How difficult is Calculus I?

[Noo]

I recently graduated from a community college (accounting deg) and applied to transfer to a local university (accounting).

I got the rejection letter from the university today stating that in order to be accepted directly to the college of business, I have to have completed calculus I.

Is it that hard to jump into calculus I without taking pre-calculus 2? Am I going to fail miserably without pre-calc?

Also, is it guaranteed that once I have calculus 1 completed, the university can't come up with new reasons as to why they reject me?

 

[Fritzo]

It's very important to learn all of the concepts in Calc I, because they're are built on heavily in later courses. Therefore, it can be difficult.

 

[Kaido]

If you're concerned about taking the class without prep, just sign up for a tutoring site online. "Math Tutor DVD" is only $15 a month for access to all the courses: (no contract)

https://www.mathtutordvd.com/public/433.cfm

They have a truckload of stuff on calculus:

http://www.mathtutordvd.com/products/The-Calculus-1-2-Tutor.cfm

 

[JManInPhoenix]

It's a judgment call on how hard calculus is - for some people it is very easy; for others it is impossible to master. Most fall in between.

If you still have time and if the course is available, take some precalc & calc (whatever you need) courses at the community college.

 

[Noo]

It's a judgment call on how hard calculus is - for some people it is very easy; for others it is impossible to master. Most fall in between.

If you still have time and if the course is available, take some precalc & calc (whatever you need) courses at the community college.

I have to take the summer 5 weeks crash course in Calculus I at the community college in order for them (the university) to decide whether or not to accept my transfer for the fall 2014 semester. :\

5 weeks crash course that have pre-calc II as a prerequisite :'(. That's why I'm just wondering is it possible/how difficult is it.

And is it true that they can't come up with new reasons to deny my transfer request once I completed Calc I?

 

[disappoint]

Is it that hard to jump into calculus I without taking pre-calculus 2? Am I going to fail miserably without pre-calc?

That depends on how strong your algebra and trig is. Not how good you think you are at algebra and trig, but how good you really are. If there is even any doubt, then you should take a course or 2 of pre-calc aka algebra and trig.

Also, is it guaranteed that once I have calculus 1 completed, the university can't come up with new reasons as to why they reject me?

You should probably ask the university that. I can't answer questions about their admission policy.

 

[sciencewhiz]

A typical calculus problem is to perform 1 step of calculus followed by a page of algebra / trig. If you are not good at algebra/trig, you will have trouble in calculus class. Since most people are not good at algebra/trig, people started teaching pre-calculus, which just reviews algebra and trig and goes into more difficult and longer problems.

I believe that typically business calculus does not include trig. If you have the option of taking business calculus (rather then calculus for math majors and engineers, it will be easier.

 

[Phanuel]

I took calc in highschool (did badly on the ap test due to being the sickest I've ever been in my life). Ended up taking "Calculus for Business" in college.

That class was a complete joke in comparison as it ended right after learning how to perform derivatives. Set the the curve while showing up and then sleeping through the class and waking up only to take the tests. Never had to take another regular math class again except for a repeat of my stats class due to my college not accepting my community college stats class for some reason.

 

[IronWing]

Calculus I will rip the bones from your back, it's a suicide trap, better get out while you're young.

I thought Calc I (differentiation) was okay. Calc II (integration) was much harder for me. Calc III (differential equations) was easy.

 

[tynopik]

Is it that hard to jump into calculus I without taking pre-calculus 2? Am I going to fail miserably without pre-calc?

1. What math courses have you taken?
2. How did you do in them?

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

For me calc 1 was easy. Calc 2 was a pain in the ass because no one ever mentioned the necessity of memorizing identities.

 

[CurseTheSky]

IMO:

Pre-calc was difficult. It seemed like a lot of concepts from high school algebra that were only touched upon for a week or two, plus stuff that you had hoped to forget. Yay, imaginary numbers! Let's throw plenty of long division in too. How about some trig for good measure? It's not that anything was overly hard, it's just that the pace was relatively fast and somewhat unrelated - trig one week, followed by logarithms the next. Tests could be brutal unless you had a really good understanding of most of the concepts.

