Tips for studying for a calc 3 final?

nanotechnology
Wed, 04 Dec 2013 07:52:24 +0000

Even if you are not allowed a formula sheet for the exam, make one. It is very beneficial to break down the material and figure out what is important. The act of creating the sheet is very useful to boil down some of the concepts and clear up the differences (i.e., really nailing down normal vs. polar vs. spherical integration). You can then use this as a reference as you work through practice problems (and previous exams, if your professor provides them) without having to waste time flipping through your notes through everything.
Calc 3 is probably the hardest I have ever studied for a final, since my exam grades were 100, 104, and 68. (Class average was <50 on that last midterm…) I didn’t know what the curve would be, so I just invested a ton of hours in going through practice exams, figuring out what I got hung up on, and then going back and reviewing and working more problems on these topics. It paid off.