Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I always found the way they were teaching math in college to be difficult and had much better luck teaching myself using the internet and text book. Seems like the Professor always added unnecessary steps to the problems and didn't explain them in a way that made sense to me.
I always found the way they were teaching math in college to be difficult and had much better luck teaching myself using the internet and text book. Seems like the Professor always added unnecessary steps to the problems and didn't explain them in a way that made sense to me.
The teacher teaches it the way he knows. Just so he doesn't object to us learning it our way, if we choose. Right?
No offense, but if an engineering student is having trouble even with "advanced or difficult precalc" I do not want them doing any sort of work on anything I'll be using.
That is hilarious. I have an engineering degree and a math minor.
Last time I used Pre-Calc for my job? 5 years ago. Diffy EQs? Not once. Linear Algebra? Not yet once.
There are many engineering disciplines and career paths that don't require a ton of math on any frequent basis.
I was bored, so I looked through my roommates pre-precalc homework while she was away. wowzers, it was not at all simple and included theories that I had never heard of and never used in any of my higher level math studies. I guess now is a good time to mention that I came to college with calc 1 & 2 credit and at college have taken calc 3, diff eqs, stat, calc based stat, discrete math, Intro to higher level math, and linear algebra. I'm a class short of a minor (dual computer science and economics major here...both moderately heavy on quantitative skills that math teaches). Anyway, long story short, I'm not a stranger to college level math and have dabbled in "theoretical math" (intro to higher level math and a theory of comp sci class I took a year ago). Anyway, if I had started with her stuff at college, chances are I'd have left math behind in the dust. Her homework looked unnecessarily hard and as someone who has taken sustainable math classes, useless.
WHY ARE AMERICAN COLLEGES DOING THIS? We need more people in STEM fields, not less.
Well, just like the calculus taught in high school is different than the calculus taught in college, the same holds true for pre calc.
The college version of most classes is either going to cover more material go deeper on the same material.
It's only useless depending on what you take next. Most entry level college math classes are looking to prepare multiple students to take multiple paths. If many departments are relying on that class to prep thier students for the next level, you get what you get.
I took two precals at once - trig and algebra - and it seemed to have a lot of stuff I have never used in any classes up to 400 level in either CS or Math. Trigonometry was especially "thorough" in formulas you have to remember: half angle, double angle, angle diagrams, etc. So far I have found that some of my hardest courses have been 200 or high 100-level courses in CS and Math.
Trig is harder than Calc I, II, & III-in my opinion-even though it is the "lower" math. Calculus is largely algebra anyways; even more-so considering that trig itself is a combination of geometry and algebra.
Half angles and double angles are the pits for sure, and to add, too many formulas and rules to memorize. Thankfully, when you get out into the real world no one gives a hoot if you look these up in tables, or if you ask someone else to do them for you.
The beauty of calculus is that there is almost always a trick you can do to avoid using double angle formulas, for example. The professor's job is to expose you to the material, not to hold your hand and walk you through it. It can take 10-15 minutes, or longer, to work a calculus problem involving double angles, which would take too much class time away from other topics, and, if tested, it would take too much time away from working the other problems on the test. Besides, there are too many steps involved and with each step comes a chance to screw things up. So most professors who teach calculus will elect to skip it entirely or just to quickly gloss over it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Guest
are you kidding me? pre calc ii remains the hardest math class I've ever taken. and I've taken up to calc ii, including upper level math classes (proofs and matrices)
but pre calc ii had me stumped.
(and, ironically, calc I was probably one of the easier classes I took in college haha)
In reality calc I itself is precalc II as it is largely a review of algebra and trig (which is what precalc is all about) and a typical calc I course will not actually do calculus until near the end. Even though math is sequential and builds upon itself, it is also a use it or lose it affair. Calc I is hard because not only is the course going to throw a bunch of new concepts at you, it has also probably been a few years since the algebra and trig have been seen. Math is not like riding a bike; you do forget.
If you read math-centric forums you will find that typically users will claim, in terms of toughness, that it goes calc II<calc III<calc I.
As my calc II professor once told the class, "Everybody always gets the calculus correct. It is the algebra that they screw up on."
In reality calc I itself is precalc II as it is largely a review of algebra and trig (which is what precalc is all about) and a typical calc I course will not actually do calculus until near the end.
Not the Calculus I took. We were doing differentials day one. By the end of the course we were touching on differential equations and some basic integrals.
While there is alot of algebra and trig in Calculus, the discipline is fundamentally different. Calculus deals in rate changes(derivatives) and accumulations(integrals) and are linked by the fundamental theorem of Calculus.
Those who have graduated love small classes because it insures a ready market for them and high salaries.".
In what world does a college education equate with guaranteed high salary?? And mechanical engineering has NOTHING to do with the math subjects being taught at college.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