Calc I was easy by comparison. There was less focus on making sure you could factor fifty flavors of difficult (relatively) equations and more introducing new concepts. Our class started with limits and moved into differentiation soon after. No long division, no imaginary numbers, limited trig, etc.

Calc II was significantly harder than Calc I, but still easier than Pre-calc. You need to have the concepts from Calc I down, and the equations tended to get complex much more quickly, so if you struggle with factoring or other algebraic concepts, you'll have a very rough time. Even the notation for integration is significantly more complex than differentiation, so there's a lot more going on in your head at a given time.

 

[FleshLight]

College math is easy. I'm as dumb as a brick and I passed all math classes up to differential equation.

 

[NoTine42]

1) are you sure you need "regular" calc and not business calc? (Usually regular calc is OK, but it might be more than you need.)

2) I thought I was fairly awesome in math...until I took Calc. I was about to drop the class, but the prof refused, he thought I could do it.

I did, but that was the first(and last) math class I took that required me spending 2 hours after every class doing the examples and homework.

 

[waggy]

Calculus I will rip the bones from your back, it's a suicide trap, better get out while you're young.

I thought Calc I (differentiation) was okay. Calc II (integration) was much harder for me. Calc III (differential equations) was easy.

pretty much same for me. I did great in calc 1. calc 2 i just hit a roadblock. it was a fucking nightmare and had no desire to try calc 3.

 

[z1ggy]

College math is easy. I'm as dumb as a brick and I passed all math classes up to differential equation.

Some people actually like to excel in their studies, and not just simply skimp by.

OP, Calc I is not that challenging if you are half way decent at math already (I assume so if you are into accounting). Calc II, III and difEq are slightly harder, but as an engineer I found them all fairly easy. If I wasn't half drunk the first 2 years of my undergrad, I would have gotten A's in them all, but I settled for Bs, and one C+ in difEq (fairly challenging I think).

 

[mmntech]

Calculus I will rip the bones from your back, it's a suicide trap, better get out while you're young.

Lol. It was for me. I was terrible at calculus. I think a lot of my difficulties with maths though stem from not being taught the basics properly when I was in elementary school. Yet I always excelled at financial math.

 

[Noo]

1. What math courses have you taken?
2. How did you do in them?

In high school, pre-calc 1 & physics. I did pretty well but that was a long time ago.

Took intermediate algebra at the community college and got a B.

 

[Imp]

Effing hard... They made us memorize all the stupid formulas.

Calculus II was the ultimate filter course... Exam average was 38%. I passed with 51%.

 

[mmntech]

Effing hard... They made us memorize all the stupid formulas.

Calculus II was the ultimate filter course... Exam average was 38%. I passed with 51%.

I originally went to university for commerce but flunked Calculus 1 for Business. Why business needs calculus is beyond me. I think I walked out with a 48 or 49%. I think I would have felt better if I had gotten 38% because at least that would have been a spectacular failure. I would have had a much higher GPA when I graduated if it hadn't been for that one course in first year.

 

[DrPizza]

<---- teaches calculus

How hard is it? There is no hard. You can either do it, or you can't do it. As far as the line between Calc I and Calc II, as referred to in previous posts, it varies from university to university. Fairly typically, Calc I will do limits, though may not do limits rigorously (epsilon), derivatives of all elementary functions, the area problem - anti-derivative, a handful of integrals, particularly polynomials, area between curves, and volumes under rotations of curves. Plus a bunch of odds and ends, like the mean value theorem, Rolle's theorem, and possibly some hyperbolic trig. Some universities go a little further, some not quite so far.

I'd have to say that all the concepts are rather easy, if you know the prerequisite material. If you don't, you'd best consider learning it before you take the course, rather than as you need it.

