calculus
July 14, 1999
Math Classes
Ack! My first math midterm is in two days! And of course I have butterfiles in my stomach. College calculus is really no laughing matter... chu..
Okay, the point of this entry is that I just realized how different college calculus is from high school calculus. Aside from the fact that I can't remember what I learned in high school calculus, the two types of classes are dramatically different. High school calculus seems to be focused on calculations like no end, while college calculus is more on freehand work and using coveted theorems like the Fundamental Theorem of Calulus, or the Mean Value Theorem. Calculators aren't even allowed in Berkeley math classes.
Because the two type of calculus classes are so different, high school students walk into college thinking that college calculus is based off on calculators also. You can imagine how some of them felt (I as well) about getting our calculators taken away from us during homework/tests. Even though our teacher told us not to use calculators, we still used them anyway. Some of us discovered the pitfalls of a TI-85 (I'm not dissing Texas Instruments, it's a nice calculator...), and stopped using it except for addition and subtraction.
Others seem to have been left behind somewhere down the road. It's really sad, because they're good students. They're told one thing while they're in high school, and get a whole new set of standards put on them when they get to college. Calculus AP seems to have done more harm that good. My advice? If you really want to take calculus in high school, go to a junior college for classes.
Speaking of high school studnets, there are several in my math class right now, as well as graduate students. I guess this is something you don't see during the regular school year. Makes the class that much more interesting.
Alright! Time to study for my midterm! I will not be psyched out... I will not be psyched out, I will not be pysched...
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