooks, crooks et al :D</p>
<p>Noldo is right dda. take it slow,and depending on how you are doing, speed up. Don’t just skip some parts or mug formulae, because not understanding the concept will haunt you later in things like, applications of diffrentiation and integration. Understanding how it works is also very important for Physics. (ask Noldo, I am sure she can tell you how 
)</p>
<p>@Noldo, If I remeber right, you are a she, right?</p>
<p>Heh. Don’t get me started on how understanding how it all fits together is the only way to ‘get’ physics, you’ll never shut me up. :D</p>
<p>And yes, I am a girl.</p>
<p>a rather lazy day on CC.</p>
<p>Allright guys, thanks for all the advice. And yes Noldo, I quit post GCSE.</p>
<p>dda - I presume you’d want to do a quick A-level maths revision? If so the Heinman books for C1 - C4 are great. They have explanations, examples and questions. And its quite a small book so its easy to understand.</p>
<p>Waitlisted at CMU. More wait. :)</p>
<p>Anyway, it’s Duke for me now. I don’t think I’ll accept the place on the waitlist.</p>
<p>EDIT: Congrats twins on the Rice scholarship. 
Any news about UCB’s scholarship, yet?</p>
<p>We’re calling UCB today… (Been saying that forever… :))</p>
<p>@Noldo: I’m pretty sure we’re at least equivalent to Calc BC. The proofs and the rest are all there in the texts. So if you actually do read the text, instead of doing the problems and then ISC papers. (Which is what most people tend to do). then it’s pretty good…</p>
<p>I’ll defer to your knowledge though. (I can’t think of anybody I know who knows more math than you do (Other than a couple of my math teachers. :p), so… :D)</p>
<p>I’ll give SATII for bio too, I dont have it as a part of my curriculum, self study :D</p>
<p>Congrats ya twins!</p>
<p>Lakshya M Duke is not really bad ;)</p>
<p>I am going to present them an app they cant refuse lol! :)</p>
<p>@Shrivats - From what I’ve read, Regent’s Scholarship is full ride if you can prove financial need otherwise it is 1000$. Not sure whether you need to be US citizens/residents or not.</p>
<p><em>Yawn</em> Slothful day, innit ?</p>
<p>yep, very… i’m refreshing inspite of the inactivity.</p>