In particular, you should be good at trig, and manipulating trig expressions. You should be good with logs, (natural logs). It helps tremendously to understand rational functions. E.g., you should be able to look at f(x)=[(x-2)(x+3)(x-5)] / [(x+2)(x+3)(2x-1)], and draw a complete sketch of the function (WITHOUT the use of a graphing calculator!) If you understand rational functions, then limits are fairly trivial. Because I can ask, "what happens to the values of y as x gets larger?" and you can answer, "they approach 1/2." Or, "what's the function look like just to the left of x=2? Just to the right of x=2?" Then in calculus, it's simply different vocabulary.

If you *need* a graphing calculator for the stuff in a typical Algebra2/Trig curriculum, then you don't *know* the math; the calculator is merely a crutch. And, in Algebra2, you used that crutch to walk up a very gentle slope. If you're still on crutches when you reach the foothills of the mountains, you're going to get stuck.

 

[mrjminer]

If you're concerned about taking the class without prep, just sign up for a tutoring site online. "Math Tutor DVD" is only $15 a month for access to all the courses: (no contract)

https://www.mathtutordvd.com/public/433.cfm

They have a truckload of stuff on calculus:

http://www.mathtutordvd.com/products/The-Calculus-1-2-Tutor.cfm

I never had to go past pre-Calculus. This seems like a pretty good deal, I might have to check it out since I may be attempting to get an MS in CS in a few years with little to no Math/Science background and I'd like to test out of whatever I possibly can. Thanks.

<---- teaches calculus

How hard is it? There is no hard. You can either do it, or you can't do it. As far as the line between Calc I and Calc II, as referred to in previous posts, it varies from university to university. Fairly typically, Calc I will do limits, though may not do limits rigorously (epsilon), derivatives of all elementary functions, the area problem - anti-derivative, a handful of integrals, particularly polynomials, area between curves, and volumes under rotations of curves. Plus a bunch of odds and ends, like the mean value theorem, Rolle's theorem, and possibly some hyperbolic trig. Some universities go a little further, some not quite so far.

I'd have to say that all the concepts are rather easy, if you know the prerequisite material. If you don't, you'd best consider learning it before you take the course, rather than as you need it.

In particular, you should be good at trig, and manipulating trig expressions. You should be good with logs, (natural logs). It helps tremendously to understand rational functions. E.g., you should be able to look at f(x)=[(x-2)(x+3)(x-5)] / [(x+2)(x+3)(2x-1)], and draw a complete sketch of the function (WITHOUT the use of a graphing calculator!) If you understand rational functions, then limits are fairly trivial. Because I can ask, "what happens to the values of y as x gets larger?" and you can answer, "they approach 1/2." Or, "what's the function look like just to the left of x=2? Just to the right of x=2?" Then in calculus, it's simply different vocabulary.

If you *need* a graphing calculator for the stuff in a typical Algebra2/Trig curriculum, then you don't *know* the math; the calculator is merely a crutch. And, in Algebra2, you used that crutch to walk up a very gentle slope. If you're still on crutches when you reach the foothills of the mountains, you're going to get stuck.

That doesn't seem too bad. Does Calculus have proofs?

 

[lozina]

It can't be hard if I passed it.

I hated that class. I probably forgot anything I learned from it within a week after passing it.

 

[DrPizza]

I never had to go past pre-Calculus. This seems like a pretty good deal, I might have to check it out since I may be attempting to get an MS in CS in a few years with little to no Math/Science background and I'd like to test out of whatever I possibly can. Thanks.



That doesn't seem too bad. Does Calculus have proofs?

Sometimes, but not at most schools. There are "proofs" scattered throughout most calculus books, and a professor may do more than the average professor, but generally, more rigorous proofs seem reserved for real analysis.

An example of a proof might be "prove that the derivative of f g h (x) = f g h'(x) + f g' h(x) + f' g h(x)." And it's just a 3 line problem applying the product rule for finding derivatives.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Pro tip : Take as much math as possible at a community college. Class sizes are smaller and instructors generally care if you learn the material.